Archiv: Daniel Ellsberg


05.07.2023 - 17:54 [ Democracy Now ]

Daniel Ellsberg’s Dying Wish: Free Julian Assange, Encourage Whistleblowers & Reveal the Truth

(July 03, 2023)

Whistleblower Dan Ellsberg joined us after the Justice Department charged WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange with 17 counts of violating the Espionage Act for publishing U.S. military and diplomatic documents exposing U.S. war crimes. Assange is locked up in London and faces up to 175 years in prison if extradited and convicted in the United States. Ellsberg died in June, and as we remember his life and legacy, we revisit his message for other government insiders who are considering becoming whistleblowers: “My message to them is: Don’t do what I did. Don’t wait ’til the bombs are actually falling or thousands more have died.”

(…)

„It’s this generation, not the next one, the people living right now, that have to change these problems fast. And I think truth-telling is crucial to mobilize that.“

05.07.2023 - 17:07 [ Scheerpost.com ]

Patrick Lawrence: Ellsberg and ‘The Process of My Awakening’

Imagine reading Kerouac, training to a place he writes of, and there meeting one of the novelist’s close friends. In the accounts I have read, the Vietnam War was a major topic of conversation. Ellsberg was still a dedicated supporter; Snyder, who by this time had the sturdy composure of the monks under whom he studied, talked of it from the other side. They liked one another, a little improbably from our perspective. They had lunch together the next day, continuing the conversation begun the previous evening.

A decade later Ellsberg identified the encounter with Snyder with his “awakening.” And so the defense technocrat drove a long way, we have to assume, to thank the poet. There is something in this to love.

22.06.2023 - 20:45 [ New York Times ]

Nuclear Secrets, a Compost Heap and the Lost Documents Daniel Ellsberg Never Leaked

(April 20, 2023)

Daniel Ellsberg — who died Friday at 92 — fully expected to spend the rest of his life in prison after he leaked the Pentagon Papers to The New York Times and The Washington Post in 1971. The documents revealed decades of government lies and mistakes about the war in Vietnam, and eventually, they helped end it.

The charges against Ellsberg were ultimately dismissed, but he had a secret: The Pentagon Papers were only supposed to be the beginning. Alongside the documents about Vietnam, he’d copied thousands of pages of other documents about America’s nuclear war planning that he believed would shock the public conscience. But a series of mishaps kept those documents from ever coming to light.

22.06.2023 - 20:30 [ Mehdi Hasan, Host, @mehdihasanshow on @MSNBC / Nitter ]

„We are at this moment on a road to Hell.“ I discussed the Espionage Act, Julian Assange, and his own experiences with the Pentagon Papers, with the one and only @DanielEllsberg on my @MSNBC show tonight:

(May 8, 2023)

19.06.2023 - 12:24 [ Glenn Greenwald / Nitter ]

It‘s bizarre to watch establishment venues celebrate Daniel Ellsberg while spewing contempt for every cause and value he stood for — from defending Assange and Snowden as heroes to warning Americans that the US Security State always lies us into wars:

19.06.2023 - 11:59 [ New York Times ]

Why the Pentagon Papers Leaker Tried to Get Prosecuted Near His Life’s End

Citing the chilling effect that the creeping expansion of the law has on what information the public gets in a democracy, he expressed disappointment that the Biden administration had not dropped the Espionage Act charges against Mr. Assange.

“It’s clearly overly broad and does not just apply to people like me who had a security clearance. Assange is now feeling the weight of that,” he said, adding: “For 50 years I’ve been saying to journalists, ‘This thing was a loaded weapon looking at you.’”

19.06.2023 - 10:57 [ Washington Post ]

You knew Daniel Ellsberg, whistleblower. I knew him as a film fanatic. By Catherine Ellsberg

He was to become a concert pianist — the next Rubinstein. He practiced for hours a day, often leaving school early to fulfill his filial duty. This all came to a violent end at age 15, when his father, driving with the family in the car, fell asleep at the wheel and crashed, instantly killing my grandfather’s mother and his little sister, Gloria.

My grandfather fell into a coma. When he woke, he came to a startling conclusion: He would not become a pianist.

For the next 75 years, he barely touched the piano.

14.06.2023 - 10:26 [ Daniel Ellsberg / Nitter ]

To @POTUS and @TheJusticeDept: Stop the extradition of Assange. I am as indictable as he is on the exact same charges. I will plead „not guilty“ on grounds of your blatantly unconstitutional use of the Espionage Act. Let‘s take this to the Supreme Court.

