![]() "It is my constitutional obligation to protect the security of the people by fostering the free flow of information absolutely essential to their democratic decision-making," Gravel said. Unable to speak on the floor, Gravel commandeered a committee room, called an unscheduled hearing ostensibly to discuss how spending on the Vietnam War had impinged on the construction budgets for new federal buildings, and proceeded to read the entire Pentagon Papers into the official congressional record. But he was chairman of the rather insignificant Building and Grounds subcommittee, which mostly just rubberstamped federal construction contracts. Gravel, a freshman senator at the time, had little authority in Congress' seniority-based structure. Then, another complication: Not enough senators were present to constitute a quorum and allow the session to begin. ![]() Gravel smuggled the papers into his Senate office and, after being fitted with a colostomy bag, prepared to read the entirety on the Senate floor. An intermediary, Washington Post editor Ben Bagdikian, passed the papers to Gravel during a clandestine midnight meeting outside the Mayflower Hotel in downtown Washington, D.C. In a 2007 interview, Gravel recalled the high-stakes political thriller that played out in the days after Ellsberg, calling from a payphone, first contacted his office. All he needed to do was find a member of Congress willing to read some of the Pentagon's most embarrassing secrets into the official congressional record. Constitution grants members of Congress immunity from prosecution for anything said during legislative sessions. But Ellsberg sought a loophole in the government's censorship scheme: The U.S. In response, the Justice Department brought lawsuits against newspapers that published excerpts of the papers, claiming that doing so was a threat to national security. It was that failed filibuster that caught the attention of Daniel Ellsberg, the former Pentagon analyst who had secretly made copies of more than 7,000 documents-now known as the " Pentagon Papers"-detailing just how right Gravel was about America's involvement in Vietnam.īy the time Gravel entered the story, some of the Pentagon Papers had already been leaked by Ellsberg to The New York Times and other newspapers. Senate representing Alaska, a post he held from 1969 through 1981, Gravel first made a name for himself by attempting (and ultimately failing) to filibuster a renewal of the military draft for what he saw as a "senseless war" in Vietnam. Mike Gravel, who died Sunday at age 91, was the real deal.Īs a member of the U.S. Contemporary political discourse is populated by elected officials falsely claiming to oppose censorship.
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