Daniel Ellsberg
 Daniel Ellsberg       (whistleblower, activist, author) | |
|---|---|
| Born | April 7, 1931 Chicago, Illinois |
| Alma mater | Harvard University, Cambridge University |
| Children | • Robert • Mary • Michael Ellsberg |
| Spouse | Carol Cummings |
| Exposed | The Pentagon Papers |
| Member of | Belmarsh Tribunal, National Security Whistleblowers Coalition, RAND/Notable Participants, Sam Adams Award, WhoWhatWhy |
A feted whistleblower who exposed some details of how the US government was carrying out war in Vietnam. The fact that he was not persecuted has lead several commentators to suggest that he may not in fact have been all he appears to be. Specifically, the Pentagon Papers may have been a limited hangout. | |
Daniel Ellsberg is a former United States military analyst employed by the RAND Corporation who precipitated a national political controversy in 1971 when he released The Pentagon Papers, a top-secret Pentagon study of US government decision-making about the Vietnam War, to The New York Times and other newspapers.
Contents
The Pentagon Papers
After returning from Vietnam, Ellsberg went back to work at the RAND Corporation. In 1967, he contributed to a top-secret study of classified documents regarding the conduct of the Vietnam War that had been commissioned by Defense Secretary McNamara. These documents, completed in 1968, later became known collectively as the Pentagon Papers. Because he held an extremely high-level security clearance, Ellsberg was one of very few individuals who had access to the complete set of documents. They revealed that the government had knowledge all along that the war would not likely be won, and that continuing the war would lead to many times more casualties than was ever admitted publicly. Further, the papers showed that high-ranking officials had a deep cynicism toward the public, as well as disregard for the loss of life and injury suffered by soldiers and civilians. Webster Tarpley suggests that the Pentagon papers were a limited hangout.
Later Life
Since the end of the Vietnam War he has been a lecturer, writer and activist on the dangers of the nuclear era and unlawful interventions. In 2002 he published Secrets.[1]
Legal Case
| Name | Plaintiff(s) | Defendant(s) | Start | End | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hedges v. Obama | Daniel Ellsberg Chris Hedges Noam Chomsky Jenifer Bolen Kai Wargalla Birgitta Jónsdóttir Alexa O'Brien | Barack Obama Leon Panetta John McCain John Boehner Harry Reid Eric Cantor Nancy Pelosi US Department of Defense Mitch McConnell United States of America | 13 January 2012 | 28 April 2014 | The plaintiffs challenged the 2012 NDAA contending that indefinite detention on "suspicion of providing substantial support" to groups such as al-Qaeda and the Taliban was so vague as to allow unconstitutional, indefinite detention of civilians based on vague allegations. The Court of Appeals struck down an initial agreement, and the US Supreme Court concurred, arguing that the plaintiffs could not prove they would be affected by the law, so had no standing to contest it. |
A Document by Daniel Ellsberg
| Title | Document type | Publication date | Subject(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Document:Ex-Intelligence Officers, Others See Plusses in WikiLeaks Disclosures | statement | 7 December 2010 | Wikileaks | A statement of support for Wikileaks. "The big question is not whether Americans can 'handle the truth.' We believe they can..." |
Quotes by Daniel Ellsberg
| Page | Quote | Date | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corporate media | “I am confident that there is conversation inside the Government as to ‘How do we deal with Sibel [Edmonds]? The first line of defense is to ensure that she doesn’t get into the [corporate] media. I think any outlet that thought of using her materials would go to to the government and they would be told “don’t touch this...”” | 2014 | Global Research |
| Operation Gladio/B | “I am confident that there is conversation inside the Government as to ‘How do we deal with Sibel [Edmonds]? The first line of defense is to ensure that she doesn’t get into the [corporate] media. I think any outlet that thought of using her materials would go to to the government and they would be told "don’t touch this..."” |
Event Participated in
| Event | Start | End | Location(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Munich Security Conference/2019 | 15 February 2019 | 17 February 2019 | Munich Bavaria Germany | The 55th Munich Security Conference, which included "A Spreading Plague" aimed at "identifying gaps and making recommendations to improve the global system for responding to deliberate, high consequence biological events." |
Event Witnessed
| Event | Description |
|---|---|
| Truth And Reconciliation Committee on the Assassinations Of The 1960s | A call for a Truth And Reconciliation Committee |
Related Documents
| Title | Type | Publication date | Author(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Document:How to identify CIA limited hangout operation | article | 18 June 2013 | Webster Tarpley | Citing the Pentagon Papers as an example, Tarpley suggests that both Wikileaks and the Snowden affair are limited hangout operations by the CIA. |
| Document:The "Pentagon Papers" leak was a CIA op | blog post | 7 June 2006 | Ashton Gray | |
| Document:Your Man in the Public Gallery: Assange Hearing Day 11 | blog post | 17 September 2020 | Craig Murray | Dan Ellsberg, doyen of whistleblowers, had at first been inclined to believe the US Government on Iraqi WMD, just as he had first been inclined to believe the government on deaths caused by Wikileaks releases. In both cases it had proved they were making it up. |
