Fisher’s not alone in accusing Hersh of frivolity (I had hopes for Fisher, who after the New Republic implosion wrote a thoughtful reflection on that magazine’s racism. But he’s since done one of the stupider pieces I’ve read on Ecuador’s Rafael Correa; Vox seems to be trying to fill the vacuum left by The New Republic when it comes to writing silly things about Latin America). To accuse Hersh of falling under the thrall of “conspiracy theory” is to repudiate the whole enterprise of investigative journalism that Hersh helped pioneer. What has he written that wasn’t a conspiracy? But Fisher, and others, believe Hersh went too far when in a 2011 speech he made mention of the Knights of Malta and Opus Dei, tagging him as a Dan Brown fantasist. Here’s Fisher, in his debunking of Hersh’s recent essay: “The moment when a lot of journalists started to question whether Hersh had veered from investigative reporting into something else came in January 2011. That month, he spoke at Georgetown University’s branch campus in Qatar, where he gave a bizarre and rambling address alleging that top military and special forces leaders ‘are all members of, or at least supporters of, Knights of Malta.… many of them are members of Opus Dei.’”


But here’s Steve Coll, a reporter who remains within the acceptable margins, writing in Ghost Wars about Reagan’s CIA director, William Casey: “He was a Catholic Knight of Malta educated by Jesuits. Statues of the Virgin Mary filled his mansion.… He attended Mass daily and urged Christian faith upon anyone who asked his advice…. He believed fervently that by spreading the Catholic church’s reach and power he could contain communism’s advance, or reverse it.” Oliver North, Casey’s Iran/Contra co-conspirator, worshiped at a “’charismatic’ Episcopalian church in Virginia called Church of the Apostles, which is organized into cell groups.”

Not too long ago, Ben Bradlee Jr. (son of no less an establishment figure than the editor of The Washington Post), could draw the connections between the shadowy national security state and right-wing Christianity: Iran/Contra was about many things, among them a right-wing Christian reaction against the growing influence of left-wing Liberation Theology in Latin America. Likewise, the US’s post-9/11 militarism was about many things, among them the reorganization of those right-wing Christians against what they identified as a greater existential threat than Liberation Theology: political Islam. Fisher should know this, as it was reported here, here, and here, among many other places.

http://www.thenation.com/blog/207001/its-conspiracy-how-discredit-seymour-hersh#

The Church Committee hearings were sparked by a series of New York Times articles by Seymour Hersh, who reveals in the documentary that William Colby was one of his main sources. While Colby's predecessor, Richard Helms, was known as "The Man Who Kept the Secrets," Colby became seen as the man who spilled the beans, especially the dirty secrets,
dubbed "The Family Jewels"--a remarkable denouement to a career that evolved from
World War II hero who parachuted behind enemy lines, to Cold Warrior who rigged elections in Italy to defeat the Communists, to chief engineer of the counter-insurgency strategy in Vietnam. Colby was the model of the good gray man of the center who did what was asked of him, even if he didn't believe it would work--but who finally broke ranks.

"It had to do with his Jesuit upbringing," explains Carl Colby. "It's about questioning the moral imperatives." The Papal shock troops, organized by the Jesuits, known colloquially as "The Company," were a tool to be used wherever needed to thwart the Reformation, but also to reform the Church. The CIA, also known as "The Company," was a tool to be used by the president to thwart the
Communists. These tools have a way of getting away from their masters, however, and taking on a life of their own. In the case of Colby, the film makes it clear that he reached a point where his sense of morality overcame his sense of duty.

http://www.documentary.org/feature/my-father-spy-carl-colbys-documentary-sheds-light-cia-director-william-colby