Daniel Ellsberg, Who Leaked the Pentagon Papers, Is Dead at 92

[BeyondGeography]

Source: NY Times

Daniel Ellsberg, a military analyst who experienced a sobbing antiwar epiphany on a bathroom floor and in 1971 disclosed the secret history of American lies and deceit in Vietnam that came to be known as the Pentagon Papers, died on Friday at his home in Kensington, Calif. He was 92.

The cause was pancreatic cancer, his wife and children said in a statement.

In March, Mr. Ellsberg, in an email message to “Dear friends and supporters,” announced that he had recently been told he had inoperable pancreatic cancer, and said that his doctors had given him an estimate of three to six months to live.

The disclosure of the Pentagon Papers — 7,000 pages of damning revelations about deceptions by successive presidents who exceeded their authority, bypassed Congress and misled the American people — plunged a nation that was already wounded and divided by the war deeper into angry controversy. It also led to illegal countermeasures by the White House to discredit Mr. Ellsberg, halt leaks of information and attack perceived political enemies, a constellation of crimes known as the Watergate scandal, which led to the disgrace and resignation of President Richard M. Nixon.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/16/us/daniel-ellsberg-dead.html?unlocked_article_code=b7lI5NGOP1hJk2psCeBNjYQJ3i74VPFAv7u1K_uMInJ_vLa9z9ac00-aTD2rLlhMzJPnyIT6C3AlfcAmcnuyZ_qBV7Rp8SmzfVR5V72-9k2bd4Z6qug1TJu4HtE-YtkI9j88SxrEfE_-da4LXy6BSCJdDPJmxqO5P70R

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A true American hero. “Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers” is the best book I’ve ever read about the futility of that war. It’s timeless.

[GreenWave]

1. Alas and alack.

A citizen who was a hero for those seeking to end some corruption in our government.

[MOMFUDSKI]

2. He did good.

Not a wasted life. We need more like him.

[sinkingfeeling]

3. R.I.P. You did the moral thing.

[Ocelot II]

4. I remember that whole Pentagon Papers case very well.

And if the GOP wants an example of the weaponization of government they can look at what the Nixon administration tried to do to Ellsberg.

[LymphocyteLover]

15. Exactly -- although it rightfully backfired on the Nixon admin

"The White House soon began to pursue Mr. Ellsberg, who had gone into hiding. Under President Nixon’s domestic affairs adviser, John D. Ehrlichman, a unit called the “plumbers” was formed to plug leaks and carry out covert operations, including burglaries at the office of Mr. Ellsberg’s psychiatrist (no damaging files were found), and in 1972 at the Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington. The arrest of the burglars there began an unraveling that led to Mr. Nixon’s resignation in 1974.

Mr. Ellsberg, who surrendered, and Mr. Russo, his colleague, were charged with espionage, conspiracy and other crimes carrying a total of 115 years in prison. After a procedural mistrial in 1972, they were tried in 1973 before Judge William M. Byrne Jr. in federal court in Los Angeles. Before the case went to the jury, however, the judge dismissed all the charges on the grounds of government misconduct."

[Richard D]

5. May he rest in peace and power.

An unknown story I am privy to is that the papers were stored in a secret place not far from where I live. Sort of cool.

[underpants]

6. ☮️❤️

[Solly Mack]

7. ...

[ificandream]

8. Got to see him when he appeared at my college back in the day. A true hero.

Some RW asked me recently to compare Ellsberg and Assange. There really is no comparison in my view. One's a hero, the other is not.

[LymphocyteLover]

14. Indeed. The Vietnam wwar was an especially awful chapter of our nation's history

[BComplex]

27. As was the Iraq war.

Stupid. Tragic. Extremely expensive in loss of life (and quality of life) for so many people of every race and background.

[LymphocyteLover]

31. very similar mistakes, though Iraq was a worse mistake since Bush ignored

the lesson of Vietnam.

[LoisB]

9. Rest in Peace, Mr. Ellsberg. You "done" good. Thank you.

[burrowowl]

10. RIP brave man, you did good!

[Delphinus]

11. ...

[Paladin]

12. God bless Dan Ellsberg.

Talk about a guy who did the right thing.

[turbinetree]

13. He saved young American men and women's lives....you did the right and moral thing....

[Backseat Driver]

16. RIP - Daniel Ellsberg

[ancianita]

17. RIP, and thank you, Daniel Ellsberg, for all you suffered to make this country live honestly.

[Marthe48]

18. R.I.P.

He leaked the papers, and Sen. Mike Gravel (D-Alaska) read them into the Congressional record. Good men.

[ShazzieB]

19. RIP

And thank you, Daniel Ellsberg, for your services to this country.

[ShazzieB]

21. P.S.

Ellsberg's memoir, which I was not aware of, sounds fascinating. Definitely plan to read!

[Caribbeans]

20. Thanks Daniel Ellsberg

"I am Assange!" Daniel Ellsberg, Other Allies Ask US to Prosecute Them, Too

Newsweek | SHAUN WATERMAN ON 12/15/22

Julian Assange is having a Spartacus moment.

Veteran Pentagon whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg and government transparency advocate John Young are challenging the U.S. Department of Justice to prosecute them alongside the Wikileaks founder, saying they broke the law just as he did, by publishing or possessing a trove of classified documents.

Their calls underline the concerns of First Amendment advocates that prosecuting Assange could open the door to cases against any news organization that publishes government secrets.

In interviews with Newsweek, the two also shed further light on how the complete and unredacted archive of a quarter million classified State Department intelligence reports known as Cablegate, and leaked by junior intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, came to be published online in September 2011...more
https://www.newsweek.com/i-am-assange-daniel-ellsberg-other-allies-demand-us-prosecute-them-too-1766616

[Wild blueberry]

22. Thank you, Daniel Ellsberg

Rest in peace.

[Hekate]

23. Cross gently, Mr Ellsberg, & thanks for your service to our democracy

[KatK]

24. Three interviews with Democracy Now last month. Link to listen/view here

One of my greatest heroes, Daniel Ellsberg, appeared THREE TIMES on Democracy Now last month. I think very purposefully under the circumstances.

You can check out those interviews here.

[tonekat]

25. An exemplary model of a patriot

A brave man, speeding along roads in Vietnam that were considered the territory of the VietCong to reach remote outposts.

He had character and conscience.

May there be more of his kind.

[Martin68]

26. A true American hero. Willingly went to jail for his principles. Compare: Julian Assange.

[Autumn]

28. The greatest American hero. Rest in peace.

[Kid Berwyn]

29. A great American and human being.

From CommonDreams:

In a March essay he penned to announce his terminal cancer diagnosis, Ellsberg elaborated: "When I copied the Pentagon Papers in 1969, I had every reason to think I would be spending the rest of my life behind bars. It was a fate I would gladly have accepted if it meant hastening the end of the Vietnam War, unlikely as that seemed (and was). Yet in the end, that action—in ways I could not have foreseen, due to Nixon's illegal responses—did have an impact on shortening the war. In addition, thanks to Nixon's crimes, I was spared the imprisonment I expected, and I was able to spend the last 50 years with Patricia and my family, and with you, my friends."

"What's more, I was able to devote those years to doing everything I could think of to alert the world to the perils of nuclear war and wrongful interventions: lobbying, lecturing, writing, and joining with others in acts of protest and nonviolent resistance," he continued. "It is long past time—but not too late!—for the world's publics at last to challenge and resist the willed moral blindness of their past and current leaders."

https://www.commondreams.org/news/daniel-ellsberg-dead

[gopiscrap]

30. RIP

I heard him speak at the University fo Puget Sound a few years ago