One
of America’s most courageous men, who took on the most powerful
government in the world to expose its lies about the Vietnam war, has
died at 92.
Daniel Ellsberg on March 19, 2011, speaking at a rally near the White House to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and other potential fronts, such as Libya. (Photo courtesy of Ben Schuman/Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0)
By Consortium News
Daniel Ellsberg died at 92 on Friday in hospice care after a battle with pancreatic cancer.
Ellsberg was considered the greatest whistleblower of certainty his generation if not in U.S. history. His decision to leak the top-secret government study of the Vietnam war to the press was certainly one of the most courageous acts in the nation’s history.
The decision by the Nixon administration’s Department of Justice to order the press to stop publishing the Pentagon Papers led to a landmark Supreme Court decision against the government’s use of prior restraint.
Then President Richard Nixon had Ellsberg charged under the Espionage Act nonetheless. Ellsberg gained his freedom only after gross prosecutorial misconduct was revealed.
In his later years Ellsberg continued to speak out against injustices and supported a new generation of whistleblowers such as Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning.
He was also a fearless advocate for WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange as he battles against his own Espionage Act case.
Dan was a friend of Consortium News, served on our board and appeared on many of our CN Live! webcasts. We extend our condolences to his family and his many friends.