Things that make you go hmmm...

Did CBS air its Abu Ghraib story out of fear that the New Yorker was going to beat them to the punch?

According to one source, CBS, in an effort to put some names, if not faces, to these seemingly invisible interrogators, approached veteran, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative legend, Seymour Hersh. CBS hoped Hersh's stellar collection of intelligence and military sources could further identify some of the higher ups. It turned out he was working along similar lines himself.

Do you think CBS and The New Yorker got information from different sources? It seems unlikely that there were two leaks. It seems less likely that one of the recipients of that leaked info just coincidentally asked the only other recipient of that info if he had information on the topic - unless they knew he had the report too. And the report they both had gives amazing details about exactly who those "higher ups" were, so "further identification" seems like an odd request. Wonder who "one source" was - and why they need anonymity.

Note the linked story came out after the CBS bit aired, but just prior to the publication of the New Yorker story.

Update: The next two paragraphs from the linked story deal with the Pentagon's request to CBS to delay airing the story, in light of the level of violence in Iraq:

But when Gen. Richard Myers -- the highest-ranking military officer in the U.S. -- calls, attention is paid. Rather, as the Managing Editor of CBS News agreed to not run the segment on April 21.

Shortly afterwards, when Hersh learned about Myers' call to Rather, he was outraged, according to two knowledgeable sources. By Monday, April 26th, "he was fit to be tied," as one source put it. It was, after all, precisely this kind military 'cover-up' that lead to his ground-breaking expose of the now infamous My Lai massacre in 1968.

I didn't realize it was Hersh who broke the My Lai story. The guy has an amazing ability to get a story.

And he's the second figure from the My Lai episode to reappear in this modern version. (Gary Myers, Frederick's attorney, is the other.) What an incredible coincidence.

Update 2:

From Hersh's New Yorker Story:

On April 9th, at an Article 32 hearing (the military equivalent of a grand jury) in the case against Sergeant Frederick, at Camp Victory, near Baghdad, one of the witnesses, Specialist Matthew Wisdom, an M.P., told the courtroom what happened when he and other soldiers delivered seven prisoners, hooded and bound, to the so-called “hard site” at Abu Ghraib—seven tiers of cells where the inmates who were considered the most dangerous were housed.

And later:

The abuses became public because of the outrage of Specialist Joseph M. Darby, an M.P. whose role emerged during the Article 32 hearing against Chip Frederick. A government witness, Special Agent Scott Bobeck, who is a member of the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division, or C.I.D., told the court, according to an abridged transcript made available to me, “The investigation started after SPC Darby . . . got a CD from CPL Graner. . . .

Such hearings generally aren't public. But reading this you'd think Hersh must have been there, or maybe knew someone who was.

Update again: Give up? The story continues here...