WikiLeaks founder, ex-Pentagon analyst lash out at U.S. response

LONDON — Julian Assange, the founder of the WikiLeaks website, and Daniel Ellsberg, the former Pentagon analyst famed for leaking the Pentagon Papers, lashed out Saturday at what they described as the Obama administration's aggressive pursuit of whistle-blowers.

Assange, speaking at a news conference in London, was joined by Ellsberg, 79, who leaked the 1,000-page secret history of the Vietnam War in 1971.

Ellsberg said the administration's response to whistle-blowers put the United States on a path to the kind of repressive legal framework that Britain has under its broad Official Secrets Act.

He said criminal probes of three Americans linked to government leaks under Obama — including Pfc. Bradley Manning, suspected of providing the documents on Afghanistan and Iraq to WikiLeaks — were a new low.

Ellsberg said the Pentagon's demand that Assange "return" any classified materials in his possession was carefully couched in language similar to that used after the Pentagon Papers' release, when he was threatened with criminal prosecution for espionage.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell condemned the recent leaks Friday, saying the documents were a gift to "terrorist organizations" and "put at risk the lives of our troops."