Latest / OneLegUpAlex Media / Are Whistleblowers Heroes? ‘Pentagon Papers’ Daniel Ellsberg Goes On Record With Politico

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Are Whistleblowers Heroes? ‘Pentagon Papers’ Daniel Ellsberg Goes On Record With Politico · OneLegUpAlex Media

• 0:07
  Here's your Alex as we in this Memorial Day week, A couple of thoughts
• 0:17
  here on the Alex Garrett Podcast Network if you're wondering. I was out and
• 0:22
  about at the Nassau County Games for the physically Challenge, something that close to
• 0:29
  my heart and close to the heart of the Viscarti community HVS family community,
• 0:35
  and we got to see the alumni play basketball. We got to see j
• 0:39
  v and varsity and the cobbies play ball as well, and we also got
• 0:46
  to see a few athletes play in other sports. And there's one picture now
• 0:52
  on my Facebook multiple generations of Viscarti once again showing up to the games.
• 0:58
  And it's always special, big things to County Executive Bruce Blakeman, who was
• 1:03
  there as well to not only support and funded the games, but be there
• 1:07
  to be an active participant with the kids. And I heard Friday was wild,
• 1:15
  and I hope to be there all weekend next year and we'll see what
• 1:19
  happens. But again another special moment, and of course my father was in
• 1:23
  our hearts. And it's always tough to go to these different things and say,
• 1:27
  well, what happened to your dad? Where's your father? And you
• 1:30
  have to say, well, my father has passed on. But that was
• 1:34
  the reality and it didn't have too much of a mountdown, but it hit
• 1:38
  me for a moment, and uh, you know, we we we just
• 1:44
  went Gabby and I went in honor of my dad and it was a special
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  weekend in NASA County at the NASA Community College at the Hofstter dorms. And
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  definitely look forward to doing all that again next year as well. Yeah,
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  Ma, jol Yogas. We were busy running around the grounds yesterday and Friday
• 2:05
  night. But just quote a report that yes, we continue that tradition this
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  week. But to m Memorial Day week, I have this question which was
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  drawn about by an incredible interview Politico did with one Daniel Ellsberg. If you
• 2:23
  may not know who Daniel Ellsberg is, he is Politico's purchased person of interest
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  by Michael Hirsch, who's a former foreign editor and chief diplomatic correspondent for Newsweek,
• 2:38
  national editor former for Politico magazine. And he wrote a Q and A
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  he did wrote about a Q and A did with Daniel Ellsberg. If you
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  know the name Daniel Ellsberg, then you know about the Pentagon papers. He
• 2:59
  was the one that leaked the Pentagon papers more than fifty years ago. Now,
• 3:07
  his story was actually documented in in the movies as well, and it
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  was sort of a prequel to the movie about Watergate, right, it was
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  a prequel to that, and it was a very important, important prequel because
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  I didn't know this. But what Daniel Elsberg did set off a chain reaction.
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  Of course, he handed over copies of the seven thousand top secret History
• 3:39
  of the Lies at seven thousand page top secret History of the Lies and self
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  deceit that drew America into the Vietnam War. He leaked these papers to the
• 3:49
  New York Times and other newspapers in nineteen seventy one, and he was seeing
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  as hero to some, but not to the government, not to the government
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  at all. In fact, Nixon not only erupted an outrage over the league,
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  according to Hirsch, but he created the plumbers Unit. So what Daniel
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  Elsberg did create a chain reaction which led to Watergate, And of course Watergate
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  led to Nixon's resignation and the dismissal of all charges against Ellsberg on groundson and
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  proper government conduct because Nixon proved to be you know, crooked as ever and
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  more crooked than what Elseburg was doing. Watergate may a well present prevented further
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  escalation and shortened the war because it undermined Nixon's authority as Nixon's secretary of State.
