DANIEL ELLSBERG, ellsbergD@cs.com, http://www.ellsberg.net
Author of the book "Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon
Papers," Ellsberg faced 115 years on 12 felony counts in 1971 for leaking the
Pentagon Papers. Ellsberg said today: "In the special court-martial of
Sgt. Mejia in Georgia on Wednesday, the wrong man is on trial. If Monday's
revelations by Seymour Hersh are confirmed, on the personal
responsibility of Donald Rumsfeld and President George W. Bush for treatment of
prisoners amounting to torture, they should both resign or be impeached and tried
by the International Criminal Court in The Hague for war crimes. Sgt.
Mejia served his country bravely and well in Iraq; but he is serving his
country better, and just as bravely, in his publicly-announced refusal to
participate further in what he correctly identifies as an illegal war
using illegal means. That is also true of his role in being one of the first
to expose serious American violations of the Geneva Conventions on
treatment of prisoners, which as ratified treaties have the status, with the
Constitution, of the highest law of the land. Mejia's commendation ...
cites his 'courage and commitment' ... Those words apply exactly to his
present stance..."