amy goodman: pentagon whistleblower daniel ellsberg. coming up, presidential candidate mike gravel picks up the story from there. ♪ [music break] >> barbara streisand at a fundraiser for daniel ellsberg. amy goodman: we turn now to senator mike gravel from alaska, yes, the democratic presidential candidate today. in 1971, he received the pentagon papers from washington post journalist ben bagdikian, who in turn had gotten them from daniel ellsberg. mike gravel: let me just pick up where he left off, because it really -- there's a lot of little vignettes, and i'll talk fast, but i want to get all the details out, because i know what you want to know is the inside skinny. you can read the broad lines, but it's what happened to both our lives at the time that -- dan calls my office. he talks to joe rothstein, who was my administrative assistant. my administrative assistant - i was down in the senate gym getting a massage. i was on the table. and, of course, you can't have staff come into the senate. this is hallowed ground, so - into the s

for daniel ellsberg. ♪ [music break] barbra streisand singing "i'll get by" for daniel ellsberg.e turn now to senator microtel from alaska, yes the democratic residential candidate today. in 1971, he received the pentagon papers from washington post journalist who had interned gotten them from daniel ellsberg . hethat may just pick up or left off, because it really -- there's a lot of little vignettes, and i'll talk fast, but i want to get all the details out, because i know what you want to know is the inside skinny. you can read the broad lines, but it's what happened about our lives of the time that -- dan calls my office. he talks to my minister at assistant joe. i was down in the senate gym getting a massage breed i was on a table. and of course you can have staff come into the senate. this was hallowed ground. into the senate jim. so he's not going on the door and says, i've got to see the senator, it's an emergency. -- so he is knocking on the door and says, i've got to see the senator and it's an emergency. the masseur says, somebody wants to give you the pentagon papers.

that's been i think my biggest disappointment the classified documents that daniel ellsberg leaked four decades ago revealed that the u.s. government had lied about the vietnam war and those revelations contributed to the erosion of public support for the war daniel ellsberg was the first whistle blower who was charged under the espionage act the government went after him with only had wiretapped him without a court warrant broke into his therapist's office trying to find something to discredit him with the judge dismissed all charges against ellsberg due to the gross government misconduct and illegal evidence gathering today daniel ellsberg stands in support of all these whistleblowers arguing had he been charged today he would have most probably gone to jail in washington i'm going to check out. and while the n.s.a. has secured its right to monitor the cell phone and internet activities by the ninon thanks to a congressional budget the age of six lanes to like her so says the ship to sift through the emails of its own employees about how a website to find out a simple freedom of infor

make comparisons between his experiences and those of another important american whistleblower daniel ellsberg like snowden ellsberg face the full wrath of the american political establishment and a punishing smear campaign when he exposed the truth about our country's involvement in the vietnam war the new york times in one nine hundred seventy one and again like snowden ellsberg was charged by our government under the espionage act of nine hundred seventeen but their experience is. different in one very important way unlike edward snowden daniel ellsberg felt confident enough in the american justice system to turn himself in to face trial right here in the usa on june twenty eighth one thousand nine hundred eighty one just two weeks after the new york times published the first excerpt of alberto ellsberg trove of documents he walked into the u.s. district attorney's office in boston and gave himself up to the authorities ellsberg recently appeared on this show to talk about the snowden saga and how different the legal climate is for whistleblowers today compared with what it was when he leak

that's been i think my biggest disappointment the classified documents then daniel ellsberg leaked four decades ago revealed that the us government had lied about the vietnam war and those revelations contributed to the erosion of public support for the war daniel ellsberg was the first whistleblower who was charged under the espionage act the government went after him with only had wiretapped him without a court war and broke into his therapist's office trying to find something to discredit him with the judge dismissed all charges against ellsberg due to the gross government misconduct and illegal evidence gathering today daniel ellsberg stands in support of all these whistleblowers arguing had he been charged today he would have most probably gone to jail in washington i'm going to check out. well as always we are eager to hear your views on all the stories we cover you can log on to our website r t dot com and let us know if you think russia should grant edward snowden temporary asylum. and more news after a short break including an unconventional tactic to round up illegal immigrant

