Dan Elsberg News Today

Some suspicion that dr. elsberg had access to the more recent war plans that had been developed by the nixon administration and would be able to release those documents. i came from that meeting feeling very strongly that i was dealing with a national security crisis and i was to take any means necessary to respond to it. >> the difficulty is that all the good lawyers always say well, we got to win the court case. screw the court case. but get the son of a bitch in the press. thats how its done....

Mind was ghandis victim. you should not cooperate with evil. the pentagon papers drama changed abruptly into the pentagon papers media freak out and farce as the documents arrived at the senate. >> i think dan was disappointed in that he may have expected too much from the publication of the papers. he may have expected the publication of the papers would create a greater sensation than it did. of course, it created a sensation. >> where is mr. elsberg? >> i hope hes in jail.

Elsberg was walled off by newsmen and supporters as he admitted he was the man who brought the pentagon papers to the press and congressional leaders. >> i did this clearly at my own jeopardy and i am prepared to answer to all the consequences of these decisions. >> have you thought about the possibility of going to prison for this? >> wouldnt you go to prison to help end this war? >> in one of the most important judicial decision in the history of the country, the supreme court today ruled that...

Proposal was made by e. howard hunt to get information that could be used to discredit elsberg. a covert operation had to be undertaken to examine all the files held by his psychiatrist, john fielding. this went to john. he wrote his large e after approve and then put in under your assurance, it is not traceable. >> the fbi came one day and said im afraid we have a subpoena for you to testify today at the grand jury. my father was very upset. he somehow thought that there was something more my m...

Probably some good justification for the strong feelings nixon had. he would make a decision in the national security council and the next day read it on the front page of the "new york times" or some other newspaper. this makes it virtually impossible to govern. >> just because some guy is going to be a mart er, we didnt in a position of allowing the fellow to get away with it. we have to keep our eye on the main ball, the main ball is elsberg. ♪

Professor elsberg or his family at their home in cambridge, massachusetts. >> were looking on the television, the morning news, and we notice that the fbi is at our little apartment in cambridge. and we say, we cant go back. we go to ammo tell for a couple nights under false names. we dont have any clothes, a toothbrush, anything. >> he knew theyd be looking for him, looking to arrest him. and he wanted to have an opportunity to give the papers to more newspapers. >> i came out of a 3:00 meeting...

D di diso bead yens, to block streets and do everything possibly to disrupt life in washington to demonstrate the anger against the war. so a number of us gathered in my apartment, and we went to washington and we formed ourselves, as an affinity group, and dan elsberg was, you might say, our squad leader. he was telling us when to get down, when to sit down, when to move, where to move, he was very decisive, and we followed his orders. not exactly a democratic situation. >> wed sit down in the ...

Existed raises serious concerns. still the white house is challenging snowdens credibility. >> he was not trained as a spy? we have no idea where that assertion comes from. >> reporter: john kerrys comments to chuck to do this week. >> go back to the pentagon papers and dan elsberg and others who stood and went to the court system of america and made their case. edward snowden is a coward. he is a traitor. and he has betrayed his country. >> reporter: daniel elsberg the whistle-blower leaped to ...

With the situation and that involves diplomacy as well as law enforcement. but again, i think to your question about the u.s. handle of it, i think i addressed the issue of the passport, again without having -- without being able to be specific about an individuals passport because of the privacy being a, i was able to say what i aid about the fact that hong kong authorities were advised of the status of mr. snowdens travel documents in plenty of time to have prohibited his travel, as appropriat...

Officials say the fire has burned 76 acres, which is smaller than originally believed and is 80% contained. we want to focus our coverage on our number one story, edward snowden. the nsa leaker is reportedly over russian air space right now and traveling with legal advisers from wikileaks. dan lothian is following this story from washington. good morning, dan. how was he allowed to leave hong kong in the first place? >> well, he simply left, because according to hong kong officials, they did n...