Daniel Ellsberg: Edward Snowden Is a Hero and We Need More Whistleblowers
Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971, says that the machinery of our democratic government is broken—and we need whistleblowers like Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden to inspire Americans to fight back against this invasion of privacy.
I’m just back home from the first day of the Bradley Manning trial, and a rally for him on Saturday. I think there has not been a more significant or helpful leak or unauthorized disclosure in American history ever than what Edward Snowden shared with the Guardian about the NSA—and that definitely includes the Pentagon Papers.
Clockwise from top left: Edward Snowden, Daniel Ellsberg, and Bradley Manning. (Clockwise from topleft: Getty; AP (2))
Bradley Manning, who put out the largest volume, simply did not have access to material of this degree of significance—although he did have daily access to material that was top secret or even higher, communications intelligence. He didn’t choose to disclose any of that highly classified material–what he shared was secret or less. I was frankly surprised there was so much evidence of criminality of the U.S. government’s in Manning’s secret material–I thought that would have been a higher level of classification. But apparently ordering people to be turned over to Iraqis knowing they would be tortured was so routine it didn’t require higher classification. And then when this was reported by American troops in over 100 different instances, in each case an illegal order was given to them: “no additional investigation.” That’s an illegal order. Under the Geneva Convention, not only can we not torture, but we cannot hand over anyone to another party we might expect to torture them. And if there are reasonable grounds to suspect that torture has occurred, there must be an investigation, so the orders not to investigate were clearly illegal. And that has not been prosecuted or investigated since Bradley Manning revealed it—that is a criminality that goes right up to the commander-in-chief, and that’s only at the secret level.
Bradley Manning had clearance not only for secret material but higher than top secret, namely communications intelligence such as Snowden has just revealed. He did not choose to reveal anything higher than secret. Snowden made the point that Manning put out so much material [700,000 documents] that he presumably did not read all of it, or even most of it—and that is a distinction. But in fact, as Manning testified, he made a definite decision not to put out material that was higher than secret, not even what is called limited distribution or no distribution—he did not put out any such material, and so he assumed that what he was putting out was very unlikely to harm Americans or anybody. He knew that what he did put out revealed a surprising amount of criminality as well as a huge amount of civilian casualties that had not been reported.
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That is the view of many Americans. My view is different. Each one of these guys took an oath and signed documents guaranteeing that they would keep secret information secret. Then they shared that information.
There is a big difference between a whistle blower and a traitor. In my judgement they are traitors.
When they went to work for government they understood that they were working on secret and top secret documents and information. Their duty was to safeguard that information - not to disclose it to everyone.
In each case the disclosure of the information likely endangered servicemen and average Americans.
In each case they got their moment of fame. Ellsberg has parlayed his disclosures into a lifetime career, and I would think this played into Snowden's and Manning's actions.
I anticipate that Snowden and Manning will spend a long time in jail - and they deserve it.
Ellsburg released secret info while I was serving in Vietnam. None of us appreciated it, I will guarantee you. It made our efforts against Communism much more difficult, and helped the communists in their efforts. The photo below says it all.
1966 - 71 Antiwar protests slowly turn country against efforts against communists.
1971 Ellsberg releases Pentagon Papers
1974 House of Representatives refuses more aid to South Vietnam.
1975 South Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos falls to the Communists, genocide begins.
1966 - 71 Antiwar protests slowly turn country against efforts against communists.
1971 Ellsberg releases Pentagon Papers
1974 House of Representatives refuses more aid to South Vietnam.
1975 South Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos falls to the Communists, genocide begins.
The Killing Fields - worldwarcoldwarvietnam.blogspot.com
Nearly 150 million people were murdered by Communist governments. We stopped them, no thanks to traitors.
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"A whistleblower (whistle-blower or whistle blower)[1] is a person who exposes misconduct, alleged dishonest or illegal activity occurring in an organization. The alleged misconduct may be classified in many ways; for example, a violation of a law, rule, regulation and/or a direct threat to public interest, such as fraud, health and safety violations, and corruption. Whistleblowers may make their allegations internally (for example, to other people within the accused organization) or externally (to regulators, law enforcement agencies, to the media or to groups concerned with the issues)."
Definition of TRAITOR
1
: one who betrays another's trust or is false to an obligation or duty
2
: one who commits treason
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