BERKELEY, California, 11 February 2011 — On Tuesday, February 15th, the Berkeley City Council will vote on a resolution to call “for the immediate end to the cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of PFC Bradley Manning during his military confinement.” If passed, copies of the resolution will be sent to the Marine brig commander at Quantico, Virginia, where Bradley Manning is being held in maximum security solitary confinement, to the Quantico Base Commander, to Secretary of the Army John McHugh, Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates, Congresswoman Barbara Lee, California Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein and President Barack Obama...

The resolution was written by Berkeley Peace and Justice Commissioner Bob Meola and passed by the Berkeley Peace and Justice Commission on January 10th. In December, the Berkeley City Council tabled a resolution that called for freeing Manning and proclaiming him to be a hero if he did what he is accused of doing — releasing the “Collateral Murder” video and other documents to WikiLeaks. That resolution is still on the table.

Commissioner Meola said: “This is another opportunity for Berkeley to set an example by doing the right thing — standing up for the rights of Bradley Manning to be treated in a just and humane way... For now, Berkeley needs to voice its outrage at the mistreatment Bradley Manning continues to suffer. Berkeley can be a guide for other cities to follow with similar resolutions to end the un-American treatment of this soldier by the U.S. government.”

Courageous municipal activism to support whistleblowing from California

The city of Berkeley [] is considering a resolution to declare alleged WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning a hero.

According to a resolution being considered for vote, the imprisoned Army private suspected of providing WikiLeaks with its most significant U.S. releases should be released from prison and praised for his “courage in bringing truth to the American people and the people of the world.”

“If he did what he’s accused of doing, he’s a patriot and should get a medal,” Bob Meola, author of the resolution told the San Francisco Chronicle. “I think the war criminals should be the ones prosecuted, not the whistle-blowers.”

Meola is a member of the city’s Peace and Justice Commission, which advises the city council and school board on peace and social justice issues. The commission passed the resolution by a vote of 7-3. It will be up for a City Council vote on Dec. 14.

More than 20 cities held rallies calling for his release earlier this fall.

Bradley Manning has been held for almost 200 days and will turn 23 the week of the Berkley vote.

Blowing the whistle on war crimes should not be a crime.

---

Update: On December 14, Berkeley City Council voted 8-0 to table the motion. CNN reports here. And the City Council Minutes will be posted here, when available.  

Here is a copy of the Council motion that was tabled.

Any ideas that people had about free expression on the internet, about the value of a free press, about transparency and accountability, about unbiased educational standards, are all being called into question. Political figures who endorsed the value — and the necessity — of journalists pushing through government censorship are now calling for their government to censor journalists.

But this is what I mean. Five-hundred words in, and I still haven’t listed a day’s worth of facts, or addressed the content of the Wikileaks documents, or done much more than amass a collection of links. The only coherent picture I can make out of it all is exceedingly cynical about governments, media and corporate institutions, and overly idealistic about the people donating to Wikileaks, finding ways to circumvent the restrictions that the dominant power structures are imposing and becoming vocal about their dissatisfaction with a system that prizes largely pointless secrecy over truth and accountability.

In fact, the main reason I’m posting this is that the first time I thought about posting about it, I actually questioned whether doing so was in some way dangerous. And the fact that the atmosphere out there is such that it dissuades people from even entering a discussion — that the rhetoric from the government and politicians is having a legitimate chilling effect on the debate — is reason enough to get involved, even in a minor way.

This reaction by obscured or hidden power structures sees to be have been anticipated by Assange beforehand, described in essays from 2006.