Presented at
HOPE X (2014),
July 19, 2014, 2 p.m.
(60 minutes).
We had to keep this bombshell quiet til the last minute since some of the most powerful people in the world would prefer that it never take place. (Even at this stage, we wouldn't be surprised at mysterious service outages, but we believe the hacker spirit will trump the unprecedented might of the world's surveillance powers. Fingers crossed.)Daniel Ellsberg has been an inspiration to Edward Snowden and Ellsberg himself has expressed his admiration of Snowden's actions in releasing information revealing the extent of NSA's spying on civilians around the globe, including within the United States. Ellsberg changed the conversation in the height of the Vietnam War through the Pentagon Papers - by revealing deceptive practices by the government. Snowden has also dramatically changed the conversation on surveillance and intelligence-gathering with his revelations.We're honored and proud to have HOPE be the forum via which these two American heroes converse. Snowden is, of course, still unable to leave Russia because of the threat he faces from the authorities in the United States. So he will be joining us and speaking on a video link right after Daniel Ellsberg's keynote.
Presenters:
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Daniel Ellsberg
Daniel Ellsberg was the cause of one of the biggest political controversies in the history of the United States when he released the Pentagon Papers in 1971. This top-secret Pentagon study of U.S. government decision-making concerning the Vietnam War was released to various newspapers. When the New York Times was stopped by a Nixon administration court order, Ellsberg leaked the 7,000 pages of documents to the Washington Post and 17 other publications. These revelations clearly showed deceptive practices by the government and played a significant role in changing the views of many Americans - and ultimately in changing history. When Ellsberg turned himself in to face trial for his actions, he said, "I felt that as an American citizen, as a responsible citizen, I could no longer cooperate in concealing this information from the American public. I did this clearly at my own jeopardy and I am prepared to answer to all the consequences of this decision." After a trial which revealed massive corruption and various nefarious plots against Ellsberg, all charges were dismissed.
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Edward Snowden
Edward Snowden will forever be known as someone who changed history, not only in this country, but throughout the world. His revelations of the massive NSA surveillance programs confirmed the suspicions of many and shocked those who haven't been paying attention. Throughout it all, he has remained strong and true to his convictions, while forced to remain in Russia to avoid the severe punishment virtually guaranteed by the United States government. Had these truths not been revealed, most people wouldn't have a clue of the extent of privacy violations they face every day at the hands of intelligence agencies. Even conferences like HOPE wouldn't be devoting nearly as much time to the subject without what has been learned over the past year. We are humbled to have him in our program, and hope the day will come when he's not confined to a video link and able to be as free as he is helping all of us to be.
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Trevor Timm
Trevor Timm is a co-founder and the executive director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation. He is a writer, activist, and legal analyst who specializes in free speech and government transparency issues. He writes a weekly column for The Guardian and has also contributed to The Atlantic, Al Jazeera, Foreign Policy, Harvard Law and Policy Review, PBS MediaShift, and Politico.
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