that's been i think my biggest disappointment the classified documents that daniel ellsberg leaked four decades ago revealed that the u.s. government had lied about the vietnam war and those revelations contributed to the erosion of public support for the war daniel ellsberg was the first whistle blower who was charged under the espionage act the government went after him with all he had wiretapped him without a court warrant broke into his therapist's office trying to find something to discredit him with the judge dismissed all charges against ellsberg due to the gross government misconduct and illegal evidence gathering today daniel ellsberg stands in support of all these whistleblowers arguing had he been charged today he would have most probably gone to jail in washington i'm going to shake him. meanwhile the u.s. house of representatives has rejected an amendment that would have curbed the n.s.a.'s ability to collect electronic information it was a narrow defeat of just twelve votes for the legislation reflecting divisions in congress could ashdown the owner of an internet service

that's been i think my biggest disappointment the classified documents that daniel ellsberg leaked four decades ago revealed that the us government had lied about the vietnam war and those revelations contributed to the erosion of public support for the war daniel ellsberg was the first whistleblower who was charged under the espionage act the government went after him with only had wiretapped him without a court warrant broke into his therapist's office trying to find something to discredit him with the judge dismissed all charges against ellsberg due to the gross government misconduct and illegal evidence gathering today daniel ellsberg stands in support of all these whistleblowers arguing had he been charged today he would have most probably gone to jail in washington i'm going to check out. activists in new zealand say marches are being organized against government attempts to allow the country's intelligence service the g.c. espied to legally spy on citizens well this is prohibited under the current legislation but the agency is double said dozens of times since two thousand and th

that's been i think my biggest disappointment the classified documents that daniel ellsberg leaked four decades ago revealed that the u.s. government had lied about the vietnam war and those revelations contributed to the erosion of public support for the war daniel ellsberg was the first whistleblower who was charged under the espionage act the government went after him with all he had wiretapped him without a court warrant broke into his therapist's office trying to find something to discredit him with the judge dismissed all charges against ellsberg due to the gross government misconduct and illegal evidence gathering today daniel ellsberg stands in support of all these whistleblowers arguing had he been charged today he would have most probably gone to jail in washington i'm going to shake him and in the meantime the u.s. house of representatives has blocked an amendment that would have curbed the n.s.a.'s vast collection of phone records it was a narrow defeat of just twelve votes for the legislation reflecting deep divisions in congress early and my colleague bill dog he discussed

>>brown: and daniel ellsberg, what is your viewpoint? >> pardon me, i have to smile that our friends would be very upset about the thought that snowden had exposed that we were spying on them which he has done. i must say, i think a lot of us would be envious of our capability. i think russia and china would be envious of our capability, in countries that aren't exactly democratic. my concern the very existence of this kind of capability chills in some way, i can't see how there can be investigative reporting of this community, when the identity the metadata and the communication between every journalist, every source is known to the executive branch. especially one that has pen prosecuting twice as many sources as any president before. moreover, my even larger concern is: i don't see how democracy can survive when one branch, the executive branch, has all the personal communications of every member of congress, and every judge, every member of the judiciary, as well as the press, the fourth estate that i've just been describing. i don't

it brings us right back to daniel ellsberg.uring his trial for espionage, which eventually collapsed under the government to caner become hypocrisy, the trial judge in that case was offered to be the head of the fbi. bencht out onto a park and said, while the trial is going on, how would you like to be the head of the fbi? talk about influencing a judge by the executive. you saw it in the ellsberg case, and now you see it in the other crucial whistleblower, the same thing happening, the judge being offered a higher position. i find it remarkable that they would mess around and make it look like that judge may not have complete fairness. >> that was michael ratner responding to the manning verdict. theas acquitted of aiding enemy but convicted on 20 and other espionage and other charges, faces 136 years in prison. that sentencing hearing begins today. alexa o'brien, if you could talk about what this sentencing hearing is about. it is different than a civilian court. new evidence can be presented here. >> that is right. since the

people in the 1960s said daniel ellsberg burg wwas a trader. i trust u.s.als way more than a daniel ellsberg did was expose sis mat tick lies. in the bush years they said whoever told dana priest or the new york times that the bush administration was fine without warrant, what right did they have to disclose secrets? to this is how investigator journalism works, people inside the government with a conscious come forward when they find out things the government are doing that are wrong and disclose it to the world in media outlets and journalism. if you think that's offensive, you're calling for the end of what journalism is. >> i appreciate your education on journalism but releasing cables in that way is not the same work as dana priest and bob woodward. >> how about daniel ellsberg? >> he disclosed what he wrote, which is very different than -- than bradley manning disclosing hundreds of thousands of cables he didn't even read muchless right. >> you didn't know that he didn't read them. >> glen makes an interesting point, and accurate point that when this

