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Nat Hentoff on the Government Crackdown on Information From
Whistleblowers to Journalists
FBI Seeks to Seize Control of Files of Deceased Investigative
Journalist Jack Anderson
Pentagon Papers Whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg to Government
Insiders: Risk Prison to Leak Information Exposing Illegal
Government Actions
Chernobyl 20 Years Later: New Report Finds Death Toll From
Nuclear Disaster Close to 100,000
Nat Hentoff on the Government Crackdown on Information
From Whistleblowers to Journalists
Village Voice columnist Nat Hentoff discusses the government's
attempt to clamp down on the ability of the public to transmit
or receive information the government deems secret. Hentoff
says the prosecution of two former officials of the American
Israel Public Affairs Committee is the "first in which
the federal government is charging violations of the Espionage
Act by American citizens who are not government officials
for being involved in ,until now, what have been regarded
as first amendment protected activities." [includes rush
transcript]
Today we look at the U.S government's attempt to clamp down
on the ability of the public to transmit or receive information
that the government deems secret. In recent weeks, various
government agencies have sought to punish people who they
believed leaked classified information. Government agents
have also sought personal files from those who they claimed
possessed classified information and some intelligence agencies
have tried to limit what information the public has access
to.
Last week, the CIA fired analyst Mary McCarthy who the agency
says had undisclosed contacts with journalists, including
Washington Post reporter Dana Priest. Priest won a Pulitzer
Prize earlier this month for a series of articles about how
the CIA is running secret prisons overseas. McCarthy has denied
disclosing this information to Priest or leaking any other
classified information.
Congress is also considering legislation which would potentially
revoke the pensions of intelligence agency employees who make
unauthorized disclosures. The legislation would also greatly
expand intelligence agency powers by permitting security forces
at the National Security Agency and the CIA to make warrantless
arrests outside the grounds of those agencies. And it was
also recently disclosed that the CIA and the National Archives
signed a secret agreement, which would permit the CIA and
other intelligence agencies to withdraw from public access
records it considered improperly declassified.
Also, earlier this month it was revealed that the FBI is
seeking to go through the files of legendary muckracking journalist
Jack Anderson in order to remove anything it regarded as classified
or secret. Anderson died last December and his family is refusing
to allow government agents access to 200 boxes of his documents
which are housed at George Washington University. We will
talk more about this later in the program. But first we turn
to longtime First Amendment advocate and Village Voice columnist
Nat Hentoff. On Tuesday, he spoke at an all-day conference
on Presidential Powers sponsored by NYU's Center on Law and
Security.
- Nat Hentoff, speaking on April 25, 2006.
FBI Seeks to Seize Control of Files of Deceased Investigative
Journalist Jack Anderson
FBI agents last month sought to sift through the files of
the late muckracking journalist Jack Anderson to take back
those it deemed classified over concern they could hurt U.S.
interests. We speak Jack Anderson's son, Kevin, as well as
George Washington University journalism professor, Mark Feldstein.
[includes rush
transcript]
FBI agents last month sought to sift through the files of
the late muckracking journalist Jack Anderson. The agents
approached the Anderson family and Mark Feldstein who is a
former intern of Anderson and is writing a book about the
columnist and his investigations during the Nixon years. The
FBI agents initially told the family and Feldstein that they
were looking for files related to the AIPAC espionage case.
Both Feldstein and the Anderson family have refused to allow
the agents access to Anderson's documents which are housed
at George Washington University. FBI spokesman, William Carter,
said on Monday that the bureau will continue to try to gain
access to Anderson's files before they are made public because
it is concerned about classified documents that could hurt
U.S interests.
For more on the case we are joined by two guests:
- Mark Feldstein, director of the journalism program at
George Washington University's School of Media and Public
Affairs. For almost 20 years, Mark worked as an investigative
correspondent at CNN, ABC News and NBC News. His book "Poisoning
The Press: Richard Nixon, Jack Anderson, and the Rise of
Washington's Scandal Culture" will be published next
year.
- Kevin Anderson, the son of Jack Anderson. He is an attorney
at the law firm, Fabian & Clendenin.
Pentagon Papers Whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg to
Government Insiders: Risk Prison to Leak Information Exposing
Illegal Government Actions
As we focus on the government crackdown against leakers,
we speak with perhaps the most famous government whistleblower
of the twentieth century, Daniel Ellsberg. In 1969 he leaked
the Pentagon Papers, setting in motion actions that would
eventually topple the Nixon presidency and end the Vietnam
War. [includes rush
transcript]
As we continue our look at the crackdown against government
leakers, we speak with perhaps the most famous government
whistleblower of the twentieth century - Daniel Ellsberg.
In October of 1969 he began smuggling out of his office and
xeroxing the 7,000 page top-secret study of U.S. decision
making in Vietnam, known as the Pentagon Papers. He did so
with the intent of revealing these secrets to Congress and
the American public and in so doing, he set in motion actions
that would eventually topple the Nixon presidency and end
the Vietnam war. He was once described by Henry Kissinger
as "the world's most dangerous man."
- Daniel Ellsberg, he joins us in our firehouse studio.
Chernobyl 20 Years Later: New Report Finds Death
Toll From Nuclear Disaster Close to 100,000
Today marks the 20th anniversary of the world's worst nuclear
disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. A new report
by Greenpeace claims the consequences of the disaster could
top one million cancer cases, nearly 100,000 of them fatal,
far higher than previous estimates. [includes rush
transcript]
Today marks the 20th anniversary of the world's worst nuclear
disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. On April 26th,
1986, two explosions ripped through Chernobyl's reactor number
four tearing off the plant's roof and releasing more than
90 times the radioactivity of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
The radioactive cloud drifted across much of then-USSR and
a large swathe of Europe. Its effects were felt from Scandinavia
to Greece. The impact was made worse by the fact that the
Soviet authorities concealed the extent of what had happened
for several days and did not begin to evacuate people from
the area until more than a day and half later.
Somber vigils and protests today marked the 20th anniversary
of the disaster.
Hundreds of survivors gathered at monuments to those who
died cleaning up after the blast, holding flowers and candles
at overnight ceremonies in Ukraine where the plant is located.
Overnight vigils were held in both the capital Kiev and in
Slavutych, the town built to house the Chernobyl plant workers
displaced by the accident. At 1:23am - the precise time the
alarm was set off 20 years ago - the church bells tolled 20
times.
In neighboring Belarus, where a quarter of the land was contaminated
by the released radiation, opposition groups were expected
to hold what has become a traditional protest rally in the
evening against the government's handling of the accident
and its aftermath.
The extent of human suffering linked to the Chernobyl disaster
is almost beyond definition. Estimates of the death toll and
health effects linked to nuclear accident vary widely. The
International Atomic Energy Agency has maintained that radioactive
fallout from Chernobyl caused 4,000 extra cancer deaths. But
a new report released by Greenpeace claims that is a gross
simplification. The report concludes the full consequences
of the disaster could top one million cancer cases, nearly
100,000 of them fatal.
- Ivan Blokov campaign director of Greenpeace Russia. He
has been leading research on Chernobyl for Greenpeace International.
Read
Greenpeace report
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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