Uncle Sam, please arrest Dan Ellsberg for violating 1917 Espionage Act

Danial Ellsberg, 90, is not going quietly into that goodnight. He was prosecuted in 1973 under the Espionage Act for pilfering and disseminating the Pentagon Papers.  Ellsberg only escaped life in prison because Nixon’s ‘dirty tricks’ against him resulted in all charges being dismissed.

That was only right because Ellsberg wasn’t spying, aiding a U.S. enemy or seeking the overthrow of our government. He was simply spilling the beans on our criminal war in Vietnam that killed several million for no valid reason at all. His spillage helped degrade support for the war and arguably hastened its end.

The Espionage Act of 1917 and its evil twin, the Sedition Act a year later, were primarily used to stifle dissent and free speech during WWI. Several dozen newspapers were banned from the mails and several thousand war dissenters were jailed in one of the worst episodes curtailing free speech in U.S. history. Socialist presidential candidate Eugene Debs garnered nearly a million votes for prez in 1920 while incarcerated for verbally opposing U.S. involvement in WWI.  

Ellsberg has spent the last 48 years working to end senseless U.S. wars and promote nuclear disarmament. His latest ploy is releasing classified government documents from 1958 that were purloined along with the Pentagon Papers. They reveal top U.S. military officials were lobbying Ike to nuke China over the Taiwan issue involving disputed islands Quemoy and Matsu.

At 90 Ellsberg isn’t concerned about decades in the clink if indicted and convicted for releasing these still top secret archives. He’s betting on his case going to the Supreme Court which may mercifully put the Espionage Act in the unconstitutional penalty box  after 104 years.

If so, Ellsberg can use his remaining free time in society continuing his valiant struggle to end senseless wars and defuse the race to nuclear Armageddon.