KALWNews.org

By Holly McDede

Last Wednesday, “the most dangerous man in America” gave a presentation at Berkeley City College about how to be dangerous. The presenter was whistle blower Daniel Ellsberg, the subject of the Academy Award nominated documentary The Most Dangerous Man in America, and, more importantly, the man who released the Pentagon Papers in 1971.

Even though Ellsberg earned “the most dangerous man” moniker for releasing top secret information about Vietnam, he has been arrested more times for protesting the government’s policies than anything else. Most recently, on March 19th, Ellsberg was arrested with 30 other protesters on behalf of Bradley Manning outside the Marine Corps base in Quantico, where Manning is being held for allegedly passing classified information to WikiLeaks.

After describing reports that Manning is being held in a solitary cell for 23 hours a day, Ellsberg said, “I’m enough of a Marine still to find shame in what they’re doing. If it was an army prison, I’d still feel outrage. But as a Marine, I feel shame.”

After the release of the Pentagon Papers, Ellsberg did not receive the same fate as Manning. In fact, he didn’t receive so much as a prison sentence. At Wednesday’s talk, Ellsberg mentioned that President Richard Nixon, who held office when the documents were released, was actually a huge fan. “The first papers came out about Johnson,” said Ellsberg, “but Nixon was running against Kennedy. And Nixon wanted to put out the word that the brother of this Catholic rival had murdered a Catholic head of state, who was our main ally in Vietnam. Nixon’s first reaction is, ‘Did they get the stuff out about ‘Nam? Leak it out! Leak it out!'”

Bringing it to the present, Ellsberg noted similarities between himself and Julian Assange, the editor of WikiLeaks. He said, “Julian Assange is 39, so he’s virtually the same age as I was when I copied the Pentagon papers. He was born the week the Pentagon Papers came out.” Those facts might have had conspiracy theorists and public event wire tappers on the edges of their seats.

When one listener asked Ellsberg why more people read the Pentagon Papers than WikiLeaks, Ellsberg said, “Actually, very few people read the Pentagon Papers.” He went on to say, “But I don’t think the New York Times has done a good job selecting what to focus on. I think they did a good job putting out gossipy stuff, like Muammar Gaddafi’s mistress, which turns out not to be the most important thing to put out.” An armed insurrection began in Libya after the WikiLeaks release.

Ellsberg criticized the Obama Administration for pressing more charges against six defendants suspected of leaking classified information. He stated that this was more than any previous administration combined. “Either he’s assuming the current court will not notice its unconstitutional, or he doesn’t care and he just wants to intimidate people. That’s what we get for having a constitutional scholar as President.”

When Ellsberg condemned Obama as guilty of breaking international laws against torture, the audience clapped. Ellsberg laughed, “It’s interesting why one feels the need to clap at news that our President has committed torture.” He said, “Well, for the same reason I am grateful to Bradley Manning for giving me that news. The feeling that you can breathe oxygen instead of swallowing it, that you can recognize reality, that you are being handed something you can possibly choose to change the situation.”

Just to clarify his opinion, Ellsberg said, “It may seem like I’m critical of Obama here, and God knows I am, but I voted for him. If he needed my vote in 2012, he would have it again in a minute based on the candidates on the other side.” He then described his views on the other potential candidates. “Mike Huckabee wants to execute Bradley Manning,” he said, “and Sarah Palin advocates for hunting down Assange like Obama Bin Laden, to which Assange says, ‘Good, that’ll give me ten more years.'” Rather than following Palin’s advice, Ellsberg concluded his talk by advising the audience to hunt the truth instead.

This article originally appeared on KALWNews.org