Josh Marshall: Kinda Curious What That Means (Ellsberg's claim) [View all]

[ProSense]

Kinda Curious What That Means

Josh Marshall

Many critics have unfavorably compared Edward Snowden to Daniel Ellsberg because he fled the country rather than stand trial. But Ellsberg now says that’s not a fair comparison because “The country I stayed in was a different America, a long time ago.”

Both as a rhetorical question and a real question I’m curious just what Ellsberg means by that. His basic argument is that he was able to stay out on bail and that wouldn’t have been an option for Snowden. On the other hand, the White House at the time was running a special operations team against Ellsberg out of the White House, including breaking into his psychiatrist’s office and at least some discussions of having him killed. So I’m not sure we can call those the glory days.

http://editors.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2013/07/kinda_curious_what_that_means_1.php

It makes no sense. From the Ellsberg's piece:

<...>

After the New York Times had been enjoined from publishing the Pentagon Papers — on June 15, 1971, the first prior restraint on a newspaper in U.S. history — and I had given another copy to The Post (which would also be enjoined), I went underground with my wife, Patricia, for 13 days. My purpose (quite like Snowden’s in flying to Hong Kong) was to elude surveillance while I was arranging — with the crucial help of a number of others, still unknown to the FBI — to distribute the Pentagon Papers sequentially to 17 other newspapers, in the face of two more injunctions. The last three days of that period was in defiance of an arrest order: I was, like Snowden now, a “fugitive from justice.”

Yet when I surrendered to arrest in Boston, having given out my last copies of the papers the night before, I was released on personal recognizance bond the same day. Later, when my charges were increased from the original three counts to 12, carrying a possible 115-year sentence, my bond was increased to $50,000. But for the whole two years I was under indictment, I was free to speak to the media and at rallies and public lectures. I was, after all, part of a movement against an ongoing war. Helping to end that war was my preeminent concern. I couldn’t have done that abroad, and leaving the country never entered my mind.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/daniel-ellsberg-nsa-leaker-snowden-made-the-right-call/2013/07/07/0b46d96c-e5b7-11e2-aef3-339619eab080_story.html

He knew he broke the law. He surrendered. He faced the consequences. He's arguing times have changed (ignoring the reality of his time), and claiming that it's justification for fleeing the country.

There have been several prominent whistleblowers over the last several years who did not flee the country.

William Binney, Thomas Drake, and Thomas Tamm are whistleblowers who stayed and faced the consequences of their actions. They were not persecuted, they faced prosecution. They are not in jail. In fact, Tamm was the one who exposed Bush's illegal eavesdropping on Americans.

Remember whistleblower Thomas Tamm?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023032225