Man who leaked Pentagon Papers calling insiders to do same about iraq war

[seemslikeadream]

Man who leaked Pentagon Papers calling for insiders to do same about war in Iraq
9/26/2004, 2:00 p.m. PT
The Associated Press

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — The man who leaked the Pentagon Papers during the Vietnam War called for government insiders to provide similar classified documents about the war in Iraq.

Daniel Ellsburg, 73, said federal insiders owe a "higher allegiance" to the Constitution, the public and U.S. soldiers in Iraq than to their government bosses. He acknowledges that whistle-blowers risk personal setbacks, such as losing their jobs, but urged them to act nonetheless.

"I'm asking them to ask themselves whether their highest duty to
this country really consists in keeping secrets of an administration that has acted like this ... in protecting lies, untruths that are costing many lives; or whether they don't have a duty to those troops who are over there to frankly get them out of what many people in the government understand to be hopeless," Ellsberg said.

Ellsburg provided a lukewarm endorsement of Sen. John Kerry for president when he addressed an audience at Lane Community College on Saturday.

He urged a vote for Kerry despite any misgivings about Kerry's vote to support the invasion of Iraq.

more
http://www.oregonlive.com/newsflash/regional/index.ssf?/base/news-7/109623294217051.xml&storylist=orlocal

[shraby]

1. He advocated whistleblowers

coming forth with information in his book "Worse than Watergate" also. It's an excellent book by the way.

[dweller]

2. that's the title of John Dean's book

is that what you meant?

dp

[scarletwoman]

3. Ellsburg has been making this plea for awhile now.

I'm glad to see that he's still at it, I just wish someone would heed it. What's it going to take? Do people of conscience and courage even exist anymore in the government?

sw

[shockingelk]

10. the cover article of Oct Atlantic is great

Three or four unnamed sources still in WH +Clarke and a few others we know.

It's about how Jr gave up on the war on al Qaeda to invade Iraq.

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/prem/200410/fallows

or

http://www.cpe-sf.com/ruthgroup/downloads/FallowsAtlantic.htm

If anybody's going to leak something, they better do it quick - would take several weeks to have an impact, unless it was something huge, like a memo about invading Iraq from Bush or Cheney.

[ramapo]

4. Read "Secrets"

Ellsberg's book about the Pentagon Papers and his experiences that led him to leak the information.

You'll find some amazing parallels to today's situation, you'll also read about what it was like to have a media with some guts and not controlled by the corpocracy.

[Demeter]

5. I Don't Think It Will Help

The misAdministration has been leaking like a sieve since Day One, and it doesn't make any difference to the faithful or to the professional media(who ought to know better) with the exception of Maureen Dowd, who is showing true buyer's remorse.

My fear is what happens after Bush is out--do we need force to get him and his parasites out of the White House, or will he go quietly to the Hague?

[scarletwoman]

6. Ellsburg and others have formed a "Truth-Telling Project"

http://www.ellsberg.net/truthtellingproject.html

SIGNATORIES

Edward Costello, Former Special Agent (Counterintelligence), Federal Bureau of Investigation

Sibel Edmonds, Former Language Specialist, Federal Bureau of Investigation

Daniel Ellsberg, Former official, U.S. Departments of Defense and State

John D. Heinberg, Former Economist, Employment and Training Administration, U.S. Department of Labor

Larry C. Johnson, Former Deputy Director for Anti-Terrorism Assistance, Transportation Security, and Special Operations, Department of State, Office of the Coordinator for Counter Terrorism

John Brady Kiesling, Former Political Counselor, U.S. Embassy, Athens, Department of State

David MacMichael, Former Senior Estimates Officer, National Intelligence Council, Central Intelligence Agency

Ray McGovern, Former Analyst, Central Intelligence Agency

Philip G. Vargas, Ph.D., J.D., Dir. Privacy & Confidentiality Study, Commission on Federal Paperwork (Author/Director: "The Vargas Report on Government Secrecy"—CENSORED)

Ann Wright, Retired U.S. Army Reserve Colonel and U.S. Foreign Service Officer

Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatowski, recently retired from service in the Pentagon’s Office of Near East planning

[Eloriel]

7. God bless that man.

I so hope his entreaties hit their mark.

[Jacobin]

8. We all know there are several dozen such people

who have not drunk the kool aid, who know the information about Cheney/Rumsfeld/Feith/Perle/Wolfowitz cooking the books on IraqNam pre-invasion, and the warnings sent by the CIA and Pentagon and State NOT to attempt to invade. Its all in black and white and in stark terms sitting in a government office somewhere.

Some of these people are having sleepless nights and wondering if the publicity, prosecution, loss of job, loss of family, divorce will be worth telling the truth to save lives.

I'm sure there are gut wrenching personal debates going on in government in private to do just such a thing.

I wonder who it will be?

[bobbieinok]

9. add fear of disgrace of family member(s), maiming of children, death, etc

At my worst times, I think bushco has informed all congress members and people in govt that 'there will be consequences' if real info comes out (a la Mafia, drug cartels, Abu G).

At the start of W's term, there was an article on Gayle Norton; there was some sort of trial, and the judge (who likely would decide against mepublican people) lost his daughter in a car crash just days before the trial. He opted out and a more 'sympathetic' judge replaced him.

Anyone remember this??