Quote
“Every attack now made on WikiLeaks and Julian Assange was made against me and the release of the Pentagon Papers at the time.”
--Daniel Ellsberg
Here is a link to a video of Daniel Ellsberg discussing Assange with Amy Goodman of "Democracy Now". Ellsberg says that Assange voluntarily redacted many names, and asked the Pentagon to tell him which names it wanted blocked from public view. The Pentagon did not respond to his request. I highly recommend this thought-provoking interview to everyone interested in the Wikileaks case.
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www.youtube.com]
Daniel Ellsberg was a high-level Pentagon advisor who released 7000 pages of classified documents containing the truth about the Vietnam war to the New York Times in 1971. These documents are usually referred to as the Pentagon Papers.
From the moment the Pentagon Papers were published, the Nixon administration dedicated itself to jailing Ellsberg on national security grounds. (In fact, one of the break-ins associated with Watergate was the theft of Ellsberg's psychiatric records. The administration hoped smearing Ellsberg as an unstable, psychotic nut would distract Americans from the horrors the Pentagon Papers revealed.) The case against Ellsberg went all the way to the Supreme Court, which decided in his favor.
I consider Daniel Ellsberg a hero who saved lives by helping to bring about the end of the disastrous Vietnam War. And that's what almost everyone thinks about him, now that nothing's at stake.
Ellsberg's website:
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www.ellsberg.net]
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/10/2010 10:54AM by Christa.