Scott Horton Interviews Daniel Ellsberg
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Daniel Ellsberg, the man who leaked the Pentagon Papers, discusses how WikiLeaks is shouldering the increasingly dangerous process of leaking and publishing classified documents, why a UK-style Official Secrets Act may be coming soon to America, how broad interpretation of the Espionage Act could make criminals of those who just read WikiLeaks or lend support, the mainstream media’s half-serious cheerleading for Julian Assange’s assassination, reams of evidence on war crimes in the Iraq War Logs and why doing the right thing is worth the government retribution.
MP3 here. (31:08)
Daniel Ellsberg is the author of Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers.
In 1959 Daniel Ellsberg worked as a strategic analyst at the RAND Corporation, and consultant to the Defense Department and the White House, specializing in problems of the command and control of nuclear weapons, nuclear war plans, and crisis decision-making. He joined the Defense Department in 1964 as Special Assistant to Assistant Secretary of Defense (International Security Affairs), John McNaughton, working on Vietnam. He transferred to the State Department in 1965 to serve two years at the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, evaluating pacification on the front lines.
On return to the RAND Corporation in 1967, he worked on the Top Secret McNamara study of U.S. Decision-making in Vietnam, 1945-68, which later came to be known as the Pentagon Papers. In 1969, he photocopied the 7,000 page study and gave it to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; in 1971 he gave it to the New York Times, the Washington Post and 17 other newspapers. His trial, on twelve felony counts posing a possible sentence of 115 years, was dismissed in 1973 on grounds of governmental misconduct against him, which led to the convictions of several White House aides and figured in the impeachment proceedings against President Nixon.
MoT
November 2nd, 2010 at 1:44 am
Dan…. Considering the appalling Supreme Court decisions of late I do believe you'd have been labeled a terrorist sympathizer back in the past and probably hustled off to a cell. Thank god that lunacy wasn't yet in effect then but look at us now.
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November 2nd, 2010 at 2:01 am
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MvGuy
November 2nd, 2010 at 11:56 am
only ONE answer……….911
Cynthia
November 2nd, 2010 at 12:21 pm
Now that I have learned that two of President Obama's most favorite columnists are none other than Thomas Friedman and David Brooks — two of the biggest brown-nosers for the TBTF banking industry that you'll find in the mainstream media (see first link below), the global financial crisis clearly indicates to me that it's an insider job, as it does to Robert Reich as well (see second link below). I wouldn't come to this conclusion had the big banks not gotten away with engaging in activities that have fraud and corruption written all over them. And because these two op-ed columnists from the New York Times, whom Obama holds in such high regards, are also unabashed brown-nosers for the military-industrial complex as well as ardent supporters of the Muslim-hating state of Israel, coupling that with the fact that none of our war criminals have been hauled off to a prison cell in the Hague, I'm also seriously contemplating the possibility, despite it severely breaking my heart :'(, that the 9/11 attacks were an insider job as well.
http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2010/…
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,…
eCAHNomics
November 2nd, 2010 at 1:00 pm
Bwahahahahaha.
The funniest thing about this interview is that the pentagon developed the internet so communications couldn't be stopped, and now the pentagon can't stop it when they want to. How perfect is that.
Orville H. Larson
November 2nd, 2010 at 11:46 pm
An excellent point, sir!
Orville H. Larson
November 2nd, 2010 at 11:50 pm
My best wishes to Daniel Ellsberg. People like him and Julian Assange, who expose governmental crimes and depravity, are the real heroes, the real patriots.
The U.S. Government is so lawless–and so cavalier about it–that it may be beyond redemption.
gerryhiles
November 3rd, 2010 at 2:05 am
911 was an inside job.
That satisfy your criterion MvGuy?
gerryhiles
November 3rd, 2010 at 2:11 am
Hi Cynthia.
Not being condescending, really, but how come you did not know this kind of stuff years ago?
I am in Australia and NOTHING has surprized me about Washington since at least 1976.
Join me on Facebook (the offer applies to everyone reading this) if you like.
Look me up as Gerry Hiles. Read my profile. See what I have been up to. See what my friends are doing relative to 911 and current crises.
gerryhiles
November 3rd, 2010 at 2:16 am
BTW none of us hide behind nicks … not my friends in the US, nor the UK, nor Iran, nor Dubai, nor Bahrein, nor anywhere else.
gerryhiles
November 3rd, 2010 at 2:18 am
Click on my pic here and start to find out who I am.
gerryhiles
November 3rd, 2010 at 2:26 am
If you have the courage to go open/take a risk, then contact me at ghilesc@hotmail.com or via Facebook.
Or you can find me at Architects & Engineers for Truth.
Or you could go to http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/trades-…
MoT
November 3rd, 2010 at 1:16 pm
Better late than never. I believed the lies, at first, but the BS factor was going into overdrive pretty quick and I realized that, HEY!…. something wasn't right.
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