Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg dies at 92

Ellsberg exposed the US government’s deception about the US war in Vietnam and advocated for whistleblower rights.

daniel ellsberga whistleblower famous for exposing government deception about America’s war in Vietnam and an outspoken opponent of nuclear weapons, he died at the age of 92 of pancreatic cancer.

The Washington Post was the first to report that Ellsberg died on Friday, citing a statement from his family.

While Ellsberg was best known for his efforts to bring back a trove of secret documents known as “the pentagon papers” to public attention, he remained actively involved in activism on a number of issues, such as whistleblower protection and the dangers of nuclear weapons, until the end of his life.

At the time of the Pentagon Papers leak, Henry Kissinger, architect of the US escalation in the Vietnam War and later national security adviser to former President Richard Nixon, called Ellsberg “the most dangerous man in America who should be detained at all costs.”

Ellsberg had worked as a military analyst on national security issues for the Pentagon and RAND Corporation, a leading policy think tank, before becoming disillusioned with the US war in Vietnam and leaking to the media thousands of pages of documents that detail the government’s lies about the war. in 1971.

The episode resulted in a historic free speech battle that went all the way to the United States Supreme Court. Less than two weeks after the documents were released, the court ruled that the press had the right to publish the materials leaked by Ellsberg, a crucial victory for efforts to expose government falsehoods on issues like national security.

The US government charged him in January 1973 with robbery and conspiracy under the Espionage Act, facing a maximum of 115 years in prison. The charges were dismissed in May of that year due to government misconduct and illegal collection of evidence.

Throughout his life, Ellsberg criticized the use of the Espionage Act and remained a fierce defender of whistleblowers’ rights as edward snowden and Julian Assangewho released to the public classified documents revealing government abuses such as illegal mass surveillance and the killing of civilians in America’s wars abroad.

in a interview 2014 With Al Jazeera, Ellsberg spoke about the dangers of widespread classification of government documents and a “culture of secrecy” in the US national security apparatus.

“It is much more difficult to challenge the culture of secrecy since 9/11. Just as it is more difficult to challenge clearly criminal, illegal and internationally prohibited practices, such as torture, ”he said.

Ellsberg was also a staunch opponent of nuclear weapons. His activism over several decades led to his arrest dozens of times.

His 2017 book, The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear Nuclear War Planner, details the dangers of nuclear weapons and its place in the national security of the United States. It was based on his experience as a military analyst who worked on nuclear issues between 1958 and 1971.

In it, he described a moment that marked a turning point in his life and worldview: reading a government document that estimated that close to 600 million people would die in a first nuclear attack by the United States against the USSR, its satellites in the Pact. from Warsaw and China. .

“I remember what I thought when I first held up the single sheet with the graph. I thought, this piece of paper should not exist. It should never have existed. Not in America. Nowhere, ever.

He added that “from that day on, I have had one primary purpose in life: to avoid the execution of any such plan.”

Ellsberg remained engaged with youth and activists until the end of his life, telling Al Jazeera in 2014 that he was “encouraged” by his interactions with students on topics such as surveillance.

He dedicated The Doomsday Machine “to those who fight for a human future.”