CHAIN OF COMMAND

Reviewed 11/10/2005

Chain of Command, by Seymour Hersh

CHAIN OF COMMAND:
The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib
Seymour M. Hersh
David Remnick (Intro.)
New York: HarperCollins, 2004

Rating:

5.0

High

ISBN-13 978-0-06-019591-5
ISBN 0-06-019591-6 416p. HC $25.95

Errata

Page 55: "International law prohibits the rendition, or forced return of any person, no matter what his status or suspected crime, to a foreign locale where he or she would be at risk of torture or mistreatment."
  Missing comma: S/B "or forced return, of any person,".
Page 120: "The trial, scheduled for January 2003, when I first wrote about it, has now been indefinitely delayed."
  Extra comma: S/B "scheduled for January 2003 when I first wrote about it,". Hersh is not saying he first wrote about the trial in January 2003, as the mistake would have it; he's saying that was when it was scheduled to take place at the time when he first wrote about it.
Page 186: " 'If you get that order [to fire on Israel] and you're managing a Scud unit, do you carry it out? If you do, you're hanged or you're dead. By the time Saddam does that' — order the attack on Israel — 'he's done anyway.' "
  I think this is a misinterpretation by Hersh of the comment he's quoting. To me, what it says is that the Scud commander would not fire even if Saddam ordered it as a desperation move because he would know that Saddam would be gone before he could punish the commander.
Page 235: "The C.I.A. assessment also informed Rumsfeld that the other available information on the attempted Iraq purchase of Nigerian ore was 'fragmentary and unconfirmed.' "
  I am fairly sure that this is the wrong way to turn the proper noun "Niger" into its adjective form. As written, it refers to Nigeria — an adjoining but separate country. Perhaps "of ore from Niger" is the best way to write it, avoiding the adjective altogether.
Page 290: "Referring to the war in Afghanistan, which was then underway, Biden asked rhetorically, 'How much longer does the bombing continue?' "
  S/B "under way".
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