Is this satire or what? His reputation is "as a nutcase" nowadays.
Most reputable editors, when given a secret-sources story, either reject it outright, or say "OK, tell me their names and let me talk to them."
If you're Hersh, maybe you get away with saying, "trust me."
But either he’s being fed this by someone with an agenda or he shares that agenda.
Conspiracy thinking ironically always includes blind credulity, just of other things.