in 171, he leaked the so-called pentagon papers, a secret study of u.s. decision making about vietnam to the media. he's the focus of the 2009 documentary "the most dangerous man in america." jamie rubens was chief spokesperson for the state department during the clinton administration. he's not adjunct professor at columbia school of international public affairs. and finally, michael hastings, contributing editor of "rolling stone." his article, "runaway general" led to the ousting of general stanley mcchrystal. and he's the author of "i lost my love in baghdad -- a modern war story." okay, daniel, what do you make of all of this. should this have been published? things being said in the diplomatic arena from one official to another. is that our right to know? >> well, nothing in those documents, embarrassing as they are to some people and their kind of snarky comments, nothing remotely compared to what michael hastings published, what he overheard in general mcchrystal's headquarters, and i thought properly published. i think president obama made the ri

that. >> we're not going to argue. >> reporter: daniel elsberg, the contractor who leaked the pentagon papers, says the government's alarm this time is overblown. >> what they're worried about is not the lives of soldiers but the reputations of politicians who have lied, embarrassed themselves, who have soiled their linen, let's say. of course that's embarrassing. >> reporter: the government has filed charges against an army private, bradley manning. now in military custody accused of giving classified material to wikileaks. he is suspected of downloading documents while working as an intelligence analyst in baghdad, but experts on espionage law say prosecuting the website won't be easy. >> the issue is the first amendment, and how the court is going to look at prosecuting a publisher if it's not going to allow prosecuting "the new york times," then it's probably not going to want to allow prosecuting wikileaks. >> reporter: some officials say it's possible to view wikileaks less as a publisher and more as a middleman that helped the leaker disclose classified materials, and under that legal

so it wasn't a case like the pentagon papers or a case where the actual publication was either going to happen or not going to happen the "new york times." so i don't have any problem with what david did in his job or scotttor editor of the "new york times." i'm simply saying that this organization, wikileaks, began as an opponent, perhaps, of the iraq war, or the afghanistan war and thened to encourage the united states public to stop supporting the war or the world's public. fine, that happened. but it's transformed itself because of the documents they've received to essentially broadly criticize attack, undermine every policy of the united states because in every state in the world there is a diplomatic exchange in which america's diplomats have tried to win the trust of a foreign leader. this release-- broadly speaking-- has weakened that trust. and ironically the state department are the people who are trying to do the job that the wikileaks founder says he's trying to do, which is world peace. it's not going to happen if the state department can't make secret agreements sometim

be bet off trying to ignore this as much as possible and point out that dissimilarity from the pentagon papersthey came out during pentagon that was public for the first time. not the case with this. >>reporter: of course there is one exception. >> the only real bad stuff here is the names of the individual individuals. that is very worrisome. don't want to see people taken out and shot on the streets of kabul or baghdad because they have work with the u.s. s. >>reporter: one reason many news organization use it will be blacking out the names. federal officials call the document dump outrageous but admit they don't know what the impact will be. they still don't know what is in it. this is nbc news washington. >> 3 teenager boy whose spent 50 days adrift in a tiny boat in the south pacific walked to shore on shakey legs today. the teenagers age 14 and 15 say they survived on rain what the, handful of coconut, raw fish and sea gull that landed on their 12 foot aluminum boat. the boys setoff october 5th from their home island heading to one near by. it is believed the outboard motor broke down. f

the pentagon filed papers to ask the supreme court not to reverse a lower-court decision keeping that ban in place. the white house wants the ban lifted by congress. >>> signs that the obama administration may be willing to compromise on extending the bush tax cuts. white house adviser david axelrod says the white house will support temporarily extending tax cuts to all americans greeted president wanted to only extend the cuts for families making $250,000 or less. >>> dramatic proposal to fight the deficit is a growing controversy. this plan calls for cuts in medicare and defense spending and a rise in the social security retirement age. >> with his debt commission recommendation drawing fire from republicans and democrats, a reminder from president obama that week -- reducing the $14 trillion debt will be painful. >> we will have to make some tough choices. the only way to make those tough choices historically has been hit both parties are willing to move forward together. >> speaking in south korea, the president did not comment on this of recommendations but he did suggest some of

