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Pentagon Papers whistle-blower Daniel Ellsberg has advised BBC Information he was the key “back-up” for the Wikileaks paperwork leak, in case one thing occurred to Julian Assange.
That is the primary time Mr Ellsberg, who uncovered the extent of US involvement within the Vietnam Conflict, has revealed this info.
“I had possession of all of the Chelsea Manning info earlier than it got here out within the press,” Mr Ellsberg advised BBC Hardtalk’s Stephen Sackur.
Mr Assange’s Wikileaks organisation revealed greater than 700,000 confidential paperwork, movies and diplomatic cables, offered by the US Military intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, in 2010.
Mr Ellsberg mentioned Mr Assange “may depend on me to search out some option to get it [the information] out”.
The previous US army analyst’s 1971 Pentagon Papers leak led to him being dubbed “essentially the most harmful man in America” by then-US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
Mr Ellsberg‘s leak to the New York Occasions led to a Supreme Courtroom case, because the Richard Nixon administration tried to dam the publication.
The federal government misplaced that case and the publication of the paperwork by the New York Occasions and different information organisations resumed.
Watch the total interview on Monday 5 December on BBC World Information and the BBC Information Channel.
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