8/7/2019 Seymour Hersh the Knights of Malta and me by Blake Hounshell January 21 2011

1/2

http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/01/21/me_and_seymour_hersh

Seymour Hersh, the Knights of Malta, and

mePosted by Hounshell Friday, January 21, 2011 3:58 PM

Since my write-up of Seymour Hersh's talk is getting some coverage today, and manycommenters have written in to dispute my post, I thought I should provide a little morecontext.

More than a few readers, including Salon'sGlenn Greenwald, complained that I hadn'trebutted Hersh's arguments. That wasn't my intention -- I was relaying what Hersh said. Idid make two editorial comments: that his speech was a "rambling, conspiracy-ladendiatribe" and that it "quickly went downhill" after its opening line. But I imagine thatwhen most reasonable people read the transcript -- I don't have a video, unfortunately --they will see what I'm talking about. As far as I know, nobody, including Hersh, isdisputing my quotes.

I thought it was self-evident that several points Hersh made were off-base andconspiratorial, but perhaps it's worth spelling things out for everyone.

1. The idea that "we're gonna change mosques into cathedrals" is "an attitude that pervadesa large percentage of the Joint Special Operations Command." This is essentially

unverifiable unless you do a survey of JSOC personnel. Good luck with that. For now, theweight of evidence suggests that JSOC is on the whole a highly competent and professionalorganization that has no intention of converting Muslims to Christianity around the world.If it were otherwise, I'm sure we'd be hearing about it from others besides Seymour Hersh.

SEEKING JUSTICE

Baby Doc

Arrested But

Will He Be

Tried?

FRANCE

Embarrassing

Times for

Ben Ali's

Friends

PRESTOWITZ

To Be Green

or Not to Be

http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/01/18/seymour_hersh_unleashedhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/20/AR2011012005783.htmlhttp://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2011/01/18/cheney/index.htmlhttp://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/01/22/transcript_the_obamabush_foreign_policies_why_cant_america_changehttp://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/01/18/baby_doc_has_been_arrested_but_will_he_be_tried_for_all_his_crimeshttp://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/01/18/baby_doc_has_been_arrested_but_will_he_be_tried_for_all_his_crimeshttp://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/01/18/baby_doc_has_been_arrested_but_will_he_be_tried_for_all_his_crimeshttp://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/01/18/baby_doc_has_been_arrested_but_will_he_be_tried_for_all_his_crimeshttp://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/01/18/baby_doc_has_been_arrested_but_will_he_be_tried_for_all_his_crimeshttp://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/01/18/baby_doc_has_been_arrested_but_will_he_be_tried_for_all_his_crimeshttp://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/01/18/baby_doc_has_been_arrested_but_will_he_be_tried_for_all_his_crimeshttp://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/01/18/baby_doc_has_been_arrested_but_will_he_be_tried_for_all_his_crimeshttp://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/01/18/prestowitz_to_be_green_or_not_to_behttp://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/01/18/prestowitz_to_be_green_or_not_to_behttp://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/01/18/baby_doc_has_been_arrested_but_will_he_be_tried_for_all_his_crimeshttp://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/01/18/baby_doc_has_been_arrested_but_will_he_be_tried_for_all_his_crimeshttp://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/01/18/baby_doc_has_been_arrested_but_will_he_be_tried_for_all_his_crimeshttp://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/01/18/baby_doc_has_been_arrested_but_will_he_be_tried_for_all_his_crimeshttp://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/01/18/baby_doc_has_been_arrested_but_will_he_be_tried_for_all_his_crimeshttp://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/01/18/baby_doc_has_been_arrested_but_will_he_be_tried_for_all_his_crimeshttp://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/01/18/prestowitz_to_be_green_or_not_to_behttp://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/01/18/prestowitz_to_be_green_or_not_to_behttp://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/01/18/seymour_hersh_unleashedhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/20/AR2011012005783.htmlhttp://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2011/01/18/cheney/index.htmlhttp://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/01/22/transcript_the_obamabush_foreign_policies_why_cant_america_change

