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WikiLeaks Documents Are Not the Pentagon Papers

War logs don't match revelations of Vietnam skullduggery

By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff

Posted Jul 26, 2010 4:52 PM CDT

(Newser) – The release of 92,000 classified documents related to the Afghanistan war has prompted many comparisons to the Pentagon Papers. But that's a bit superficial, writes Richard Tofel for ProPublica. "In terms of important disclosures, it's not even close." The biggest WikiLeaks revelations involve Taliban fighters' use of heat-seeking missiles and the Pakistani intelligence service's complicated relationship with Taliban leadership—neither of which were actually secret.

There's really no comparison to the Pentagon Papers bombshell, which exposed decades of lies and dissembling on Vietnam by presidents from Harry Truman to Lyndon Johnson. Hopefully, the presidential reaction to the leak will constitute another difference, Tofel writes. The Nixon administration responded by waging an unsuccessful legal battle against free speech and then "set off down the road that led to Watergate ." Click here for a run-down of the WikiLeaks secrets.

This screen grab from  Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2009 shows the Wikileaks.org home page. An activist group called Wikileaks has begun posting 573,000 pager messages purportedly sent on Sept. 11, 2001.
This screen grab from Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2009 shows the Wikileaks.org home page. An activist group called Wikileaks has begun posting 573,000 pager messages purportedly sent on Sept. 11, 2001.   (AP Photo/Wikileaks.com)
US soldiers Ssg. George Robertson stands guard during apatrol near COP Nolen, in the volatile Arghandab Valley, Kandahar, Afghanistan, Monday, July 26, 2010.
US soldiers Ssg. George Robertson stands guard during apatrol near COP Nolen, in the volatile Arghandab Valley, Kandahar, Afghanistan, Monday, July 26, 2010.   (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 11 comments
brawne
Jul 26, 2010 8:28 PM CDT
OMG--feels like old home week. The Pentagon Papers are in original paperback on my coffee table next to Thomas Paine's Rights of Man. Nice to see that the article related them to Watergate. Daniel Ellesberg was a collegae of Kissenger's at Harvard and why Kissenger said--he's nuts and goes to a shrink, let's steal his file and Nixon said--OK. And Nixon called in Gordon Liddy who said--I got just the guys to do that and Nixon laughed and said good, cause we got some leaks and Liddy said fine, cause I got some plumbers. If you can read the Pentagon Papers and remain a conservative--you are brainwashed and plumb ridiculous. We fucking killed the elected leader of South Vietnam for God's sake. Or Kennedy did. He should have learned to skip CIA after the Bay of Pigs. And Liddy should have used different guys for Watergate and not the same plumbers who screwed up the Ellesberg shrink thing. Nixon was actually a pretty good president except for the fact that he was paranoid. He opened up China and made every law to protect our air and water--Cheney got rid of those in the first month that he was vice-president. That's why he had no time to read the CIA briefs about bin Laden--he was in closed door sessions giving every dirty energy company a break on the air and water. February of 2001--remember it like it was yesterday. Enron was huge and Lay was gonna be in the cabinet--until, like Obama and Pritzker, he discovered that a criminal won't get passed the hearings. Congress can know one when they see one. That's the problem with reflections and why Jefferson said any man who even lusted for office would become corrupt. Wait, let's not forget Bachman who proves that a stupid, greedy vagina is equal to any stupid greedy penis, any day.
Emmanuel_Goldstein
Jul 26, 2010 8:07 PM CDT
Truth (and justice) died a very long time ago, This is just publicity and celebrity.
JonmarkP
Jul 26, 2010 6:39 PM CDT
Well then, I guess there's no point to anyone actually reading them, is there? Newser/Drudge has spoken!
 

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