trying to ignore this as much as possible, and point out thet the dissim plate from the pentagon parents. -- papers. when they came out, the information they contained was becoming public for the first time. the only real bad stuff here is the names of the individual. that is worrisome, we don't want to see people taken out and shot on the streets of baghdad because they worked with the united states. >> reporter: one reason many news organizations will be blacking out the names. federal officials call the document dump outrageous. >> alan: country singer willie nelson is back on the road again after a brush with the u.s. border patrol. nelson was arrested for marijuana possession at a checkpoint in west texas yesterday. a border patrol officer smelled marijuana on nelson's tour abuse 80 miles east of el paso. the search turned up six ounces of pot. he was released after post 25g hundred bond. other. >>> who tested against heighten airport security measures fizzled this weekend. one bay area native stood out. she we're simple black bikini after she traveled back to sonoma county for thanksgiving. a

because it is news and people want to see it and what is e the nature of the work, it is note pentagon papersall sliver -- >> wait, waite, wait, wait. she is going to make millions of dollars on this. >> harper collins wouldn't have given permission to do this in the first place. >> how do you know that. >> book has not come out yet. >> how do you know. >> i'm sure. >> the book has not come out yet. maybe, maybe if the book were out and they published -- had it out on the marketplace, yes. maybe. but, this is coming out before t the book is out. >> i knew you guys were coming and i read up on fair use. i knew it wouldn't be easy. what it says in the doctrine is that be a sent the freedom, copyright owners can stifle comment and if you couldn't take the information and put it out there, you could never write a bad review, but you say the book isn't even out yet and they didn't write a review, they printed the pages, i would say, would argue and maybe i'm wrong, to get a little bit of what they are getting, right now. >> harris, you are wrong? come on! listen! the fact is, there is no damages h

and the pentagon papers case, i am not sure that having a better whistleblower system solves the problem of the public becoming involved in the debate over the basic public policy question. but the real question is, we're looking at a group of people in a rather pristine situation. national security reporters and news organizations that regularly deal with national security and the government. but they are not the only people that get classified information, that it leaks. -- that get leaks. when a reporter from the paper that the cia does not know calls up with information, do they get the same treatment that the post does? >> that does not happen all that often. it sometimes does. and it would be a case by case decision that is made based on whether we have any hope -- how serious the information is and if we have any hope of persuading him or her not to publish it. >> also, it is a new era for us as well. we're not going to put a story of the publishes the names of the last five cia station chiefs in an islamabad. we know who they are. however, if the blogger knows that information an

whereas in the pentagon papers showed that many in the government were not only lying to the american people, they were lying to themselves. but let me just offer some perspectives of somebody who has been at this a long time. every other government in the world knows the united states government leaks like a sieve. and it has for a long time. and i dragged this out the other day when i was looking at some of these prospective releases. this is a quote from john adams. how can a government go on publishing all their negotiations with foreign nations i know not? to me, it appears as dangerous and pernicious as it is novel. when we went to real congressional oversight of intelligence in the mid '70s, there was a broad view that no other foreign intelligence service would ever share information with us again. if we're going to show -- share it all with congress. it was all unfounded. now i have heard the impact of these releases on our foreign policy described as a meltdown, as a game changer and so one. i think, i think those descriptions are fairly significantly overwrought. the fact i

