It was December 1974, the end of one of the most tumultuous years in American politics.

The Watergate scandal had exploded, President Nixon had resigned.

But then, just three days before Christmas, legendary investigative reporter Seymour Hirsch

drops what he came to call the big one.

Huge CIA operation reported in US against anti-war forces, other dissidents, in Nixon years.

It recounted a massive spying operation conducted by the CIA over many years

in clear violation of its charter.

Hirsch had broken and went on to break some of the epic stories of our time.

Mealye, Henry Kissinger's wiretapping and his role in destabilizing the government of Chile,

Abu Ghraib, and many others.

But Hirsch's story, telling some of the dirty secrets of the CIA, had legs that play out to this day.

It helped to create the idea of a deep state within the US intelligence and law enforcement

community, a permanent secret government that operates according to its own rules and without any oversight.

It is a concept that recently has been exploited by Donald Trump and his allies.

And there are attacks against Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.

We'll talk to Seymour Hirsch and the story of his big one, as recounted in his new book,

Reporter, on today's buried treasure.

I'm Michael Isigop, Chief Investigator of Correspondent for Yahoo News.

And I'm Dan Clyde, Editor-in-Chief of Yahoo News.

So Seymour Hirsch, thanks for coming on and congrats on the new book.

Yep, thank you.

So there's so much in here that's a fascinating read for all of us in the profession.

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