Traverse City Record-Eagle

2010 Traverse City Film Festival

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  • Daniel Ellsberg speaks via Skype at Lars Hockstad Auditorium on Saturday. "The Most Dangerous Man in America" was screened with filmmakers Judith Ehrlich, left, and Rick Goldman, center. Festival founder Michael Moore, right, moderates the discussion. Jodee Taylor/Record-Eagle

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August 1, 2010

Daniel Ellsberg speaks via Skype

Analyst leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1970

BY JODEE TAYLOR jtaylor@record-eagle.com

TRAVERSE CITY — When Michael Moore said he's having a hard time supporting the troops, Daniel Ellsberg talked him down.

Ellsberg spoke via Skype at Lars Hockstad Auditorium Saturday, following the screening of "The Most Dangerous Man in America" at the Traverse City Film Festival.

Ellsberg was working as a military analyst when he leaked the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times in 1970. The documents showed former President Lyndon B. Johnson and other presidents lied about the Vietnam War.

During the Q&A following the movie, Moore and Ellsberg talked about Bradley Manning, a U.S. Army private suspected of leaking information to Wikileaks.

"I haven't seen anything like it in 40 years," Ellsberg said. "If I were to put out the Pentagon Papers today, I would have to assume (President Barack) Obama would do his very best to put me in prison."

Moore, festival founder, said, "As a Christian, as a human being, I won't support troops who do what I saw in the Bradley Manning video.

"I don't support anyone in a volunteer army who signs up for a war that is immoral," Moore said.

Ellsberg said he understood the sentiment and agreed that Moore may be chastised for his remarks, but said, "I would phrase that as, 'I do not support what the troops are doing, why they're over there and what their orders are,'" he said.

"Those soldiers were doing what they were told to do," Ellsberg said. "Their sworn oath is to defend and support the Constitution. Bradley Manning has been defending and supporting his Constitution."

Ellsberg has continued to be a peace activist in the years following the Pentagon Papers release and the ensuing espionage charges. The trial was declared a mistrial because the government had exceeded its boundaries in trying to discredit Ellsberg.

Records showed wiretaps and a break-in at Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office, among other things. The planners of the doctor's office break-in were all later convicted in the Watergate scandal, as well.

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