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http://www.military.com/news/article/berkeley-may-honor-private-accused-of-leaks.html

BERKELEY, Calif. - The Berkeley City Council will consider a resolution that would declare the Army private suspected of leaking classified information to WikiLeaks a hero and call for his release.

The council plans a vote Tuesday on the resolution in support of Pfc. Bradley Manning, who is being held in a military brig in Virginia. A city commission already has approved it.

Bob Meola, who authored the resolution, tells the San Francisco Chronicle that Manning is a patriot who deserves a medal.

Federal officials have criticized the leaks, saying they could endanger lives.

Leaders of the famously left-leaning city have weighed in on controversial national issues before, including votes to advise that a Marine recruitment office wasn't welcome downtown and to force local compliance with United Nations human rights treaties.

I saw it on CNN and just grabbed a random link with the story. It passed through some board and will be voted on tonight by the Council, though it is expected to not pass becuse at this point it is only alleged. If he is found guilty he will be a hero, if he is found innocent, well, I don't know then.

I spent a lot of time in Berkeley as a kid. I'll never forget the strange times: like the hobo chasing me for 5 blocks asking me if I knew the one word definition for "Dictionary". Apparently the answer is "Dictionary".
Berkeley is a beautiful city with a lot of great people and the best public University in the country and possibly the world. Its also largely batsh!t crazy.

DEUS VULT wrote:I spent a lot of time in Berkeley as a kid. I'll never forget the strange times: like the hobo chasing me for 5 blocks asking me if I knew the one word definition for "Dictionary". Apparently the answer is "Dictionary".
Berkeley is a beautiful city with a lot of great people and the best public University in the country and possibly the world. Its also largely batsh!t crazy.

Agreed,I spent some time dating a young woman who was attending University in Berkley when I lived in San Francisco,every time I went to visit her in Berkley I couldn't help but get the impression I had some how entered Timothy Leary's head.

You know its crazy when someone from San Fran thinks its crazy. Yowsa.

Frazzled wrote:You know its crazy when someone from San Fran thinks its crazy. Yowsa.

Well..in all fairness,I was only living in San Francisco and was not a native San Fransciscan(?), I'm a proud son of New Orleans,which..I suppose still lends credibility to your observation.

FITZZ wrote:

Frazzled wrote:You know its crazy when someone from San Fran thinks its crazy. Yowsa.

Well..in all fairness,I was only living in San Francisco and was not a native San Fransciscan(?), I'm a proud son of New Orleans,which..I suppose still lends credibility to your observation.

No you're just used to living in a foreign country (Louisiana)with a fine heritage of culinary awesomness.

Mmm mmoooooonnnnnpppppiiiiieeeeee!

Wacky college liberals, what'l they think of next?

ShumaGorath wrote:Wacky college liberals, what'l they think of next?

Hybrid cars that run on rainbows and unicorn urine?

FITZZ wrote:

ShumaGorath wrote:Wacky college liberals, what'l they think of next?

Hybrid cars that run on rainbows and unicorn urine?

Its easy to be like that when you have an entire town mooching off the government teat.

FITZZ wrote:

ShumaGorath wrote:Wacky college liberals, what'l they think of next?

Hybrid cars that run on rainbows and unicorn urine?

That made me chuckle, the image it game me was great

Its not really so much the college kids as it is the old Hippies die-hards and the wanna-be kids who are mad at daddy.

It isn't just that it is liberal, that is a bit to simplistic, it is that it is so far left it makes MSNBC look like FOX News.

Well, there's a city that needs to secede.

Stormrider wrote:Well, there's a city that needs to secede.

I'll make cookies for the goodbye party.

Monster Rain wrote:

Stormrider wrote:Well, there's a city that needs to secede.

I'll make cookies for the goodbye party.

I'll throw all their stuff out on the lawn.

Just don't throw it on Frazz's lawn.

Why not?

Ahtman wrote:http://www.military.com/news/article/berkeley-may-honor-private-accused-of-leaks.html

BERKELEY, Calif. - The Berkeley City Council will consider a resolution that would declare the Army private suspected of leaking classified information to WikiLeaks a hero and call for his release.

The council plans a vote Tuesday on the resolution in support of Pfc. Bradley Manning, who is being held in a military brig in Virginia. A city commission already has approved it.

Bob Meola, who authored the resolution, tells the San Francisco Chronicle that Manning is a patriot who deserves a medal.

Federal officials have criticized the leaks, saying they could endanger lives.

Leaders of the famously left-leaning city have weighed in on controversial national issues before, including votes to advise that a Marine recruitment office wasn't welcome downtown and to force local compliance with United Nations human rights treaties.

I saw it on CNN and just grabbed a random link with the story. It passed through some board and will be voted on tonight by the Council, though it is expected to not pass becuse at this point it is only alleged. If he is found guilty he will be a hero, if he is found innocent, well, I don't know then.

Yeah, umm I live in the Bay Area and I think Berkeley is bonkers. The guy might be courageous as hell, but he broke the law and GOT CAUGHT. He gets to suffer the consequence. Seems fair to me.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Stormrider wrote:Well, there's a city that needs to secede.

