Berkeley May Anoint Army WikiLeaker a 'Hero'

Council will vote on Bradley Manning resolution next week
By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 9, 2010 6:55 PM CST
Berkeley May Anoint Army WikiLeaker a 'Hero'
This image taken from a U.S. Army Apache helicopter gun-sight shows a group of men in the streets of eastern Baghdad just prior to being fired upon by the helicopter July 12, 2007.   (AP Photo/Wikileaks.org)

Bradley Manning is a traitor to some, but he might just be an official American hero to Berkeley. The city council will vote next week on a resolution praising the imprisoned Army private who's accused of delivering classified military documents to WikiLeaks, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. "If he did what he's accused of doing, he's a patriot and should get a medal," said Berkeley's peace and justice commissioner. "I think the war criminals should be the ones prosecuted, not the whistle-blowers."

The resolution passed the peace and justice commission—the same panel that called local Marines "unwanted intruders" a while back—by a vote of 7-3. One of the dissenters said they should wait to see the ramifications of the leak: "We're just sitting here in Berkeley—we don't know that Afghani informants aren't being murdered because of these leaks," she said. "Bradley Manning sounds like a very sincere person, but I'm sorry, we really do have enemies, and it's not clear at all what the effects of these WikiLeaks are."
(More Bradley Manning stories.)

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