Daniel Ellsberg Talks About the Shadow Government and the Need to Let the Sunshine In

[babylonsister]

Daniel Ellsberg Talks About the Shadow Government and the Need to Let the Sunshine In
Submitted by BuzzFlash on Tue, 12/04/2007 - 6:13am. Interviews

A BUZZFLASH INTERVIEW

I've seen no indication that the Democratic leadership in Congress, or the Republican leaders, or the candidates, envision the Americans being out of those bases any time in their lifetime or our children's lifetime. And that means that Americans will be killing Iraqis and dying, and killing Iraqi civilians -- committing atrocities, among other things -- as long as they're there. And that, as I say, is another half-century or more. -- Daniel Ellsberg, Vietnam Veteran, Pentagon Papers Leaker, Activist, and Author

* * *

It is appropriate the day after a National Intelligence Estimate was released revealing the Bush Administration had been lying to us about Iran, just as it lied to us about Iraq, that BuzzFlash is posting an interview with Daniel Ellsberg.

That's because Ellsberg became a role model for revealing the dark secrets of a shadow government when he courageously leaked the "Pentagon Papers," which revealed that we had been knowingly and systematically deceived into the Vietnam War.

Ellsberg went through a personal evolution that led to his whistleblowing action. He came to believe that democracy is best served when the public is fully informed of its government's actions and provided with accurate information.

That's just the opposite of what the Bush Administration, in its paternalistic attitude toward the "rabble," believes. They think they know what is best for us, and that the citizens of America cannot be trusted with the fate of the nation.

Ellsberg proved them wrong in another era.

We can learn much from him.

* * *

BuzzFlash: When we interviewed you in 2003, you had just published your book, Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers. At that point, one of the things you were urging was for people to become whistleblowers, to out information that the government was keeping from the American public that would reveal the truth about the war with Iraq. Here we are, and the war with Iraq is still going on. Bush seems likely to bomb Iran. What happened? When we last talked, there was hope for the end Iraq war movement. Now it seems to have been pretty much abandoned, at least by the Democrats in Congress.

Daniel Ellsberg: That's true. The Congress has signed on essentially to a new war. And I'm talking now not of people like Dennis Kucinich or any members of the Out of Iraq Caucus. But the majority of Democrats, and particularly the Democratic leadership, I believe, have accepted privately at least the secret goal of many people in the administration. And that is an indefinite occupation of Iraq, preferably of reduced scale in forces. A more politically sustainable and less costly environment, with hopefully fewer U.S. casualties.

But the maintenance of U.S. bases in the middle of the oil-rich sphere of the Middle East, and specifically in Iraq -- indefinitely. I don't mean the ten-year war that Nancy Pelosi has accused the President of having in mind, and which General Petraeus talks about. I'm talking fifty years, the way the President talks, when he mentions Korea or other places. We've been in Korea, of course, over fifty years. I think that not only President Bush and Cheney foresee a stay that long, and indeed much longer -- basically until the oil is gone in the Middle East. But I think that the Democratic leadership and the major Democratic candidates have essentially accepted that idea and that project. Hillary Clinton revealed as early as March 13 in The New York Times that if she were president, she would not remove all troops from Iraq. She wasn't specific as to just how many she would reduce, but the same article gave estimates of cutting the troops in half, taking out most of the so-called combat troops, which is a rather elastic definition actually, and getting down to between 50,000 and 100,000 troops to remain indefinitely. She mentioned a number of goals which could actually easily justify leaving a much larger force there indefinitely.

more...

http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/interviews/086

[bemildred]

1. Congress is afraid of the shadow government, and won't do a thing about it.

Except under extreme pressure. Maybe not even then.

[babylonsister]

2. I wonder when enough will be enough for Congress, if ever. I know I've

had way more than enough.

[bemildred]

3. The history of other empires is not encouraging.

However "we the people" still have some leverage, and the federal government is in a much weaker position than it was in the VietNam days, even if the political system is more overtly corrupted.