pentagon papers
GRITtv: Fighting for Bradley Manning
Bradley Manning, the accused leaker of many of the documents posted on the website WikiLeaks, remains in jail under increasingly harsh conditions. This weekend, protesters, including regular GRITtv guest Col. Ann Wright and Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg, were arrested at Quantico Marine Corps base, rallying in support and demanding better treatment for Manning.
Email this pageDemocracy Now!: Mon., Nov. 29, 2010
The whistleblowing website WikiLeaks has begun releasing a giant trove of confidential U.S. diplomatic cables that is sending shockwaves through the global diplomatic establishment. We host a roundtable discussion with Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg; Greg Mitchell, who writes the Media Fix blog at The Nation; Carne Ross, a British diplomat for 15 years who resigned before the Iraq war; and As’ad AbuKhalil, a professor of political science at California State University, Stanislaus. Democracy Now!, a daily independent newshour.
"Democracy Now!": Thurs. June 17 2010
Pentagon investigators are reportedly still searching for Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange, who helped release a classified US military video showing a US helicopter gunship indiscriminately firing on Iraqi civilians. The US military recently arrested Army Specialist Bradley Manning, who may have passed on the video to Wikileaks. Manning’s arrest and the hunt for Assange have put the spotlight on the Obama administration’s campaign against whistleblowers and leakers of classified information. We speak to Daniel Ellsberg, who’s leaking of the Pentagon Papers has made him perhaps the nation’s most famous whistleblower; Birgitta Jónsdóttir, a member of the Icelandic Parliament who has collaborated with Wikileaks and drafted a new Icelandic law protecting investigative journalists; and Glenn Greenwald, political and legal blogger for Salon.com. The Justice department has told a federal appeals court there was more than enough untainted evidence to justify a trial for the five Blackwater Worldwide guards involved in the 2007 Nissour Square massacre in Baghdad. In court papers seeking to reinstate criminal charges that were dismissed last year, the Justice department said the judge "unjustifiably drew the curtain on a meritorious prosecution." This legal development comes amidst a report that Erik Prince, the owner and founder of the the notorious private security firm, could be planing a move to the United Arab Emirates, a country that has no extradition treaty with the United States. We speak to independent journalist Jeremy Scahill. "Democracy Now!" is a daily independent newshour
"Democracy Now!": Tues. Mar. 30 2010
Examining the "rage on the right": a Christian militia was raided in Michigan this week and a Tennessee skinhead pleads guilty to an Obama assassination plot; Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg talks about President Obama and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. "Democracy Now!"is a daily independent newshour.
GRITtv: The Most Dangerous Man in America
Continuing with our Oscar theme, we bring you the second part of our conversation with whistleblower, anti-war activist, and documentary film subject Daniel Ellsberg. Since the 1960s, Ellsberg has been fighting to stop war and bring government secrets into the open, and he knows firsthand how much power citizens can wield against the government. Ellsberg is headed to the Oscars himself with the crew of the film, and he sat down with Laura to talk about his experience releasing the Pentagon Papers to the press, what's changed from the 60s and Vietnam -- and what hasn't.
GRITtv: The F Word: Today's Secrets Are In Plain Sight
Daniel Ellsberg was on the show last week and he left me thinking about secrecy. Ellsberg, of course, was the man who released the top secret Pentagon Papers on secret decision-making during the wars in Cambodia and Vietnam. He got me wondering: What are the Pentagon Papers of today? We've got the torture memos, the Abu Ghraib photos...some of them. What about the scandals hiding in plain sight? Like the numbers we discuss on the show: 6 million Americans have no income aside from food stamps and growing numbers of them sell their food stamps at a loss to get cash to pay the rent and heat. Or the 16.4 million adults and 7 million children who suffer from asthma-a rising trend over the past two decades. According to Science Daily, "Those most at risk--low income, medically underserved, and African-American and Hispanic children--have the least access to preventive care and the most visits to the ER." What about the number of workplace injuries that are on the rise despite the loss of factory jobs? They're habitually underreported, according to the New York Times (who would know...). What do all these things have in common? They're not secrets to a large portion of the U.S. population. They define our reality, explain a lot of what's going on, yet they're rarely discussed. Today's biggest "secrets" don't require a top-secret hiding or marking "confidential." They just require politicians, a press corps, and a public paying no attention at all.
The F Word is a regular commentary by Laura Flanders, the host of GRITtv which broadcasts weekdays on satellite TV (Dish Network Ch. 9415 Free Speech TV) on cable, and online at GRITtv.org and TheNation.com. Follow GRITtv or GRITlaura on Twitter.com.
GRITtv: Taking Back Power with Daniel Ellsberg
The Bush administration thrived on secrecy; Obama promised more transparency, but has yet to really deliver. What's more, when information does come out, it seems that accountability is nearly impossible to get: the torture memos were released, but there will be no trials. We ask Daniel Ellsberg, one of the world's most famous whistleblowers, if there's anything the people can do to take the power back.
