Constitutional Law

Hersh Investigating Alleged Assassination Ring

On a panel with former Vice President Walter Mondale, Pulitzer-prize winning journalist Seymour Hersh discussed the topic of a new book he is currently working on: the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). The discussion can be heard here (beginning around the 9:00 mark.)

'Congress has no oversight [of the JSOC]. It's an executive assassination ring essentially, and it's been going on and on and on,' Hersh claimed. 'Under President Bush's authority, they've been going into countries, not talking to the ambassador or the CIA station chief, and finding people on a list and executing them and leaving.'

The Weekly Standard Blog, the digital outlet for a well-known conservative publication, calls Hersh's claims 'another Hersh fantasy.'

Whether the JSOC was operating to the extent claimed by Hersh remains unclear. However, The New York Times is discussing the JSOC, which recently halted covert missions in Afghanistan after a series of nighttime raids killed women and children. Afghani outrage over these civilian deaths led to the two-week hiatus of most JSOC missions in the country.

Full post as published by ACS Blog on March 13, 2009 (boomark / email).