Tag: Daniel Ellsberg

The paper caper, footnote

This is written just to complete the circle from a prior post on the fake whistle blower, Daniel Ellsberg.

Follow this link to Wikipedia, and then down to the section titled “Repeal.” Wiki is heavily censored but often has information hidden in broad daylight. This is such an entry. It is about the Gulf of Tonkin affair, and the resolution that was the legal justification for the Vietnam War.

Maybe you did, but I did not know until recently that Congress repealed that resolution in January of 1971. It was perhaps the last gasp of breath by Congress before the institution was taken down by CIA. Congress these days is a fake lawmaking body, rubber stamping laws written by corporate and other power centers, and quivering in its boots before the executive. It is of no use or purpose.

Note then that Daniel Ellsberg appeared on the scene with the Pentagon Papers in February of 1971. It was a distraction. The paper caper would dominate the news for months to come, only to be supplanted by Watergate. News that Tonkin was repealed, that the Vietnam War was illegal from 1971 forward, would be buried in the clutter.

That explains the paper caper, and at least in part Watergate.

Two things to note: One, if we have an event that dominates the news, like OJ or Monica or the Michael Jackson trial or Donald Trump, it is a cue to be alert for what else is going on. These events serve to cloud the landscape and distract us. Just as we do not have a real Congress, we do not have real news. It manipulates us, but does not inform.

And two, the purposes of reading are many – to enlighten, entertain, inspire, relax and to keep our minds sharp as we age. If, from reading, we are able to connect dots and gain some understanding of this crazy world, then it is worth doing for that reason alone. It is not done so that we can make lists of books we have read or have impressive book shelves.

The paper caper

EllsbergTo have been young, in my twenties, during the time of Watergate, was fortunate. Of course I did not understand it – very few did then, and possibly fewer now. The obvious object was removal of a president, replacement by a cardboard cutout. But the psychological aspects are far more intriguing than the outcome. For a period of two years we were hit with a barrage of false news, false hearings, liars telling liars about other liars, and the news media positioning itself as an investigative body.

It takes years to understand such mechanizations, and of course it is ever ongoing. That is why I say I was fortunate to be young.

Prior to  that time we had a distraction within a distraction, the strange episode called the “Pentagon Papers.” Has anyone read them? Of course not. Did anyone read them then? Of course not. And to do so then or now would be a waste of time. Their content was not the issue. They were lies meant to cover even bigger lies. Their existence was the issue, however. It was a wild game played by a few low-level operatives designed to distract us** from some of the more seedy goings on in Vietnam, but also to enhance the notion that we have a news media that seeks truth.

There are indeed secrets, but those secrets are kept. They are never released, even by accident. But some broomstick cowboys got to play spies. Some newspapers got to play pretend journalism. The most important man, appointed for the role, was Daniel Ellsberg. He’s a fake, top to bottom, beginning to end. He was hired as an actor to pay the part he played, and does so to this day. (His support of Edward Snowden is, in poker terms, a “tell,” alerting us that Snowden too is fake.)

How do I know this? Again, he enjoys prominence, and has paid no price for his “crime,”

Daniel_Ellsberg_psychiatrist_filing_cabinetObserve the scene, August, 1971, when five CIA operatives broke in to the office of Lewis Fielding, Ellsberg’s psychiatrist. Set aside for the moment the strange notion of a man of such high intellect and position needing a shrink. That was probably an invention. The important thing was the break-in. It was sloppy, meant to be discovered, and its discovery got Ellsberg off the hook. As was intended from the beginning. Like a TV sitcom, it was the last-minute wrap-up that resolved all the problems.*

Of course, one question leads to another, one spook to another, and from here we discover that other men were playing the spy game at the same time, running around to motels, using primitive photocopy technology of the day, trying against time to get these very important papers released. Did Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn believe in their cause? Were they duped? Were they, like Ellsberg, low-level operatives?

Good question.

Daniel Ellsberg, false leader.
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*For those unfamiliar with the history of that era, Ellsberg was on trial and facing life imprisonment for his “crime,” and the break-in resulted in his case being tossed out of court and his being set free.

**In January of 1971, Congress repealed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, removing the legal underpinnings for the Vietnam War. From that day forward, Nixon would claim the war was being fought by legitimate presidential authority alone, negating any balance of power. Since so few people know about the repeal, it might be a safe bet to suggest that the purpose of the paper caper, which commenced in February of 1971,  was to distract from the illegality of the war, which would go in for four more years.