Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

From the Quotation of the day mailing list, 2014-06-08:

"I had looked forward to offering a fuller account in my trial than I had given previously to any journalist - any Glenn Greenwald or Brian Williams of my time - as to the considerations that led me to copy and distribute thousands of pages of top-secret documents. I had saved many details until I could present them on the stand, under oath, just as a young John Kerry had delivered his strongest lines in sworn testimony.

"But when I finally heard my lawyer ask the prearranged question in direct examination - Why did you copy the Pentagon Papers? - I was silenced before I could begin to answer. The government prosecutor objected - irrelevant - and the judge sustained. My lawyer, exasperated, said he "had never heard of a case where a defendant was not permitted to tell the jury why he did what he did." The judge responded: well, you're hearing one now.

"And so it has been with every subsequent whistleblower under indictment, and so it would be if Edward Snowden was on trial in an American courtroom now."

-- Daniel Ellsberg, Pentagon Papers whistleblower, on why NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden could not receive a fair trial in the U.S.

[ http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/30/daniel-ellsberg-snowden-fair-trial-kerry-espionage-act]

(submitted to the mailing list by Terry Labach)