Ellsberg Says Publication of NSA Leak Was `Necessary'

[deminks]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=aljAx7UjIznI

May 22 (Bloomberg) -- Daniel Ellsberg, who in 1971 leaked secret documents helping to turn U.S. public opinion against the Vietnam War, said the New York Times' decision to publish classified information on domestic surveillance was ``necessary'' to preserve democracy.

The newspaper may have broken the law with its actions yet that isn't comparable to the harm to the U.S. democracy from the warrantless domestic surveillance by NSA, said Ellsberg, a former consultant to the White House and the Defense Department during the Vietnam War. The surveillance program invades the privacy of millions and is ``very wrong,'' he said.

``I don't call those two comparable wrongs,'' he said. The NSA program ``changes the form of our government potentially.''

A former researcher at Rand Corp. who worked on a top-secret study of U.S. decision making in Vietnam, Ellsberg was charged with 12 felony counts and faced as many as 115 years in prison for leaking the so-called Pentagon Papers, published in June 1971 by the Times.

[populistdriven]

1. due to gross governmental misconduct, all charges vs Ellsberg were dropped

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Ellsberg

[Tom Joad]

2. Ellsberg is an american hero.

[ebayfool]

3. Yes, he is!

Dating myself here (yet, again!) - I got to meet the man many moons ago, at a Joan Baez concert in Long Beach. It's not often you get the chance to shake a hero's hand & tell 'em 'Thank you!' face to face.

And he's still kicking some ass!