Photo:Bettmann Archive/Getty
Bettmann Archive/Getty
Daniel Ellsberg, a former military analyst who leaked thePentagon Papersin 1971, has died at the age of 92, his family announced on Friday. Ellsberg was diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer in February,Reutersreports.
He would later copy pages of the documents on a Xerox machine, eventually sharing them with reporters at theNew York Timesmore than a year after he first read them.
In June 1971, theTimesran its first installment of the Pentagon Papers, which detailed how U.S. officials weren’t confident that the war could be won and had downplayed casualty figures.
Eventually, Ellsberg leaked the papers to various other outlets includingThe Washington Post, and the Richard Nixon administration was granted an order halting the publication of further documents. Media outlets appealed the decision, with the Supreme Court agreeing to hear the case within days, and ultimately allowing the publication of the papers to move forward.
Once Ellsberg came forward as the leaker of the documents, Nixon himself sought to humiliate him, ordering some of his top aides to break in to Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office in an attempt to discredit him.
That break-in — and another, of the Democratic National Committee’s office, located in the Watergate complex — would go on to be Nixon’s undoing.
Ellsberg, meanwhile, was charged with espionage, theft and conspiracy, though a 1973 trial would end in a dismissal due to the government misconduct tied to the break-in.
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In a 2011 story penned forThe Guardian, Ellsberg wrote of his deep regret at having not leaked the Pentagon papers earlier – and urged others, with similar access to incriminating information, to release it as soon as they could.
He continued: “The personal risks are great. But a war’s worth of lives might be saved.”
source: people.com