against ellsberg due to the gross government misconduct and illegal evidence gathering today daniel ellsberg stands in support of all these whistleblowers arguing had he been charged today he would have most probably gone to jail in washington i'm going to check out. meanwhile the u.s. house of representatives has blocked an amendment that would have curbed the n.s.a.'s vast collecting of phone records it was just a narrow defeat of just twelve votes for the display ssion ultimately reflecting some rather deep divisions in congress well my colleague bill dodd discussed the amendment with pete ashdown the owner of an internet service provider which has been shielding its clients data for years from the n.s.a. . i think that the only solution for keeping the n.s.a. from spying on people on the internet is people using encryption and then having service providers that are willing to stand up and stand against broad surveillance and wholesale monitoring now what about this amendment is it more about party politics and trying to embarrass obama than generally really trying to protect people's int

against ellsberg due to the gross government misconduct and illegal evidence gathering today daniel ellsberg stands in support of all these whistleblowers arguing had he been charged today he would have most probably gone to jail in washington i'm going to shake up washington has still been calling for the extradition of edward snowden who's been stranded at moscow appled for more than a month ever since arriving from hong kong has applied for asylum in russia and is waiting for paperwork allowing him to finally leave his current state of limbo and his legacy funds brings us the latest from outside the airport. there are so many journalists here with their eyes and their camera lenses trained very heavily on any of the doors on the first floor that he may exit out of that being said you never know this is definitely a sort of catch me if you can situation if you will now his adviser here in russia anatoly cucina did say the paperwork that he needs that would allow him to officially exits the airport and enter russia is is still not here without it's a formal notice essential of that federal

against ellsberg due to the gross government misconduct and illegal evidence gathering today daniel ellsberg stands in support of all these whistleblowers arguing had he been charged today he would have most probably gone to jail in washington i'm going to check out. now as always we are eager to hear your views on the stories that we cover here on our website our team dot com and let us know whether you think that russia should add grant edward snowden temporary asylum what we did in the results when they are of course more news is coming up for a short break including a look at how the greeks are falling victim to the government's budget cuts in an attempt to repay the country's debt and that and more in just a few minutes to stay with us. the judge is essential. to children the streets. that women kidnapped and converted to islam by force will be another layer of martyrs for the culture christians of egypt to the cross to. the future thing to. the way of the cross. welcome back all this week the syrian national council had met with the u.n. security council and agreed to take part in a lo

the erosion of public support for the war he was the charges against him were dismissed but now daniel ellsberg says had he been charged today he would have probably gone to jail and he would have probably shared bradley manning's fate well we don't know what sentence but he. of course we don't expect him to be released let's put it this way we don't know what the sentence is going to be the day it's more of a private bradley manning as you said before we very closely going to kind of washington thanks very much. the seeds are the final version if. you are or were you know that. there are parties you. ukraine is mulling whether to align itself with russia's regional trade bloc or go the other way and push for close ties with the former soviet republic wants cheaper russian gas but also creates greater cooperation with western partners to his business present a capability ways of the options for. as you can see just here it really is stuck in the middle ukraine faces a choice either go for the option of a customs union with russia shop or go for the european free trade zone now if you crane choo

against ellsberg due to the gross government misconduct and illegal evidence gathering today daniel ellsberg stands in support of all these whistleblowers arguing had he been charged today he would have most probably gone to jail in washington i'm going to check out meanwhile the u.s. house of representatives has rejected an amendment that would have current b. n.s.a. its ability to collect all of tronic information now was a narrow defeat of just twelve votes for the legislation reflecting deep divisions within congress pete ashdown the owner of an internet service provider which for bust and they say attempts to access his client's data for decades told us that he had been twin have been enough to stop the snooping even if it had passed. but i think that the only solution for keeping us safe from spying on people on the internet is people using encryption and then having service providers that are willing to stand up and stand against broad surveillance and wholesale monitoring on a hope that something good is coming out of washington and i want to put it past the republican party for tryi