, and these were not close to the level of the pentagon papers, this was, you know, the raw material, literally the electronic copy of the digital wars fought in this era. it was very on the ground stuff opposed to something that would give us a strategic picture. obviously, an enormous concern to the security issues raised for people on the ground in iraq and afghanistan working with the americans, and this is the classic nonstate actor of our new era. it's true after it blew over the initial release of wikileaks, there was concern of afghanistans, you have a whole -- first of all there was an investigation, and it didn't get as much coverage as the initial round of coverage, but armed services committee did an investigation to find there was not the kind of enormous security breaches and terrible consequences that were perhaps feared or were talked about to people who opposed the initial wikileaks. you know, it's not a federal question; right? you know, we don't have a good answer it it -- for it. >> it's easier as a former government official. i think the government has an enate r

the mysterious paper trail in california likely remember the pictures the pentagon says and airplane not as a launch was the cause. many thought the vapor trail of resemble the cloudy track of the missile in flight but officials say it was likely airplane paper trail distorted by the cameras ankle, winds and other environmental factors. the passengers and crew of the cartel splendor heading into a third night with no lights, no air-conditioning and no hot food. the ship has been without power since a fire broke out in the engine room on monday 125 mi. san diego. the casinos are close to the restaurants are dark. turner rise by helicopter everything from crab to spam and pop charts very over from the aircraft carrier ronald reagan. a passenger from denver said there been to our lines for food >> other people in the dark caverns that have no windows. after procter doors open to kind of seat. >> the 4500 passengers and crew have been addressed since them fire monday morning to tugboats to join the ship to san diego and it could arrive about noon tomorrow. the passengers to get a refund p

the paper says the pentagon surveyed american troops and their families before reaching that conclusion. the newspaper quoted two people familiar with the draft of the study. a survey went to active duty and reserve troops over the summer. more than 70% of the people who responded said the effect of repealing "don't ask, don't tell" would be positive, mixed, or nonexistent. about 40% of the marine corps is concerned about lifting the ban. again according to one of the people familiar with that report. because of those results, the rert's authors concluded that objections to openly gay colleagues would drop once troops were able to live and serve alongside each other. according to "the post," the report also urges an end to the military ban on sodomy between consenting adults, regardless of what congress or the federal courts might do about "don't ask, don't tl." "the post" said defense secretary robert gates got copy of that draft report late last week. joe, back to you. >> aaron, thanks very much. >>> president obama will work with leaders from the top 20 economies. the president also

the pentagon says there have been no discharges under the "don't ask, don't tell" rule since then. >>> take out your pen and papercoming up we are going to highlight some of the best black friday deals around in a live report. ,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,, [trumpet playing "reveille" throughout] let's support the small business owners getting our economy booming with the first ever small business saturday. on november 27th, shop small. it's going to be huge. >>> it's been a busy morning for chp. we have seen several spinouts and one freeway closure heading up to the sierra. we'll have a look at your morning commute, update you on mass transit, all coming up in 6 minutes. >>> thank you. 6:23 now. along with the thanksgiving shopping list, many are getting ready for black friday, as well. >> in fact probably more people getting ready for black friday letting somebody else take care of the grocery shopping. here to help the you find some great deals, consumerwatch reporter julie watts joining us early this morning. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, ladies. thank you for having me. we have a lot of great deals to talk

reporter: the va did direct mailings, and the pentagon advertised it on every website it could, but even without the courage, this veteran is rushing to file his paperon't miss the opportunity. i could have prepared sooner. >> if anyone suspects they are eligible for the payment, we want them to apply. >> chris lawrence joining us now from our washington bureau. chris, if these vets are just hearing about this right now, how are they supposed to scrounge up their paper work in just a matter of weeks to meet that deadline? >> reporter: well, all they have to do is go to defense. gov. there are a ton of folks to work out the kinks from that point on. congress set aside $530 million for these troops. more than half of that is still sitting out there. i asked the pentagon, why are we so wedded to this dwes 3rd. if you still have 50,000, 60,000 people out there who might be eligible, do we pull the money away? this is not a lottery ticket. they earned the money. he says congress is keeping a close eye on the proceedings, how many people are filing and how many are getting paid. so perhaps there is a little bit of wiggle room in the lame duck session if e