[R-G] Daniel Ellsberg on Richard Clarke

[David Mcreynolds]

Thanks, will pass this on. Give Dan my best,

David


> To: list at ellsberg.net <list at ellsberg.net>
> Date: 3/29/2004 9:20:57 PM
> Subject: Daniel Ellsberg on Richard Clarke
>
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> Excerpts from cover story, San Francisco Chronicle, Monday, March 29th:
>
> Daniel Ellsberg sees a new trend--telling all while the issue is hot
> by Matthew Stannard, Chronicle Staff Writer
>
>
(http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/03/2
> 9/MNGK75SR5A1.DTL)
>
> When famous whistle-blower Daniel Ellsberg boarded a plane to Cincinnati
> earlier this week, he took along a little light reading: a stack of
articles
> about former counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke, who has stirred
> controversy with allegations in his book and testimony before a special
> panel that the Bush White House was somewhat indifferent to al Qaeda
before
> Sept. 11 and obsessed with Iraq afterward.
>
> Ellsberg, who in 1971 leaked the Pentagon Papers documenting government
> misrepresentations about the Vietnam War, sees Clarke as part of a trend:
> well-placed individuals in the government who have gone public with books
or
> interviews outlining their concerns and criticisms about their country's
> government--while that government is still in power.
>
> Ellsberg is not alone in that observation--observers from across the
> political spectrum, whether they support Clarke's actions or not, agree
that
> a new willingness exists to tell all far sooner, and far more publicly,
than
> in the past. 
>
> Ellsberg cites officials such as Scott Ritter, the former lead inspector
for
> the U.N. Special Commission on Concealment and Investigations team, and
> Katharine Gun, a British government linguist who leaked an e-mail
> purportedly from U.S. intelligence services asking for help spying on U.N.
> ambassadors. 
>
> Opinions differ on whether the willingness to tell all is a good thing,
but
> to Ellsberg, who has been sharply critical of the war in Iraq and even
> written articles encouraging current government employees to leak what he
> calls "Iraq's Pentagon Papers," the phenomenon is a source of optimism.
>
> "I think these people are heroes. They're really acting appropriately in a
> very dangerous situation," he said. "It's as if we are learning about the
> Tonkin Gulf a month or two later instead of years later."
>
> Although Ellsberg, now 72 and living in Kensington, considers Clarke
> somewhat of a kindred spirit, he doesn't quite see him as a
whistle-blower.
> Clarke was no longer an employee of the administration when he spoke out
and
> did not provide documentation to back up his accusations--accusations the
> administration has rejected.
>
> Ellsberg said the only real whistle-blower of recent times is Gun, who
> briefly faced charges under the British Official Secrets Act and supported
> her claims with documents.
>
> "I find her really admirable," Ellsberg said, but he considers the rest
> remarkable, too, for being willing to go public in a way and with a speed
> that simply didn't occur 40 years ago.
>
> "Why are they acting differently from people in my generation?" he said.
"We
> knew (Vietnam) was just as deceptive and the policy was just as bad, but
we
> certainly weren't tempted to leak."
>
> At least, not until Ellsberg did it. But since then, a number of observers
> said, going public early and often has become more and more acceptable,
even
> among ranking government officials. . . .
>
> Clarke's book, because of his position, may be taking the trend to a new
> level, said Peter Berkowitz, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution
and
> an associate professor of law at George Mason University Law School.
>
> "I do think what Clarke has done is really unprecedented in our history:
> somebody who served as a national security adviser to the president
stepping
> down and, while that president is still in office, blasting him," he said.
> "That just hasn't been done before" . . . .
>
> "You're seeing an evolution of our society. Ellsberg is essentially the
> first modern whistle- blower. As a result, the news media observed how
> important obtaining this type of information was and how it was the
ultimate
> lifeline to a free society," [Michael Kohn, general counsel for the
private
> National Whistleblower Cente] said. "As this message began to take root,
the
> will of people to expose information at an earlier point of time has just
> gone with it" . . . .
>
> [T]o Ellsberg, the fact that a number of Bush's own people have been
willing
> to break that presumption of loyalty is a strong condemnation of the
> president and his neo-conservative allies, something Clarke himself has
> hinted at in public statements.
>
> Asked on "60 Minutes" whether he owed loyalty to the president, Clarke
> responded, "Up to a point. When the president starts doing things that
risk
> American lives, then loyalty to him has to be put aside."
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> THOSE WHO TOLD
>
> Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers three decades ago, cited
> these people as part of what he sees as a new trend of those who criticize
> governments still in power:
>
> -- Scott Ritter, the former lead inspector for the U.N. Special Commission
> (UNSCOM) Concealment and Investigations team in Iraq.
>
> -- Hans Blix, the former U.N. chief weapons inspector in Iraq.
>
> -- Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, whose January book about his
> tenure inside the Bush administration was based, in part, on classified
> documents. 
>
> -- Rand Beers, who quit as President Bush's antiterrorism adviser to
become
> John Kerry's foreign policy adviser.
>
> -- Joseph Wilson, a former ambassador who investigated whether Iraq tried
to
> buy uranium from Niger and later publicly accused the White House of
> manipulating his findings.
>
> -- John Brady Kiesling, a career U.S. diplomat who resigned to protest the
> Bush administration's policies on Iraq.
>
> -- Ray McGovern, a retired CIA analyst on the steering committee of
Veteran
> Intelligence Professionals for Sanity.
>
> -- Robin Cook, a former British foreign minister who quit and wrote a book
> saying the threat of Iraq was overblown.
>
> -- Katharine Gun, a British government linguist who was charged under the
> British Official Secrets Act for leaking an e-mail purportedly from U.S.
> intelligence services asking for help spying on U.N. ambassadors.
>
> -- Anthony Zinni, retired Marine general and former U.S. commander for the
> Middle East who has criticized the handling of postwar Iraq.
>
> -- Clare Short, a former international development secretary who resigned
> from British Prime Minister Tony Blair's government in protest after the
> invasion and later said she had seen transcripts of bugging of Kofi
Annan's
> office. 
>
> -- Karen Kwiatkowski, a retired lieutenant colonel formerly assigned to
the
> Pentagon's Office of Special Plans who wrote an article critical of the
war
> on the online site Salon.com -- entitled "The New Pentagon Papers."
>
>
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