8/7/2019 Seymour Hersh the Knights of Malta and me by Blake Hounshell January 21 2011

2/2

2. Retired General Stanley McChrystal, who headed JSOC before briefly becoming the top U.S.commander in Afghanistan, and his successor, Vice Adm. William McRaven, as well as manywithin JSOC, "are all members of, or at least supporters of, Knights of Malta. Many of themare members of Opus Dei." McChrystal has already denied being a member of Knights of Malta;McRaven and JSOC have thus far declined to comment. But so what if they were? EverythingI've seen tells me that the Knights of Malta are a public service organization, not somekind of Catholic extremist group. And Opus Dei is hardly the secretive cabal of ruthlessassassins depicted in The Da Vinci Code. It has a Facebook page.

3. "They do see what they're doing -- and this is not an atypical attitude among somemilitary -- it's a crusade, literally. They see themselves as the protectors of theChristians. They're protecting them from the Muslims [as in] the 13th century. And this istheir function." I have no doubt that many in the U.S. military are religious, and yes,I've heard about Jerry Boykin, Erik Prince, and those rifle scopes. But the plural ofanecdote is not data -- and acknowledging there are devout Christians in the military andimplying that top military leaders are embarking on a "crusade" against Muslims are twovery different things. "Zealotry is viewed as being unprofessional [in the SF community],"former Special Forces officer Kalev Sepp told Stars and Stripes. "Anyone who professesreligion in an open way like that is suspect to where their real loyalties lie." (Do Ireally need to explain this?)

4. "They have little insignias, these coins they pass among each other, which are crusadercoins. They have insignia that reflect the whole notion that this is a culture war." I

believe Hersh is referring here to challenge coins, a common sight across the U.S.military. They seem pretty innocuous to me.

There's a lot more, but you get the idea. So I'm going to go out on a limb here and justsay it: Odds are good that JSOC is not being overrun by Catholic fanatics.

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER | VISIT US ON FACEBOOK | FOLLOW US ON RSS | SUBSCRIBE TO FOREIGN POLICY

ABOUT FP | MEET THE STAFF | FOREIGN EDITIONS | REPRINT PERMISSIONS | ADVERTISING | CORPORATE PROGRAMS| WRITERS GUIDELINES | PRESS ROOM | WORK AT FP

SERVICES:SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES | ACADEMIC PROGRAM | FP ARCHIVE | REPRINT PERMISSIONS | FP REPORTS ANDMERCHANDISE | SPECIAL REPORTS | BUY BACK ISSUES

PRIVACY POLICY | DISCLAIMER | CONTACT US

1899 L STREET NW, SUITE 550 | WASHINGTON, DC 20036 | PHONE: 202-728-7300 | FAX: 202-728-7342FOREIGN POLICY IS PUBLISHED BY THE SLATE GROUP, A DIVISION OF THE WASHINGTON POST COMPANY

ALL CONTENTS 2011 THE SLATE GROUP, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

http://www.stripes.com/news/mcchrystal-denies-claims-of-secret-military-crusade-against-islam-1.132473http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/01/19/who_are_the_knights_of_malta_and_what_do_they_wanthttp://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Religion/?id=1.0.1670211157http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2224484862#!/group.php?gid=2224484862&v=wallhttp://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/05/25/mikey_weinsteins_crusadehttp://www.stripes.com/news/mcchrystal-denies-claims-of-secret-military-crusade-against-islam-1.132473http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2005/03/mil-050304-usmc03.htmhttp://www.stripes.com/news/mcchrystal-denies-claims-of-secret-military-crusade-against-islam-1.132473http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/01/19/who_are_the_knights_of_malta_and_what_do_they_wanthttp://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Religion/?id=1.0.1670211157http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2224484862#!/group.php?gid=2224484862&v=wallhttp://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/05/25/mikey_weinsteins_crusadehttp://www.stripes.com/news/mcchrystal-denies-claims-of-secret-military-crusade-against-islam-1.132473http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2005/03/mil-050304-usmc03.htm