Uncovering The Shadows Of American Power

A new documentary, “Cover-Up,” directed by Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus, has shed light on the remarkable career of legendary journalist Seymour Hersh, inadvertently chronicling the pathologies of American empire. The film is a testament to Hersh’s tireless pursuit of truth, exposing the darker aspects of American power projection over the past half-century. Through Hersh’s extraordinary reporting, the documentary reveals a pattern of deception, overreach, and institutional rot that has characterized American foreign policy.

His investigative journalism has consistently highlighted the disparity between stated intentions and actual policy outcomes, often uncovering the cruder calculations of power that underpin American actions. Hersh’s reporting on CIA domestic surveillance, the My Lai massacre, the secret bombing of Cambodia, and Abu Ghraib has been particularly significant, demonstrating that idealistic rhetoric about spreading democracy and protecting human rights often masks more cynical motivations.

These revelations have raised fundamental questions about American foreign policy, particularly when interventions in Vietnam, Iraq, and elsewhere were justified through systematic deception. The film’s examination of Hersh’s Abu Ghraib investigation is particularly devastating, revealing that torture was not an accident of war, but rather a deliberate policy approved at the highest levels and then denied when exposed.