Daniel Ellsberg on Chelsea Manning: She Should Be Released Immediately

Daniel Ellsberg and Chelsea Manning at the 2018 EFF Pioneer Awards, in San Francisco, in September 2018. (Chelsea was one of the recipients of the 2017 EFF Pioneer Awards.) Photo credit: Lisa Rein
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This is a partial transcription from this Democracy Now broadcast:

Quotes from Daniel Ellsberg:

This is a continuation of seven-and-a-half years of torture of Chelsea Manning…

Although Donald Trump has made it very plain he would love to prosecute and convict The New York Times, he doesn’t have the guts to do that, to do what he wants, fortunately, because it would be so obviously unconstitutional, that although his base would be happy with it and he would be happy with it, he would get into too much trouble constitutionally…

They’re resorting again to torture, which does work at getting false confessions. That’s what it’s for. That’s what it mainly does…

She behaved in relation to WikiLeaks exactly as she would have to The New York Times or The Washington Post, to whom she went first, before going to WikiLeaks. And they didn’t pick up on what she was offering, so she went to WikiLeaks. But she took sole responsibility, not to spare them, but because that was the truth. And she tells the truth…

I admired her then. I admire her now. And right now she’s refusing to take part in basically a conspiracy against press freedom in this country, led by the president of the United States and the Secretary of State.

Daniel Ellsberg also published this Statement of Support on the Freedom of the Press Foundation website:

“Chelsea Manning is again acting heroically in the name of press freedom, and it’s a travesty that she has been sent back to jail for refusing to testify to a grand jury.

An investigation into WikiLeaks for publishing is a grave threat to all journalists’ rights, and Chelsea is doing us all a service for fighting it. She has already been tortured, spent years in jail, and has suffered more than enough. She should be released immediately.”