Ellsberg Calls Assange a Hero

"I see Bradley Manning as a patriot, and I'm sure Julian Assange is an Australian patriot,"

"To call them terrorists is not only mistaken, it's absurd and slanderous. Neither of them are any more terrorists than I am, and I'm not."

Ellsberg's decision in 1971 to release reams of secret documents, detailing U.S. covert efforts and private doubts about the conflict in Vietnam, helped build public sentiment for the end of the war and led to his indictment. A judge ultimately dimissed all the charges.

"I have no doubt if I put out the Pentagon Papers in every detail, same as before, I would now be called a terrorist," Ellsberg said.

Ellsberg was sharply critical of President Obama, who he said "has a very personal reason to be concerned" about the exposed information. Ellsberg contended that the documents reveal torture and unnecessary fatalities at the hands of American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan -- alleged atrocities that Ellsberg says Obama should be investigating.