Q: What links the following events, other than the shamelessness of US foreign policies?
In March 1968, the height of the Vietnam war, a division of American troops entered the village of Son My and spent several hours killing every man, woman and child- all unarmed civilians- in the vicinity. [1]
During the Cold War the American government, while preaching nuclear nonproliferation, encouraged Israel to secretly acquire and develop nuclear weapons, then kept silent about it. [2]
President John F. Kennedy ordered South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem assassinated because the leader was negotiating with Ho Chi Minh to end the Vietnamese war, and Kennedy didn't want the war over until after he was reelected. [3]
During the US invasion of Afghanistan, defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld directly approved a covert black-ops program which allegedly designed physical coercion and sexual humiliation techniques for use against Muslin Arab men specifically, to retrieve information from suspects, and to blackmail them into becoming informants. [4]
A: They are all events first brought to public attention by one of the world's most renowned investigative reporters, Seymour Hersh.
For those with an interest in world affairs, hush hush military operations and shady government dealings, Mr Hersh will be giving a speech in Trinity College this Wednesday night. It's sold out (damn Trinity bums!) but RTE will be doing a live webcast of the event, so we can all avail of his wisdom and maybe garner some shocking facts to roll out in the pub at the weekend.
Here's the RTE Blurb:
RTE.ie will broadcast a live webcast of Seymour Hersh giving the 2007 Amnesty International Lecture in Trinity College Dublin.
The lecture is booked out, but you can watch it live from 7pm on Wednesday, 24 October on www.rte.ie/live.
The veteran investigative journalist is best known for his books and articles on the My Lai Massacre, the Abu Ghraib abuses and several other stories about the United States military and security. Mr Hersh has written for the NewYork Times, The New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly and the Associated Press.
And here's the RTE article.
You can watch the webcast here.
1; 2; 3; 4. Profile of Seymour Hersh; Seymour Hersh Wikipedia Entry.
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