Driven by an unyielding neoconservative ideology, President Bush and his administration have repeatedly misled the public about their plans for war in Iraq and beyond, award-winning investigative reporter Seymour Hersh said Tuesday evening.

Hersh, 67, spoke to a standing-room only crowd at The Charleston Gazette-West Virginia University Festival of Ideas at the Charleston Civic Center's Little Theater. The audience included Gov. Joe Manchin and his wife, Gayle.

The Pulitzer Prize winner said the president's plans in the region go beyond Iraq and include bringing the administration's brand of pro-American democracy to Iran and Syria.

"He said you're either with us or against us," Hersh said. "I think that more than anything else has marked his regime."

Hersh has won more than a dozen awards and prizes for his investigative reporting. His work uncovered the My Lai massacre in Vietnam, the CIA's bombing of Cambodia, Henry Kissinger's wiretapping and a CIA plot that helped bring down Chilean President Salvador Allende.

In the 1980s, Hersh's reports chronicled more abuse of power, including the sale of U.S. weapons to Libya and the criminal acts of Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega.

His speech Tuesday shared the topic of his most recent book, "Chain of Command," which is based on articles Hersh wrote for The New Yorker magazine about the Bush administration, the Sept. 11 attacks, the Iraq war and the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal.

Prisoners were subjected to sexual abuse that was "excruciating torture" for those whose Muslim faith forbids men from exposing their bodies to other men, Hersh said, and female prisoners wrote to their families asking relatives to come to the prison and kill them because of the shame they felt. The abuse wasn't a secret, Hersh said.

"It wasn't an accident," he said. "It was all by design."

The scandal spurred some critical reporting of the Bush administration, but Hersh said journalists must do more. The administration "deliberately tells untruths," especially when it comes to Iraq and the country's recent election, Hersh said. He questioned the description of the Iraqi election as a success and said American forces still face stiff resistance.

"If it's not a civil war, I don't know what it is," said Hersh, who added that Iraq's election would likely produce an Islamic government in some parts of the country instead of a secular one.

The military has little intelligence about its foes in the country, Hersh said. Forty percent of supplies are now transported by air rather than ground convoys because of the risk of attacks, he said.

"Any notion we're out of the woods is ridiculous," he said.

Hersh also touched on presidential politics during his presentation. He said U.S. Sen. John Kerry was unable to present himself as a viable alternative during the campaign.

"We had someone who could not sell himself as someone who could do a better job," Hersh said. "It's a shame. He could have."

Hersh began his career covering the police beat as a reporter in Chicago, where he was born in 1937. Following his service in the Army, he worked for a suburban paper, followed by the United Press International wire service and The Associated Press. Hersh then joined Eugene McCarthy's presidential campaign in 1967.

In 1972, Hersh joined The New York Times. Seven years later, he left the paper and has been a free-lance writer ever since. He has published eight books, including "Chain of Command."

To contact staff writer John Heys, use e-mail or call 348-1254.

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