World Bulletin / News Desk

Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg called Friday on the Pentagon chief to "protect us" from President Donald Trump by resisting orders to launch military actions or use nuclear weapons.

"The situation is closer to the possible use of nuclear weapons since any time I would say in 50 years," Ellsberg, a former military analyst and nuclear war planner turned world-famous whistleblower, said in a telephone interview.

He spoke shortly before the news broke on Saturday that the United States, Britain and France were carrying out a wave of punitive strikes against Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria over an alleged chemical weapons attack.

"It is a very dangerous time," Ellsberg said, pointing out that Trump's war of words with North Korea was the first time since the Cuban missile crisis in 1962 that a US president has threatened military action against another nuclear-armed state.

"The president I'm afraid has a very strong temptation to start a war as cover for his firing the special prosecutor," he said, referring to Robert Mueller, who is investigating links between the Trump campaign and Russia in the 2016 election.