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  Henry Kissinger wrote in the first volume of his memoirs, White House Years
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  the Warner April seventeen, nineteen seventy five. And yes, it's true that
• 5:03
  that would not have happened if Ellsberg did not come forward. Now what's interesting
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  is in reading this article is his son, Robert Ellsberg, at the time
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  of thirteen, made all these copies to send to the New York Times.
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  Imagine that thirteen year old doing that. That it's very powerful to speak out
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  like that. And why is this important to day to talk about the memorial
• 5:32
  of whistleblowers? Why maybe they should get a wreath as well, because Daniel
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  Ellsberg has pancreatic cancer and is dying. But he got this one, Michael
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  Hirst got this one interview on paper. And how cool it is it that
• 5:48
  he did because in this there's a wide range of advice and you're gonna see
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  in the description that he has for those that want to come forward, he
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  describes that there's a difference between leaking and whistleblowing. He sees that the American
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  government still lies about what they're doing in covert operations, and that he believed,
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  according to Hersch, that the US chided Putin to go into Ukraine and
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  deliberately start a war. Well, of course, we haven't had a war
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  in a while, we haven't had to use our systems in a while,
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  so maybe that makes sense. And you can say, well, he's ninety
• 6:35
  two, he's just talking out of nowhere. But it is suspicious that one's
• 6:41
  biding got into office. Putin went right to war about a couple a year
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  and changed later. Of course, Osburg did more than just depending on papers.
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  According to Hersh, he also talked about nuclear strategy. He revealed nuclear
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  strategy during the Cold War, secretly based on war plans that would have left
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  hundreds of millions of civilians dead and dangerous. The nuclear threat remains today.
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  That's what Allsburg did. In addition to the Pentagon papers, when he started
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  to see what Nixon was saying and saying and hearing all these other politicians were
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  saying about the war, he was like, well, I have some intel
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  information here. I'm gonna Sheriff because what the American government's telling us is a
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  lie. Ellsberg, as I mentioned, says there's still a covert empire around
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  the world embodying the US domination of NATO. He called the mainstream media complicit
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  in allowing the government to keep secrets and has no right to withhold, and
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  that any notion Americans are ever the good guys abroad has always been false,
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  he says, in my last days here very simply, how many Americans would
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  know any one of the following cases? Let him three or four of them.
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  Then he routed off a series of coops from Iran in nineteen fifty three,
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  Guatemala, Indonesia, Hon Durst, Dominican Republic, Brazil, and Chile.
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  You have to read this article because he is still sharing some wisdom for
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  the future that we must always question. And so does the questioning of these
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  whistleblowers. As taboo as it might be, to reveal classified information, unleash
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  it to the media, to the Congress, to the world, It's an
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  act of bravery, is it not. Is Snowdan not brave? Is Chelsea
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  Manning not brave? I mean, I just think both of them did it
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  a little differently and with less style, but some might contend they are brave.
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  So when these whistleblowers do die off, should they get a memorial as
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  well for actually preventing more war and for their actions leading to not only their
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  own jailing, their own lives being at stake, their own sacrifices being made,
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  but for sending up for the American people. Should they have a wreath
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  laid down on Memorial Day as well? Should we add whistleblower heroes and healthcare
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  heroes to the conversation Memorial Day? That is what this article about Daniel Ellsberg
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  is prompting me to ask you right now on the Sunday Pod because Elsberg didn't
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  have to do this, He didn't have to risk his whole life for this.
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  He didn't have to do and he encourages those ahead of him to know
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  what they're getting into, especially with the abuse of the Espionage Act that that
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  is now getting expanded into. What was the blowers are trying to accomplish,
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  which is just tell the American people the truth. He said, Leaking as
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  part of the way the system works and has nothing to doing with revealing wrongdoing,
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  which of course he believe it was so blowing is that Elsberg was a
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  Harvard educated US Marine, did you know that who in the beginning completely brought
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  into the Cold War struggle against communism, including the Domino theory. Then he
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  went to work for the Defense Department in ran Corps, and he thought the
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  US was I would force for democracy in third world, as in Korea,
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  as in the former colonel a colonial world, and for self determinations verge a
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  peace. He thought we were the good guys quote unquote. But then he
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  started to hear from contacts in the Nixon administration that Nixon was playing to escalate
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  the war. That is when Daniel Ellsberg stepped in. And so if anything
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  that this article gives you today, it's only wisdom from this whistle blower.
