[News] 4 Major Leaks of Secret Documents That Shocked the US (and What Happened to Those Who Leaked Them)

[@CharliAviless]

 

 

The latest leak of secret Pentagon documents that include classified intelligence on the war between Ukraine and Russia, as well as on China and US allies such as Israel, South Korea and Canada, is one more in a long line of leaks that have had political and diplomatic repercussions in the world.

Past revelations have cast doubt on US military campaigns, embarrassed several White House occupants, prompted the resignation of a president and created tensions with other countries and leaders.

To this must be added the reaction of the public to see the activities of the government in the exercise of its internal and foreign policy naked.

Experts say Jack Teixeira, the young military cyberspecialist suspected of leaking the latest confidential US documents, could serve a long prison sentence if convicted of participating in what the Pentagon has deemed a national security risk. "very serious".

Teixeira faces charges under the Espionage Act, a federal law enacted in 1917 that formed the basis for previous convictions of spies and those who shared classified information with the press and the public.

However, not in all cases there has been a conviction against those responsible for the leaks. Some have even been classified as "heroes" for having dared and risked exposing the -sometimes questionable- secret activity of the State.

Here we remember four of the great and historic leaks that shook the United States.

Line
The Pentagon Papers
In 1971, a man leaked thousands of pages of secret US government documents to various newspapers, including The New York Times and The Washington Post.

The documents became known as the Pentagon Papers, a study of US military and political involvement in Vietnam, between 1945 and 1967, conducted by the US Department of Defense.

The more than 7,000 pages of the secret study revealed that the government knew, from the beginning, that the war in Vietnam was unlikely to be won and that continuing it would only lead to more casualties.

They also pointed out that the previous administration of Lyndon Johnson had lied to Congress and the American people about the status of their country's involvement in Vietnam.

When The New York Times first reported on the matter, the administration of then-President Richard Nixon sought an injunction to stop any more documents from being released and launched a manhunt for the person responsible for the leak.

But the Supreme Court of Justice ruled that the publication was justified and the reporting resumed. Two days before that ruling, the person responsible for the leak, Daniel Ellsberg, publicly acknowledged his role.

A disenchanted military analyst
Ellsberg was a military analyst who participated in the preparation of the secret study on the Vietnam War, commissioned by the Pentagon to the RAND Corporation, an independent analysis center for which he worked.

Previously, he had been a Pentagon employee since 1964, under Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara (one of then-President John Kennedy's main foreign policy ideologues) and was in Vietnam for two years, representing the State Department.

Upon his return in 1967, he began working again for RAND, with whom he had already been employed in the late 1950s.

Ellsberg became disenchanted with US foreign policy and began attending antiwar rallies. So, in late 1969, he made several photocopies of the classified documents he had access to for distribution to the press.

 

https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-internacional-65276952