Defender of Liberty Award Daniel Ellsberg

The Committee will give its Defender of Liberty Award to Daniel Ellsberg on the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision on the Pentagon Papers. The rise of whistleblowers is born of Congress abdicating its constitutional responsibility to conduct oversight of the executive branch. Congress readily surrenders to executive claims of state secrets, executive privilege or the executive’s putative national security genius. Before delivering the Pentagon Papers to The New York Times, Ellsberg sought in vain to have them publicized by Senators William Fulbright, George McGovern, Charles Mathias and Gaylord Nelson. Despite the Speech or Debate Clause constitutional protection, none, in the end, was willing. The House and Senate Intelligence Committees are guardians of the imperial presidency. Their kid-gloves oversight spawned Edward Snowden’s revelations of National Security Agency privacy abuses and Defender of Liberty Award winners John Kiriakou and Alberto Mora who blew the whistle on the Bush Admi