against ellsberg due to the gross government misconduct and illegal evidence gathering today daniel ellsberg stands in support of all these whistleblowers arguing had he been charged today he would have most probably gone to jail in washington i'm going to shake up. we also have plenty more news on our web site for you including who catches us citizen part of the day to have talked to dot com to read more on the n.s.a. spying programs that trillions of telephone calls and e-mails in their databases. plus the brains parliament are polled banning protests in the country's capital online we have more on the measures that are being imposed under their spaciousness of safeguarding citizens and businesses. in an apparent attempt to distance themselves or form extremists the syria's main opposition group has condemned the alleged massacre of government soldiers near the city of aleppo just a few days after its representatives urged the u.s. to start supplying weapons to the fighters over so many rebel groups active on the ground it's unclear where those arms could eventually end up artie's paul sco

authorities i mean if you're going to try and argue that with bradley manning might well say that daniel ellsberg who released the pentagon papers was guilty of aiding the vietnamese if that proposed is just ridiculous. and they are even victims the u.s. government is doing this to deter future whistleblowers which obviously hasn't happened because we now have it with snowden and it is complete overreaction to persecute whistleblowers who are putting information out there which is very much in the public interest which informs the public about what their government and the military are doing and then to say that they are traitors secondly they are not they are performing a public service and to persecute this young man and for him to face potentially the rest of life in prison for informing us is just a sign of a sick democracy i think what are we now the enemy because he informs the general public around the world about what can go wrong with american democracy we'll talk about how much of a success or not but was limited i want to just talk a bit more about this the big charge a very deadly ene

well there's no way didn't you know i mean what did daniel ellsberg really succeeded with with the release of the pentagon papers in the early one nine hundred seventy s. you know what did we learn we learned that the u.s. government is extremely militaristic and will fight wars based on lies well you know they still do that in iraq and afghanistan so but that said you know that the battle between good and evil is eternal and he is clearly a hero snowden has done something that more people should do he's spoken out he's revealed programs that the american public didn't even have an opportunity to discuss now we know about them so in a sense what he's done is given the american public the opportunity to engage in a political dialogue that might never have happened if we decide to have to come down on the wrong conclusion as a result of that dialogue then at least he's allowed us to have it for that alone he has to be commended briefly ted when he make it to venezuela bolivia or whatever what what's what's his predicament now do you think just your prediction well i mean you know i think i t

people back in the 1960s said that daniel ellsberg was a traitor. who was daniel ellsberg to decide what is to be leaked to the public. people inside the government with a conscience come forward and they disclose it to the world through journalism. if you're calling that criminal you're calling for the end of investigative journal i am. >> two notes, i used to enjoy seeing him in the new yorker, the pounding of the drum of government. i trust their judgment. really? are you that fat and happy that you're sitting here trusting the government on everything and their adjustment? and number two, bradley manning tried to reach "the new york times." he did reach out not first to wikileaks but to the n times. they did not get back to him. >> he went through the normal chain of command that something was wrong. you feel like he had nowhere else to go. you know there are going to be consequences. now he's at the phase where he's looking at 130 years, but now the judge can have a certain level of leniency, and get a normal conviction without being this marty

tonight on the big picture and as a whistleblower edward snowden has drawn a lot of comparisons to daniel ellsberg but their experiences defer in one very important way more on that in just a moment also in recent years the democratic party has had success in national elections by rallying younger voters to candidates with progressive stances on social issues such as the focus on social justice distract from the fight for economic justice and if you want to know why congress so ineffective take a trip back in time to january twentieth two thousand and nine.

the latest on the snowden saga and a debate about whether his actions were justified between daniel ellsberg, who leaked the "pentagon papers," and former attorney general michael mukasey. >> brown: then, we examine some good news about dementia, as two studies in europe show plummeting rates of disease, and sharper minds among the elderly. >> ifill: judy woodruff looks at the bitter standoff between walmart and washington, d.c.'s city council, part of a widening fight over paying workers a living wage. >> brown: from the asian nation