(06.12.2022)

10.06.2023 - 18:02 [ Truthout.org ]

Trump Will Face Espionage Act Charges in Mar-a-Lago Documents Case, Report Says

(June 8, 2023)

The Espionage Act is frequently used to target and prosecute federal whistleblowers. Many progressives have called for reforms to the law due to its use against figures like Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning, who exposed atrocities committed by the U.S. military and civil liberties violations by the U.S. government.

08.03.2023 - 16:04 [ New York Daily News / Nitter ]

„Pentagon Papers“ leaker Daniel Ellsberg, 91, is dying from cancer. Doctors have given him three to six months to live.

(03.03.2023)

08.03.2023 - 16:02 [ Daniel Ellsberg / Nitter ]

To @POTUS and @TheJusticeDept: Stop the extradition of Assange. I am as indictable as he is on the exact same charges. I will plead „not guilty“ on grounds of your blatantly unconstitutional use of the Espionage Act. Let‘s take this to the Supreme Court.

(06.12.2022)

19.12.2022 - 18:31 [ Daniel Ellsberg / Nitter ]

To @POTUS and @TheJusticeDept: Stop the extradition of Assange. I am as indictable as he is on the exact same charges. I will plead „not guilty“ on grounds of your blatantly unconstitutional use of the Espionage Act. Let‘s take this to the Supreme Court.

(06.12.2022)

18.12.2022 - 05:35 [ Defend Assange Campaign / Nitter ]

Pentagon Papers‘ Daniel Ellsberg: „Stop the extradition of Assange. I am as indictable as he is on the exact same charges. I will plead „not guilty“ on grounds of your blatantly unconstitutional use of the Espionage Act. Let‘s take this to the Supreme Court“ #FreeAssangeNOW

13.12.2022 - 18:54 [ Daniel Ellsberg / Nitter ]

To @POTUS and @TheJusticeDept: Stop the extradition of Assange. I am as indictable as he is on the exact same charges. I will plead „not guilty“ on grounds of your blatantly unconstitutional use of the Espionage Act. Let‘s take this to the Supreme Court.

(06.12.2022)

06.12.2022 - 03:35 [ WikiLeaks / Nitter ]

New: The Pentagon Papers‘ Daniel Ellsberg reveals he received a „backup“ of the „Chelsea Manning information“ prior to publication: „I am as indictable as Julian Assange.. I‘d be happy to take that one to the Supreme Court“ [18:00]

01.07.2021 - 17:53 [ Consortium News ]

Revealing the Pentagon Papers in Congress — 8: Why Gravel Did It

This is Part 8 of Consortium News’ multi-part series on the 50th Anniversary of the late Sen. Mike Gravel obtaining the Pentagon Papers from Daniel Ellsberg and the consequences Gravel faced for revealing the top secret documents in Congress, just hours before the Supreme Court decided the case on June 30, 1971, a half century ago today.

19.09.2020 - 10:48 [ Global Research ]

Good Ellsberg, Bad Assange: At Extradition Trial, Pentagon Papers Whistleblower Dismantles False Narrative

16.9.2020 Opponents of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange often hold up Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg as an example of someone who was responsible for a good leak. They insist WikiLeaks is not like the Pentagon Papers because supposedly Assange was reckless with sensitive documents.

28.02.2020 - 23:33 [ Andrew P. Napolitano / Antiwar.com ]

Punishing the Free Speech of Julian Assange

WikiLeaks revealed – in partnership with major international publications, including the two involved in the Pentagon Papers Case – videos of American troops murdering civilians and celebrating the murders (a war crime) as well as documentary proof of American complicity in torture (also a war crime).

05.01.2020 - 01:20 [ The Guardian ]

Jane Fonda and Daniel Ellsberg protest against killing of Suleimani

Activist and Pentagon Papers whistleblower joined protest groups alarmed by US-Iranian tensions in Washington on Saturday

27.05.2019 - 20:11 [ Democracy Now ]

Daniel Ellsberg: Espionage Charges Against Assange Are Most Significant Attack on Press in Decades

As the Justice Department charges WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange with 17 counts of violating the Espionage Act, we speak to Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg. In 1971, he was charged with violating the Espionage Act for leaking a top-secret report on U.S. involvement in Vietnam to The New York Times and other publications. At the time, Ellsberg faced over 100 years in prison. He tells Democracy Now!, “There hasn’t actually been such a significant attack on the freedom of the press … since my case in 1971.”

