Daniel Ellsberg, author of Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers, discusses his article “For nuclear security beyond Seoul, eradicate land-based ‘doomsday’ missiles;” the slow pace of nuclear weapons reductions, despite much lip service from every US president since Carter; the surprising low number of hydrogen bombs required to cause nuclear winter and effectively end life on earth; redefining nuclear deterrence in terms of dozens of missiles instead of thousands; why everyone...

This interview is from the KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles broadcast of August 5th, available here. Daniel Ellsberg, author of Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers, discusses his articles “A Hundred Holocausts: An Insider’s Window Into U.S. Nuclear Policy” and “Hiroshima Day: America Has Been Asleep at the Wheel for 64 Years;” the “cultural lag” phenomenon wherein the technology of mass destruction overtakes mankind’s moral capacity; the objections within the military to dropping the...

Daniel Ellsberg, author of Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers, discusses the espionage trial of NSA whistleblower Thomas Drake, scheduled to start on June 13 – also the 40th anniversary of the Pentagon Papers leak; why Bradley Manning, even if guilty of everything he’s accused of, still didn’t commit a federal crime; the history, applicability and common use of the Espionage Act of 1917; why using the Act for prosecuting whistleblowers who disclose classified information...

Daniel Ellsberg, author of Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers, discusses the government and media attacks on Julian Assange and WikiLeaks; a reminder that — at the time — Ellsberg was called a traitor for releasing the Pentagon papers; why Assange can't be charged with a crime without jeopardizing investigative journalism and the notion of a free press; how Bradley Manning's punitive detainment conditions seem designed to elicit a false confession; the question whether a...

Daniel Ellsberg, the man who leaked the Pentagon Papers, discusses how WikiLeaks is shouldering the increasingly dangerous process of leaking and publishing classified documents, why a UK-style Official Secrets Act may be coming soon to America, how broad interpretation of the Espionage Act could make criminals of those who just read WikiLeaks or lend support, the mainstream media's half-serious cheerleading for Julian Assange's assassination, reams of evidence on war crimes in the Iraq War...

Daniel Ellsberg, the man who leaked the Pentagon Papers, discusses the myriad official reasons why the Afghan War Diary is endangering soldiers and/or completely irrelevant, how WikiLeaks has changed the face of journalism and government transparency, the scapegoating of Pakistan for the failing Afghanistan War effort and why now is the time for other whistleblowers/leakers to come forward.

Daniel Ellsberg, the man who leaked the Pentagon Papers, discusses Specialist Bradley Manning’s arrest for passing classified information to Wikileaks, the unfortunate negative connotations of the 'whistleblower' moniker, how Obama has decriminalized torture, 260,000 possible sources of embarrassment for the State Department and the Obama administration’s eager prosecution of whistleblowers.

Daniel Ellsberg, the man who leaked the Pentagon Papers, discusses the losing battle of Robert Byrd and Edward Kennedy (who both presided as senators over the Tonkin Gulf Resolution in 1964) to defeat the Iraq War Resolution in 2002, LBJ’s decision to escalate the Vietnam War despite the prescient predictions of disaster by advisor Clark Clifford, the doublethink prospect of destabilizing Pakistan in order to stabilize it, how 'effective' counterinsurgencies often provoke civil war, the...

Daniel Ellsberg, the man who leaked the Pentagon Papers, discusses his new film 'The Most Dangerous Man in America,' simulations that indicate nuclear war would be more destructive than previously thought, how the practice of killing civilians en masse in WWII became the premise of U.S. nuclear war planning, cancellation of the European missile defense shield and the staggering difference in destructive force between an H-bomb and every other weapon preceding it.

Daniel Ellsberg, author of the article 'Hiroshima Day: America Has Been Asleep at the Wheel for 64 Years,' discusses the 64 year cover-up of the destructive power of nuclear weapons, how the A-bomb is a mere trigger for the 1000X stronger H-bomb, the massive loss of civilian life in the allied fire-bombing of German and Japanese cities, the U.S. president’s free hand to commit atrocities in wartime and the need for government whistleblowers to step up and prevent the next false pretext for...

Daniel Ellsberg, author of Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers, discusses the events leading to the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, earlier CIA attempts to provoke N. Vietnam retaliation, Robert McNamara's role in hiding evidence that the second Tonkin Gulf incident never happened, the possibility an earlier leak of the Pentagon Papers would have prevented the Vietnam War and saved millions of lives, the sociological explanation of how government secrects are kept and the U.S....

Daniel Ellsberg, famous leaker of the Pentagon Papers, and Chris Deliso, of Balkanalysis.com, discuss the case of FBI translator-whistleblower Sibel Edmonds and the international crime rings she exposed.