U.S. Denies Role in Attacking Hezbollah [View All]

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http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-fg-hersh14aug14,1,3102351.story?coll=la-news-a_section

U.S. Denies Role in Attacking Hezbollah

WASHINGTON — The White House on Sunday vigorously denied a report in the New Yorker magazine that the Bush administration had worked with Israel to plot military action against Hezbollah as part of a long-term plan to target Iran, a longtime supporter of the Shiite Muslim militant group.

"The piece abounds in fictions," White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said in an e-mailed response to a request for comment. He also assailed reporter Seymour M. Hersh's use of unnamed sources, saying it was "hard to imagine that the story would meet any major news organization's standards for sourcing and verification."

Appearing Sunday on CNN's "Late Edition," Hersh alluded to his early reporting on detainee abuses at the U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. "When I did Abu Ghraib, the same kind of stuff was thrown at me — that I'm fantasizing," he said.

His editors at the New Yorker, he said, "know who my sources are. In many cases, they've talked to my sources."