Daniel Ellsberg, Pentagon Papers Whistleblower, Sees Bradley Manning's Conviction As The Beginning..

[WillyT]

Daniel Ellsberg, Pentagon Papers Whistleblower, Sees Bradley Manning's Conviction As The Beginning Of Police State
HuffPo
Posted: 08/22/2013 12:24 am EDT | Updated: 08/22/2013 8:15 am EDT

<snip>

The NSA surveillance of millions of emails and phone calls. The dogged pursuit of whistleblower Edward Snowden across the globe, regardless of the diplomatic fallout. And the sentencing of Bradley Manning to 35 years in prison for giving a cache of government files to the website WikiLeaks. Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg sees these events as signs that the United States is becoming a police state.

"We have not only the capability of a police state, but certain beginnings of it right now," Ellsberg said. "And I absolutely agree with Edward Snowden. It's worth a person's life, prospect of assassination, or life in prison or life in exile -- it's worth that to try to restore our liberties and make this a democratic country."

Ellsberg was a military analyst with the RAND Corporation in 1969 when he secretly copied thousands of classified documents about U.S. decision-making during the Vietnam War. In 1971, he leaked the files (known as the Pentagon Papers) to The New York Times and 18 other newspapers.

Although the Nixon administration tried to prevent the publication of the files, the Supreme Court ruled in New York Times Co. v. United States that the newspaper could continue publishing the files.

Ellsberg was later tried on 12 felony counts under the Espionage Act of 1917, and faced a possible sentence of 115 years in prison. His case was dismissed in 1973 on the grounds of gross governmental misconduct.

As a candidate in 2008, Barack Obama praised instances of whistle-blowing as "acts of courage and patriotism." Since becoming president, however, his administration has charged more people under the Espionage Act than all other presidents combined.

<snip>

Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/22/daniel-ellsberg-bradley-manning_n_3793199.html

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. I would quibble with one thing he said...

The Patriot Act was teh beginnings of a publicly visible police state.
Everything else has been built on that.

The Pentagon Papers came out when I was a young adult.
Between Watergate and that, we were convinced a government full of secrets and lies was an anomoly.
If only that were true....

[HardTimes99]

3. The Patriot Act may be the piece of 'enabling legislation' to allow the

creation of a police state. The 'publicly visible' police state you reference, imo, became visible when DHS coordinated and collaborated with the Big 5 banks to share intel on Occupy protests and protesters.

BTW, there's a competing thread by DUer Segami on this same issue. Hope you also get a chance to take a spin by it:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023512489

[RobertEarl]

2. Y'know what's bumming my trip?

The fact there are ANY long time posters here that support in any way, shape, or form, the continued incarceration of Ms. Manning.

Hell, Willy, if after all this time we have not been able to convince the 'State is always right' people to either learn, or STFU, then we as a d underground are a failure.

[dtom67]

4. It really isn't that surprising....

In a fight, it is always safer to bet against the underdog.

Lets be honest. All the Government has to do is say " we screwed up, sorry about the spying ", create another phony oversight facade and keep on spying.

They should have no problems after that; no need to fear whistle blowers, the Press, or the People these days. I'm sorry to say it, but we are gonna lose this battle.The apologists have won. The U S government will never again overstep its bounds or wrongfully deny us of our liberties.

As far as we will ever know.


And if ,one day,you DO wonder if your "Rights" still exist, just keep repeating to yourself " I TRUST President
Cruz. I TRUST President Cruz. I. TRUST. PRESIDENT. CRUZ........"


Besides, we don't expect Enbridge,Monsanto and the rest of corporate America to go without their government-subsidized corporate espionage, do we ?

[RobertEarl]

5. How many get that?

Too few. Even after they have been here reading for years and years, they still don't get it. Oh, we've seen a few come out the last couple of days, claiming they now see what sheep they have been. But listen closely and you will hear them: BAaaa, baaa, baaaa

I guess my hopes and dreams were that everyone who had been reading here all these years would not remain sheep. That we were leading them away from the shearing. But they still trust the shearers. And run to them!

To see any of them actually fucking sit there and say Manning got justice just tells me they can't be trusted to protect my freedom. They sold Manning down the river. How many pennies would it take to sell me out?