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Daniel Ellsberg talks about war and secrets at Lehigh(Morning Call, The (Allentown, PA) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Apr. 12--Daniel Ellsberg, who gained international fame 35 years ago by leaking the Pentagon Papers, accused President Bush of manipulating intelligence to go to war against Iraq and fears the lies will destroy democracy if another terrorist attack hits American shores. But Ellsberg told a standing-room only crowd Tuesday night at Lehigh University that his prediction -- which includes war with Iran, the destruction of the Bill of Rights, martial law, more wiretaps without warrants, a renewed military draft and a weakened First Amendment -- is not partisan. He worked for a Democratic president, Lyndon B. Johnson, who also manipulated intelligence to war five decades ago. "I think, right now, we are in very periled times, physically and for democracy, and I don't blame only the Republicans for that," Ellsberg said as guest speaker of the annual Lehigh University's Tresolini Lecture in Law. "I do not see Democrats or officials of any kind doing what they should be doing about what I see personally as a very serious, imminent threat to our democracy and increased danger in our world." In 1971, Ellsberg, an economist, former Marine and policy analyst for the CIA, set off a chain reaction of epic proportions in Washington, D.C. He leaked a secret study, commissioned by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, to The New York Times, Washington Post and 17 other newspapers. The 7,000-page McNamara Study of U.S. Decision-Making in Vietnam became known as the Pentagon Papers. The papers raised questions regarding the government's decisions and secret actions over the war. Its leak led to a split Supreme Court decision that favored the media's right to publish certain information over governmental objections. For leaking the Pentagon Papers, Ellsberg gained international fame and a 12-count federal indictment. The charges were later dropped because then-President Richard Nixon's operatives broke into the office of Ellsberg's psychiatrist to discredit him. Drawing parallels between the Vietnam era and today, Ellsberg made the crowd of young and old, liberals and conservatives laugh, think and sneer about the past and the future at 500-seat Packard Auditorium. Ellsberg was supposed to focus most of his speech on the ongoing legal ramifications of the federal investigation into government leaks surrounding CIA operative Valerie Plame. Plame is the wife of former Ambassador Joe Wilson who questioned Bush's weapons of mass destruction rationale for war. However, Ellsberg, spent most of his time discussing Iraq and potential for war in Iran. "I'm not a lawyer; I'm a defendant," Ellsberg joked. Then he turned serious, urging government officials to leak classified documents to Congress or the media to stave off war if it turns out a president is lying. But, he said, government officials should not wait, as he did, until bombs -- and bodies -- drop. "If I had put out everything in my safe … I don't think he [Johnson] could have gone to war," Ellsberg said. "So that is a heavy load to bear, and I do bear it." Ellen Herrenkohl, 67, of Bethlehem, said Ellsberg made her think hard about the state of the union. "I think he was making very sobering and frightful points, which are well taken and we should be all be thinking about what we can do about it," she said. But, not everyone agreed with the Ellsberg, who turned 75 Friday. Kevin Frost, 22, of Lansdale, editor of The Lehigh Patriot, a monthly nonpartisan, conservative newspaper, said he liked the talk. But Frost said he thought Ellsberg was using scare tactics, especially when he said another 9/11 could be Bush's equivalent to Adolf Hitler's Reichstag fire that ushered in Nazism. Navy Lt. Yan McGeehan, who just returned from Iraq, said that just because weapons of mass destruction have not been found in Iraq yet does not mean they are not there. McGeehan then forcible asked Ellsberg for his timetable to withdraw from Iraq. Ellsberg responded that failure is not an option. The hasty helicopter withdrawal in Saigon was an embarrassment that should not have happened, he said, "so six months is a good figure," Ellsberg said. Before he gave the lecture, Ellsberg sat at the university's Humanities Center with about 10 students and their political science professor, Ted Morgan. It was an intimate discussion in which Ellsberg touched on many issues of his later speech. He also mused about his decision for leaking the Pentagon Papers and how he witnessed the positive effects the campus-initiated Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War protesters had on Congress in the 1960s and 1970s. The small session ended and Ellsberg walked down Packer Avenue. Thirty-five years ago, he would not have been able to walk unnoticed on any college campus. "People don't recognize my face anymore," he said. "They recognize my name, but often they don't know from where. When you say 'The Pentagon Papers' then they remember." |