
Forty years ago military analyst Daniel Ellsberg leaked classified Vietnam War documents known as the Pentagon Papers. Ellsberg had come to believe the U.S. was fighting a wrongful war and hoped the Pentagon Papers would help end it. Today when we think of secret documents and whistleblowers, Julian Assange and WikiLeaks come to mind. A new book traces the decades between the Pentagon Papers and WikiLeaks. The author explains how advances in cryptographic technology have helped create a new generation of digital activists and how politically motivated hackers are reshaping concepts about power and secrecy.
Excerpt from "This Machine Kills Secrets: How Wikileakers, Cypherpunks, and Hacktivists Aim To Free The World's Information" by Andy Greenberg. Copyright 2012 by Andy Greenberg. Reprinted here by permission of Dutton Adult. All rights reserved.

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