December 8, 2010

Ever Heard of WikiLeaks, or the Pentagon Papers?

The Pentagon Papers helped put a stop to the Vietnam war debacle, which was solidly based on deceit and lies to the American people (even still today).

The Pentagon Papers were originally published in 47 volumes and collectively titled 'United States–Vietnam Relations, 1945–1967: A Study Prepared by the Department of Defense.' They first came to the U.S. public via the New York Times, which was initially gagged by then-President Richard Nixon's administration, prompting Ellsberg to copy the papers and send them to other newspapers, including the Washington Post.

The Pentagon Papers include 7,000 pages of documents collected by the U.S. military about decision making during the Vietnam war that showed U.S. leaders believed early on that the war could not be won and would lead to many more casualties than ever stated publicly.

Daniel Ellsberg

Later, Daniel Ellsberg (the man responsible for outing the now famous Pentagon Papers in 1971) turned himself in to authorities and was indicted by a grand jury on charges of theft and holding secret documents. The federal judge presiding over the case eventually declared a mistrial and dismissed all charges against him after government meddling was divulged, including a failed attempt by the Nixon administration to steal a file held by Ellsberg's psychiatrist, meant to be used to discredit Ellsberg. [Ed: this is called a "smear campaign", meant to "kill the messenger" instead of analyzing the leaked information itself.]

Ellsberg and a group of ex-intelligence officers have now thrown their weight behind WikiLeaks and its founder, saying the current attempt to label WikiLeaks' leaks as trivial compared to the Pentagon Papers is wrong.

In a statement, Ellsberg and associates said comparisons saying the Pentagon Papers were good while WikiLeaks' material is bad is, "just a cover for people who don't want to admit that they oppose any and all exposure of even the most misguided, secretive foreign policy. The truth is that EVERY attack now made on WikiLeaks and Julian Assange was made against me and the release of the Pentagon Papers at the time."

(source)

UPDATE: Pentagon Whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg: Julian Assange is Not a Terrorist (interview)

UPDATE: Interesting debate about the "heroism" of WikiLeaks


UPDATE: John Pilger: Global Support for WikiLeaks is "Rebellion" Against U.S. Militarism, Secrecy

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