It is true that Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh isn’t the first person to doubt the US version of events in the killing of Osama bin Laden. He is, however, one of the most qualified with a storied career of investigative journalism to his name.

Hersh’s latest article, published in the London Review of Books, makes a number of startling claims and uses an unnamed senior intelligence official as the key source. Sure that rings a few alarm bells, but the chorus of people who are siding with the version put forward by Hersh seems to be growing.

Here’s BusinessInsider breaking down the main points of contention:

The White House’s “most blatant” lie was that Pakistan’s two most senior military officials were never informed of the mission, Hersh says.

While US officials say they found bin Laden by tracking his trusted courier, Hersh says they discovered his whereabouts from a former Pakistani intelligence officer who wanted the $25 million reward the US was offering.

The government claimed bin Laden was hiding out, but Hersh says the Pakistani intelligence agency had actually been holding him captive since 2006 to use him as leverage against Taliban and Al Qaeda activities in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

While the White House has said it would have taken bin Laden alive if it could have and that he was killed in a firefight, Hersh says that wasn’t the case. “There was no firefight as they moved into the compound; the ISI guards had gone,” Hersh wrote.

The article also takes issue with the White House’s claim that bin Laden was buried at sea in a service that followed Islamic practices. “The remains, including his head, which had only a few bullet holes in it, were thrown into a body bag and, during the helicopter flight back to Jalalabad, some body parts were tossed out over the Hindu Kush mountains — or so the Seals claimed,” Hersh reported, citing his senior US intelligence official.

Hersh does have a history of hits and misses so one shouldn’t take everything he says at face value. That being said, the US government have had their fair share of egg to face and perhaps there is more to this story than what we saw on Zero Dark Thirty.

[source:businessinsider]