03.05.2019 - 01:51 [ Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity / Antiwar.com ]

Extradition of Julian Assange Threatens Us All

MEMORANDUM FOR: The governments and people of the United Kingdom and the United States
FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPs)
SUBJECT: Extradition of Julian Assange Threatens Us All

On April 11, London police forcibly removed WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange from the embassy of Ecuador after that country’s president, Lenin Moreno, abruptly revoked his predecessor’s grant of asylum. The United States government immediately requested Assange’s extradition for prosecution under a charge of “conspiracy to commit computer intrusion” under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA).

Former U.S. Government officials promptly appeared in popular media offering soothing assurances that Assange’s arrest threatens neither constitutional rights nor the practice of journalism, and major newspapers like The New York Times and The Washington Post fell into line.

(…)

The great American writer Henry David Thoreau wrote, “It takes two to speak the truth–one to speak and one to hear.” Today, it takes three to speak the truth–one to speak, one to hear, and one to defend the first two in court. If the US Government has its way, there will be no defense, no truth.

For the Steering Groups of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity and Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence:

William Binney, former Technical Director, World Geopolitical & Military Analysis, NSA; co-founder, SIGINT Automation Research Center (ret.)
Richard H. Black, Senator of Virginia, 13th District; Colonel US Army (ret.); Former Chief, Criminal Law Division, Office of the Judge Advocate General, the Pentagon (associate VIPS)
Marshall Carter-Tripp, Foreign Service Officer & former Division Director in the State Department Bureau of Intelligence and Research (ret.)
Thomas Drake, former Defense Intelligence Senior Executive Service and NSA whistleblower
Bogdan Dzakovic, former Team Leader of Federal Air Marshals and Red Team, FAA Security (ret.) (associate VIPs)
Philip Giraldi, CIA, Operations Officer (ret.)
Mike Gravel, former Adjutant, top secret control officer, Communications Intelligence Service; special agent of the Counter Intelligence Corps and former United States Senator
Katherine Gun, former linguist and Iraq War whistleblower in UK’s GCHQ (affiliate VIPs)
James George Jatras, former US diplomat and former foreign policy adviser to Senate leadership (Associate VIPs)
Michael S. Kearns, Captain, USAF (ret.); ex-Master SERE Instructor for Strategic Reconnaissance Operations (NSA/DIA) and Special Mission Units (JSOC)
John Kiriakou, former CIA Counterterrorism Officer and former Senior Investigator, Senate Foreign Relations Committee
Karen Kwiatkowski, former Lt. Col., US Air Force (ret.), at Office of Secretary of Defense watching the manufacture of lies on Iraq, 2001-2003
Clement J. Laniewski, LTC, US Army (ret.) (Associate VIPs)
Linda Lewis, WMD preparedness policy analyst, USDA (ret.) (Associate VIPs)
Edward Loomis, NSA Cryptologic Computer Scientist (ret.)
Annie Machon, former intelligence officer in the UK’s MI5 domestic security service (affiliate VIPs)
Ray McGovern, former US Army infantry/intelligence officer & CIA presidential briefer (ret.)
Craig Murray, former British diplomat and Ambassador to Uzbekistan, human rights activist and historian (affiliate VIPs)
Elizabeth Murray, former Deputy National Intelligence Officer for the Near East & CIA political analyst (ret.)
Todd E. Pierce, MAJ, US Army Judge Advocate (ret.)
Coleen Rowley, FBI Special Agent and former Minneapolis Division Legal Counsel (ret.)
Peter Van Buren, US Department of State, Foreign Service Officer (ret.) (Associate VIPs)
J. Kirk Wiebe, former Senior Analyst, SIGINT Automation Research Center, NSA (ret.)
Larry Wilkerson, Colonel, US Army (ret.), former Chief of Staff for Secretary of State; Distinguished Visiting Professor, College of William and Mary
Sarah Wilton, Commander, US Naval Reserve (ret.) and Defense Intelligence Agency (ret.)
Robert Wing, former US Department of State Foreign Service Officer (Associate VIPs)
Ann Wright, US Army Reserve Colonel (ret) and former US Diplomat who resigned in 2003 in opposition to the Iraq War