December 20, 2002 A Reporter's Life
NEW YORKER Issue of 2002-12-23 and 30
This week in the magazine and here online (see Fact), Seymour M. Hersh, in "Manhunt," looks at a new trend in the war on terror: the targeting of individual Al Qaeda leaders. Hersh, who has written for The New Yorker since 1971, is working on a book about the Bush Administration's military actions since September 11th. Here he discusses his article, and the ins and outs of investigative journalism, with The New Yorker's Amy Tubke-Davidson.
AMY TUBKE-DAVIDSON: Tell me about your story in this week's magazine.
SEYMOUR M. HERSH: It's a story about one of the more high-risk operations a Special Forces unit can do: assassinate a target. It's something they're obviously competent to do, but it's also very controversial, especially within the military. Most military men have a very strong recollection, some firsthand, of the operation known as the Phoenix Program, in Vietnam. The Phoenix Program began small: we were going to hire South Vietnamese agents and police officials to tell us who in each village was a pro-Communist or Vietcong official.
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