[AlCzervik]

'A Coup Has Occurred'

By Daniel Ellsberg
September 26, 2007 (Text of a speech delivered September 20, 2007)

Editor’s Note: Daniel Ellsberg, the former Defense Department analyst who leaked the secret Pentagon Papers history of the Vietnam War, offered insights into the looming war with Iran and the loss of liberty in the United States at an American University symposium on Sept. 20.

Below is an edited transcript of Ellsberg’s remarkable speech:


$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I') think nothing has higher priority than averting an attack on Iran, which I think will be accompanied by a further change in our way of governing here that in effect will convert us into what I would call a police state.

If there’s another 9/11 under this regime … it means that they switch on full extent all the apparatus of a police state that has been patiently constructed, largely secretly at first but eventually leaked out and known and accepted by the Democratic people in Congress, by the Republicans and so forth.

Will there be anything left for NSA to increase its surveillance of us? … They may be to the limit of their technical capability now, or they may not. But if they’re not now they will be after another 9/11.

And I would say after the Iranian retaliation to an American attack on Iran, you will then see an increased attack on Iran – an escalation – which will be also accompanied by a total suppression of dissent in this country, including detention camps.

<snip>

The last five years have seen a steady assault on every fundamental of our Constitution, … what the rest of the world looked at for the last 200 years as a model and experiment to the rest of the world – in checks and balances, limited government, Bill of Rights, individual rights protected from majority infringement by the Congress, an independent judiciary, the possibility of impeachment.

<snip>

It is increasingly clear with each new book and each new leak that comes out, that Richard Cheney and his now chief of staff David Addington have had precisely that in mind since at least the early 70s. Not just since 1992, not since 2001, but have believed in Executive government, single-branch government under an Executive president – elected or not – with unrestrained powers. They did not believe in restraint.

<snip>

I am shocked by the Republicans today that I read in the Washington Post who yesterday threatened a filibuster if we … get back habeas corpus. The ruling out of habeas corpus with the help of the Democrats did not get us back to George the First it got us back to before King John 700 years ago in terms of counter-revolution.

[Novus]

What kind of Coup? You mean the military has had enough of Bush and is refusing orders to attack Iran and will remove him by force if they have too? Congress and the Supreme Court too for rubber stamping both Patriot Acts?

[threadbear]

According to Ellsberg, they're going to attack Iran. I've gone back and forth on this issue, in my own mind, for a couple of years. Would they do something that berserk?

Uh huh, maybe...particularly if it was part of a mandate that grew out of plans that have been in the formative stage for over 30 years. The ONLY way they can succeed is to commit mass atrocities, tactical nukes etc...The modern world will never be the same.

They will truly be ushering Americans into a dark age....and nary a peep from the Democrats. This didn't have to happen and I resent that a few on these forums tend to almost excuse neo-con behaviour, or explain it, using peak oil as the prime motivator for their imperial actions, and the gutting of the constitution.

[Zardoz]

What a remarkable speech. I'm e-mailing it to a bunch of people. Thanks for posting it, Al.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'W')hen I say this I’m not saying they are traitors. I don’t think they have in mind allegiance to some foreign power or have a desire to help a foreign power. I believe they have in their own minds a love of this country and what they think is best for this country – but what they think is best is directly and consciously at odds with what the Founders of this country and Constitution thought.

They believe we need a different kind of government now, an Executive government essentially, rule by decree, which is what we’re getting with signing statements. Signing statements are talked about as line-item vetoes which is one [way] of describing them which are unconstitutional in themselves, but in other ways are just saying the president says “I decide what I enforce. I decide what the law is. I legislate.”

It’s [the same] with the military commissions, courts that are under the entire control of the Executive Branch, essentially of the president. A concentration of legislative, judicial, and executive powers in one branch, which is precisely what the Founders meant to avert, and tried to avert and did avert to the best of their ability in the Constitution.

[Plantagenet]

Ellsberg just seems delusional to me.

Presidents before Bush have used signing statements. There is nothing new there to make him so afraid. Its common practice.

I can't imagine why Ellsberg goes into a tizzy and imagines he sees a dictatorship coming because Bush writes signing statements. I wish he had taken a second to educate himself about the simple fact that Clinton and prior presidents also issued signing statements, and it didn't cause the world to end or mean a coup had occurred....

[worrier]

For this to be a coup it would have to mean Cheney/Bush staying in power and the election being cancelled or whatever. Is this what this Ellsberg is saying will happen? He's not saying it's a conspiracy that covers all the Republican candidates is he? I haven't heard anything that suggests that.

[peaker_2005]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', 'E')llsberg just seems delusional to me.

Presidents before Bush have used signing statements. There is nothing new there to make him so afraid. Its common practice.

I can't imagine why Ellsberg goes into a tizzy and imagines he sees a dictatorship coming because Bush writes signing statements. I wish he had taken a second to educate himself about the simple fact that Clinton and prior presidents also issued signing statements, and it didn't cause the world to end or mean a coup had occurred....

[OilIsMastery]

[Battle_Scarred_Galactico]

^Wheres' Adolf ?

[Plantagenet]

Ellsberg's claim that "a coup has occurred" is a hysterical lie.

Take a deep breath and stop being so afraid. There's been no coup.

[threadbear]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', 'E')llsberg's claim that "a coup has occurred" is a hysterical lie.

Take a deep breath and stop being so afraid. There's been no coup.

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', 'E')llsberg's claim that "a coup has occurred" is a hysterical lie.

Take a deep breath and stop being so afraid. There's been no coup.

[threadbear]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', 'E')llsberg's claim that "a coup has occurred" is a hysterical lie.

Take a deep breath and stop being so afraid. There's been no coup.

[uNkNowN ElEmEnt]

Amen sister, the second world war started with a series of events that were brought to a head when other countries finally said no way. This exactly the same thing happening here.

I would actually take that one step further and say..."If Fox news et al say its so, then it must be the opposite" or a diversionary tactic.

[threadbear]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('uNkNowN ElEmEnt', 'A')men sister, the second world war started with a series of events that were brought to a head when other countries finally said no way. This exactly the same thing happening here.

I would actually take that one step further and say..."If Fox news et al say its so, then it must be the opposite" or a diversionary tactic.

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('uNkNowN ElEmEnt', ' ')the second world war started with a series of events that were brought to a head when other countries finally said no way. This exactly the same thing happening here.

[threadbear]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('uNkNowN ElEmEnt', ' ')the second world war started with a series of events that were brought to a head when other countries finally said no way. This exactly the same thing happening here.

[WhatMeWorry]

It has been a long, slow, insideously well planned coup. Not some South American Coup, not a Coup you read about in Africa that happens when the President is out of the country. This has happened right before our eyes yet we could not see. Blinded by Patriotism and the recent fear of "terrorism". Some still will not see.

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('WhatMeWorry', 'I')t has been a long, slow, insideously well planned coup. Not some South American Coup, not a Coup you read about in Africa that happens when the President is out of the country. This has happened right before our eyes yet we could not see. Blinded by Patriotism and the recent fear of "terrorism". Some still will not see.