east bay resident daniel ellsberg located the pentagon papers decades ago showing how the u.s. government lied about the vietnam war. >> the free press and democracy dodged a bullet today when aiding the enemy charge was drop but they are still under attack. >> former c.i.a. director says manning hurt national security. a few dozen people rallied in support of manning in san francisco yesterday. they say he is a whistleblower not a criminal. >> a former special education teacher in antioch has been charged with physically abusing young autistic students. there was a warrant issued for her arrest after accusing six boys and girls between the ages of five and seven. in april three families filed a complaint against her and the school district. the "contra costa times" reports the prosecutor says school workers say they all her knee a child in the chest, pin others to the ground and pinch a child and is scheduled to enter a plea august 12. >> police believe that social media played a role in the capture of a suspected thief. our media partner, the san jose mercury news reporting a

the latest on the snowden saga and a debate about whether his actions were justified between daniel ellsbergo leaked the "pentagon papers," and former attorney general michael mukasey. >> brown: then, we examine some good news about dementia, as two studies in europe show plummeting rates of disease,

stand trial well in some ways if he could get a fair trial if he could be out on bail the way say daniel ellsberg was thirty years ago when he took the pentagon papers if he could be out on bail snowden while he's preparing his trial and he could tell a story and he could build a legal team and he could have an open court case with all the rights the defendants have that means that he could subpoena all sorts of officials of the united states government involved with this surveillance right up to the vice president in the present the united states i cannot imagine that the obama administration or any u.s. administration would permit that therefore i doubt very seriously that obama is sincere when he says obama snowden should come home and stand trial but i would guess that of snowden were given those guarantees of being out of prison on bail and free to have an open trial he might come home but he's not. to get those guarantees i would guess because we live in a different era here in america to you know i want to talk a little bit more about how that has changed the whole n.s.a. leaks have change

well in some ways if he could get a fair trial if he could be out on bail the way say daniel ellsberg was thirty years ago when he took the pentagon papers if he could be out on bail snowden preparing his trial and he could tell his story and he could build a legal team and he could have an open court case with all the rights the defendants have that means that he could subpoena all sorts of officials of the united states government involved with this surveillance right up to the vice president in the present the united states i cannot imagine that the obama administration or in the u.s. administration would permit that therefore i doubt very seriously that obama is sincere when he says obama snowden should come home and stand trial but i would guess that of snowden were given those guarantees of being out of prison on bail and free to have an open trial he might come home but he's not going to get those guarantees i would guess because we live in a different era here in america to you know i want to talk a little bit more about how that has changed the whole n.s.a. leaks have changed

on the big picture and as ace whistleblower edward snowden has drawn a lot of comparisons to daniel ellsberg but their experiences defer in one very important way more on that in just a moment also in recent years the democratic party has had success in national elections by rallying younger voters to candidates with progressive stances on social issues such as the focus on social justice distract from the fight for economic justice and if you want to know why congress so in effect you take a trip back in time to january twentieth two thousand and nine tell you why.

seeing now the espionage act now eight people charged in the espionage act the group was a war daniel ellsberg so that's no tinsley was the most important one in american history do you agree with. me that there's a lot more that we're not being well edward snowden is a to appears to be a tipping point and i consider that to be very valuable a lot of what it was snowden has revealed is already known to those of us inside the intelligence community but it's not known by the wider public and he has forced this issue into the public domain where ordinary americans are now confronting the extreme surveillance that's going on but i can tell you that for several years. within a ten mile radius of every home in the united states in the most isolated rural areas there is someone listening to your phone calls and reading your e-mails and we've known this for a long time and to wrap it up we're about thirty seconds left but given the enormous punishment that we are seeing on whistleblowers why are you not treated the same as kerry aku mannings do you mean how were you able to hear him dr i i was held in

has gone a long way from the days of daniel ellsberg and his pentagon papers but it's interesting how the public opinion in the u.s. just said going to actually evolved just in the last three years through three years ago twenty five twenty five percent i'm not sure if you can still hear me bill can you still hear me going to your screen i'm sorry. yes we can thank you thank you well three years ago twenty five percent of the public said the government's anti-terrorism policies have gone too far in restricting the average person civil liberties now it's forty five percent so it went from twenty five percent three years ago to forty five percent that's a significant shift in public opinion and one can argue that people would not oppose something they heard nothing about so with knowledge comes opposition perhaps not surprisingly the u.s. government is going to great lengths so that probably knows as little as possible about these programs going to thanks very much indeed for that that's how it is going to come live in washington well i'll be back with more news of a short break includi