"Ellsberg said the leak, discovered by authorities earlier this month, in some ways mirrors the secrets he revealed five decades ago, per The Post. American officials at the time believed the US was struggling in the Vietnam War but publicly claimed they were close to victory. In comparison, the new leak shows that Washington knows the war in Ukraine has slowed to a stalemate, though neither the US nor Russia will admit it, Ellsberg told The Post.
Top secret information is 'like toilet paper' at the Pentagon, says the Vietnam War whistleblower
- There's no reason to think the Discord leak has damaged US national security, Daniel Ellsberg said.
- "Top secret is like toilet paper" at the Pentagon, said Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers.
- Ellsberg told The Washington Post that the US government tends to keep a "mystique of secrecy."
"Daniel Ellsberg, the man who in 1971 exposed Vietnam War intelligence that stunned the country, doubts the leak of Pentagon documents last year on Discord poses any severe threats to US national security.
Ellsberg, who is 92 and battling pancreatic cancer, commented on the Pentagon's handling of classified information in a Tuesday interview with The Washington Post's Devlin Barrett.
"There is no reason to believe that it harmed American national security in any measurable way," he told The Post.
Public fears about the leak's consequences have been blown out of proportion because the US government tends to keep a "mystique of secrecy," he said, per The Post.
"At the Pentagon, top secret is like toilet paper, it's nothing," the former military analyst told the outlet. . .
Ellsberg has won several awards for exposing the Pentagon Papers. He's since spent years in political activism, protesting US military actions overseas, including the war in Iraq and the supplying of weapons to Ukraine."
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