Daniel Ellsberg on Richard Clarke

[molly]

I subscribe to Daniel Ellsberg's email list. I received a very lengthy email - some excerpts....

"When famous whistle-blower Daniel Ellsberg boarded a plane to Cincinnati earlier this week, he took along a little light reading: a stack of articles about former counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke, who has stirred controversy with allegations in his book and testimony before a special panel that the Bush White House was somewhat indifferent to al Qaeda before Sept. 11 and obsessed with Iraq afterward.

Ellsberg, who in 1971 leaked the Pentagon Papers documenting government misrepresentations about the Vietnam War, sees Clarke as part of a trend: well-placed individuals in the government who have gone public with books or interviews outlining their concerns and criticisms about their country's government--while that government is still in power."

snip...(we all remember Bush's obsession with loyalty - here's why)

"To Ellsberg, the fact that a number of Bush's own people have been willing to break that presumption of loyalty is a strong condemnation of the president and his neo-conservative allies, something Clarke himself has hinted at in public statements."

Asked on "60 Minutes" whether he owed loyalty to the president, Clarke responded, "Up to a point. When the president starts doing things that risk American lives, then loyalty to him has to be put aside."

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[indepat]

1. That one must be loyal to his/her country is a given and those elected

to national office take a sworn oath to protect, preserve, and defend the Constitution of the United States, that's protect, preserve, and defend the Constitution. Loyalty by those serving the officeholder is also a given, but where does loyalty lie when the Constitution is not being protected, preserved and defended, to the officeholder or the Constitution, the officeholder or the country?

[mandyky]

2. Ellsberg was here in Richmond KY last Thursday

and my hubby went to hear him speak. He spoke quite extensively about Clarke and also about Katharine Gun (UK whistleblower). He got a good write up in our local paper.