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  It's also reminding us that there's a very generational gap between whistle blowers from then,
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  like Frank Surprico, which a movie was made after, by the way,
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  and Daniel Ellsberg and today's whistleblowers, who he says, I want to
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  do it for self promotion, but see if there are more people that are
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  inspired to speak up, maybe, just maybe that is how we gain peace
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  around the world. Maybe learning and hearing from people like Daniel Ellsberg the man
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  behind the Pentagon papers will give us some more hope and insight and inside in
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  the minds of those that do whistleblow, we tend to sort of judge right
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  away when someone leaks or releases classified information to the media or even Congress if
• 12:35
  Congress decides to release it, that all they're harming the government by sharing our
• 12:41
  secrets. But what Daniel Ellsberg is doing, and when I think Michael Hersh
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  is doing, what this article is showing though, what these whistleblowers are doing
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  is maybe their job and maybe their duty as an American to stop even more
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  havoc from happening. Maybe if we read these stories of Ellsberg and Serproco and
• 13:16
  Ian Fishback, who I was a dedicated US Army captain, revealed the torture
• 13:22
  practices at Abu Garb prison in Iraq were systematic, not isolated incidents. He
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  actually only to suffer criticism, mental illness and die years later in a charity
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  hospital. And then there was Reality Winner Winner who send us to five years
• 13:43
  in prison for leaking details of Russian infiltration in the twenty sixteen US election.
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  And now we look at today and it looks like they can't get the witnesses
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  to the Hunter Biden situation. Comer is doing a great job looking into what
• 14:01
  the Biden scheme was, but he's not getting the witnesses. I don't know
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  what this repairman in the laptop of the laptop's gonna say, or what he
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  said in the deposition of seven hours, but maybe those that know more about
• 14:22
  what's going on with the Biden family should speak up to give the American people
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  a bigger picture out of twenty twenty four. So while you may think whistle
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  blowing is not patriotic, from where I stand and reading this article fully,
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  what Daniel Ellsberg did and what he's doing now by putting his thoughts on record
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  with Politico is setting the stay for future inspiration and future generations that want to
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  come forward and say, look, this is not right. What's going on
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  and what we're being told are totally different and someone has to point that out,
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  and at that pointing out stop the escalation of the Vietnam War and actually
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  led to the end of the Vietnam War in the seventies. Maybe that gives
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  us hope that de escalation is still possible thanks to the whistleblower, and just
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  like the military men and women that work to de escalate war and kill off
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  the bad guys and while under fire and artillery, maybe a whistleblowers should have
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  a wreath laid for them as well for their part in trying and sacrificing,
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  in dedicating their life to making sure the American people are in the know and
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  the truth. Maybe they two should get a rereath lead for their for their
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  honor as well for their work in de escalation as much as possible. Crazy
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  thought if you were talking the twenty thirteen me. But Arena's article that's sort
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  of softened me on this, and I say, well, if you have
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  more information, come forward. Comer is looking for witnesses to come forward.
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  I hope he has them, because we need to know what's going on in
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  today's world, in today's Biden industrial complex, and that's not a knock on
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  bid, and that's just a one for the truth. They are running a
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  Biden industrial complex, a syndicate, and we have to get to the bottom
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  of it. And maybe this article, if you share it with the witnesses
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  that are supposed to come forward, maybe that'll be a huge inspiration to Rep.
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  Comer's quests to find out all he can about the Biden industrial complex,
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  and maybe now we can look at whistleblowers as heroes, not traders to the
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  state. Have a great Sunday and we'll talk to you soon on the Alex
• 17:15
  Girrett Podcast Network