Trust me, if there were any way possible that they could....they would.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

DEUS VULT wrote:Its not really so much the college kids as it is the old Hippies die-hards and the wanna-be kids who are mad at daddy.

Scary part is that this isn't true. Its the average voter in Berkeley.

This young soldier should indeed be praised for his actions. He likely faces life in prison for revealing the lies and hypocrisy of governments around the world.

olympia wrote:This young soldier should indeed be praised for his actions. He likely faces life in prison for revealing the lies and hypocrisy of governments around the world.

I'll praise him all day. I'll also agree that he should be tried under US military law since he was a member of the armed forces at the time.


P.S. He wasn't the only person to give Wikileaks info, only the most well known and well publicized.


Edit: Mostly just the US, but yeah whatever.

Fateweaver wrote:Just don't throw it on Frazz's lawn.

"We have awakened a sleeping giant and have instilled in him a terrible resolve."

olympia wrote:This young soldier should indeed be praised for his actions. He likely faces life in prison for revealing the lies and hypocrisy of governments around the world.

So he should be praised for releasing the kind of information that could lead to serious harm around the world? Seriously, if he is responsible for most of the leakage, not only has he humiliated the American government (which, in and of itself is not a crime, so not really relevant....) but he also released information that:
a) Provided a happy list of all sites in the world the US considers 'vital' to its interests.
b) Made public warplans to protect the Baltic states that could have reprecussions in our relations with RUssia.

Now, I know you're going to reply with the stats that 'No one has been harmed or killed by these leaks!' and I'm not going to argue that with you. No one has been harmed or killed, but the fact that the information was released in the first place is still something that should be punished, not praised. It's the equivalent of giving a small child a loaded Glock with the safety off and then saying that there's no problem because nothing bad has happened while the kid's playing with it. Sure nothing bad has happened, but are you a bad parent for making a bad situation possible? Hell yes.

Not to mention, he IS a US citizen, and should be charged under the espionage act.

ANd speaking as a native Californian (San Jose! w00t! ) I'd have to say Berkeley as a whole never felt TOO crazy for me....I mean, I spent some time up there at a student political debate in 2008, and I was wearing a crapton of pro-Republican/anti-Dem paraphenalia, and I managed to live....I think I probably got a hella lot of dirty looks, but I lived.....Besides, I don't want Berkeley to secede. THere's an awesome crepe place just outside of the uni, and even MORE awesome libertarian hot dog stand out back. I'd miss those places if the city left.... :(

ChrisWWII wrote:

olympia wrote:This young soldier should indeed be praised for his actions. He likely faces life in prison for revealing the lies and hypocrisy of governments around the world.

So he should be praised for releasing the kind of information that could lead to serious harm around the world? Seriously, if he is responsible for most of the leakage, not only has he humiliated the American government (which, in and of itself is not a crime, so not really relevant....) but he also released information that:
a) Provided a happy list of all sites in the world the US considers 'vital' to its interests.
b) Made public warplans to protect the Baltic states that could have reprecussions in our relations with RUssia.

a)...who the f%$^ didn't know that the Panama Canal (and similar sites) was important?
b)...The lesson taught to the Georgians in 2008 is all the Baltic states and NATO need to consider. They won't behave as stupidly in the future.

U.S. foreign policy is pernicious, deadly, and beholden to special interests.

So people who give up military secrets are heroes in your book? Not that state department crap but real military secrets? If so then you sir are a traitor.

olympia wrote:
a)...who the f%$^ didn't know that the Panama Canal (and similar sites) was important?
b)...The lesson taught to the Georgians in 2008 is all the Baltic states and NATO need to consider. They won't behave as stupidly in the future.

U.S. foreign policy is pernicious, deadly, and beholden to special interests.

a) It's not so much the OBVIOUS targets like Panama Canal that I'm worried about. It's the mineral mines in Africa that provide rare metals used to build computers and other such things that I worry about. Things that are small, out of the way, unlikely to be well guarded, and yet still will cause a major problem if they were attacked.

b) Excuse me? What? Who wouldn't behave so stupidly in the future? NATO and the Baltic States? I'm so confused by your statememnt here...are you saying that we should be scared of RUssia and bowing to their every wish cause that's what it seems like you're saying.

"Military secrets" my arse. None of the information leaked approaches the get your knickers in a knot threshold. Remember when Toshiba gave the Commies our best submarine propeller technology during the Cold War? That's proper military secrets. The wikilleaks crap is a bunch of mid-level civil servants speaking frankly about the way the u.s. empire functions in the 21st century. The wikileaks secrets reveal U.S. lies and hypocrisy. It removes the sham altruistic rhetoric of U.S. foreign policy.

And now your just sprouting your own opinion mindlessly without any arguments to be had...

ChrisWWII wrote:And now your just sprouting your own opinion mindlessly without any arguments to be had...

Yep. In Olympia's world, the US is Evil. Maybe he lives in Berkeley?

Wouldn't surprise me!

I take everything back. The U.S. is a shining beacon of hope in a dark world...a defender of the weak and feckless.