In Berkeley, that person — Bradley Manning — is considered a hero.

An Army private jailed for allegedly leaking sensitive military data is a hero and should be freed, according to a resolution under consideration by the Berkeley City Council.

The council is expected to vote Tuesday on whether to declare its support for Pfc. Bradley Manning, who’s suspected of providing WikiLeaks with classified military documents and a video depicting an Army helicopter attack in Baghdad in which 11 civilians were killed.

Manning, 22, currently in the brig in Quantico, Va., faces 52 years in prison if convicted. Manning has not commented on his guilt or innocence.

“If he did what he’s accused of doing, he’s a patriot and should get a medal,” said Bob Meola, the Berkeley peace and justice commissioner who authored the resolution. “I think the war criminals should be the ones prosecuted, not the whistle-blowers.”

The proposed resolution originated from the same commission that declared the Marine Corps “unwanted intruders” in Berkeley in 2008. The council’s ensuing approval – and reversal – ignited some of the city’s most raucous protest in years and prompted more than 25,000 e-mails to City Hall.

This time, however, the commission’s vote was not unanimous. The resolution passed on a 7-3 vote, and it’s likely to be just as contentious when it meets the City Council.

… Berkeley’s proposed resolution thanks Manning “for his courage in bringing the truth to the American people and the people of the world.”

The courage of the men and women in uniform currently defending the freedom of the Berkeley buffoons doesn’t matter. Berkeley moonbats have a long history of attacking the military, and the Marine Corps in particular. When a Marine Corps recruiting center opened in Berkeley, all hell broke loose, with Code Pink leading the way. The center was vandalized twice. Protestors started a near riot and attacked the police. The same commission looking to honor Bradley Manning passed a resolution, along with the City Council, calling the Marines “uninvited unwelcome intruders”.

Considering Berkeley’s anti-military history, it’s not altogether surprising that they would choose to honor someone like Bradley Manning. What exactly did Bradley Manning do that was do despicable? Well, he is allegedly the person who gave Wikileaks access to thousands upon thousands of files which have been released and are potentially harmful to our military.

The first to debut was the “Collateral Murder” video, which showed the deaths of two Reuters journalists who had chosen to embed with terrorists. This caused a firestorm of controversy against our military, which was once again smeared and slandered as being made up of ruthless, cold-blooded murderers.

Wikileaks then proceeded to release 90,000 pages of classified documents, which outed Afghan informants. This was unforgivable. The bravery of our United States troops is known and appreciated by most Americans, but many underestimate the danger that Afghan civilians put themselves in when they choose to work with us to bring the Taliban down. These informants, if discovered, will be murdered. Their families will be murdered. They took an incredible risk, and displayed unbelievable courage and bravery, and were rewarded by being sold out by a gay soldier who apparently felt like he was teased too much. (Because, you know, if someone hurts your feelings in high school you should definitely betray your country, put your fellow troops at increased risk, and sell out Afghan informants whose lives are on the line.) It’s reprehensible, and if any of these informants are killed, it’s Bradley Manning who has their blood on his hands.

Of course, saying all of this is like preaching to the choir. Most Americans find Manning’s actions to be despicable. Not the residents of Berkeley, however. No, to them Manning’s a hero. Someone to be honored. (This is also likely to be the only time that Berkeley ever sees fit to honor an American soldier.) Interestingly, this news report comes fresh on the heels of the news that Al Jazeera is now going to be broadcast over Berkeley radio waves.

These people don’t just drink the moonbat Kool-Aid, they bathe in it.

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Yesterday, I wrote about Wikileaks outing of hundreds of Afghan informants, whose lives are now at stake. Early on in the game, Private Bradley Manning was the suspected informant for Wikileaks, having already supplied them with the doctored “Collateral Murder” anti-American propaganda video. Well, it turns out that Manning may indeed be the person who supplied Wikileaks with these classified documents, as there is allegedly evidence to tie Manning to the documents.

Know what that means? it means he’s a traitor.

Investigators have found concrete evidence linking Pfc. Bradley Manning with the leak of classified Afghanistan war reports, a U.S. defense official said.

A search of the computers used by Pfc. Manning yielded evidence he had downloaded the Afghanistan war logs, which span 2004-2009, the official said. It isn’t clear precisely what that evidence is.

… The investigation is also looking at who might have helped Pfc. Manning provide the documents to WikiLeaks, a Web-based group that earlier this week released 76,000 secret reports from Afghanistan.

Alan Murray interviews Floyd Abrams, the legendary first amendment attorney, about the recent WikiLeaks disclosure and its relationship to the Pentagon Papers case.

Because of the focus on civilians who may have aided Pfc. Manning, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Justice Department have been brought into aid the investigation, which is being led by the Army Criminal Investigation Command.

Defense officials are also combing through Pfc. Manning’s computers in a bid to figure out what other material he may have stolenas they try to anticipate what other material WikiLeaks may have.

WikiLeaks says it has at least 15,000 more Afghanistan documents the group withheld until some details could be redacted.

Military officials said the documents already released contain names of Afghans who have aided the allied force, information that could potentially endanger some of those people.

Manning has endangered the lives of not only hundreds of Afghan informants, but of our soldiers as well. He’s directly aided our enemies in facilitating the release of these documents and of the “Collateral Murder” video. They’ve become a rallying cry for Al Qaeda and the Taliban, who are threatening revenge strikes now.

He should be tried for treason, and if found guilty, face a traitor’s death. He’s aided our enemies and put our troops and our allies in harm’s way. If anyone dies because of these documents, it will be a direct result of Manning’s actions, and he needs to be held responsible.

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Hundreds of Afghan civilians who worked as informants for the U.S. military have been put at risk by WikiLeaks’ publication of more than 90,000 classified intelligence reports which name and in many cases locate the individuals, The Times newspaper reported Wednesday.

The article says, in spite of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s claim that sensitive information had been removed from the leaked documents, that reporters scanning the reports for just a couple hours found hundreds of Afghan names mentioned as aiding the U.S.-led war effort.

One specific example cited by the paper is a report on an interview conducted by military officers of a potential Taliban defector. The militant is named, along with his father and the village in which they live.

“The leaks certainly have put in real risk and danger the lives and integrity of many Afghans,” a senior official at the Afghan foreign ministry told The Times on condition of anonymity. “The U.S. is both morally and legally responsible for any harm that the leaks might cause to the individuals, particularly those who have been named. It will further limit the U.S./international access to the uncensored views of Afghans.”

One former intelligence official told the paper that the Taliban could launch revenge attacks on “traitors” in the coming days.

Shame on Julian Assange. I’m just curious — does he have any idea the situation these informants are in? The risk they take in working with us? If discovered, they will be murdered. And it’s likely that they’ll see their families murdered, too. It’s such an incredible risk to take, and there’s such bravery in these informants, it makes me sick to my stomach to think that they have been betrayed. Betrayed by one of our own, the very people that they are helping. These people may very well die because of Julian Assange’s little act of treason, and it disgusts me. Even if they survive, it’ll be because they were moved, and they’ll be unable to continue helping us. And who would want to take their places, knowing that our previous informants had been outed?

Wikileaks whined earlier this year about collateral murder, and now, that’s exactly what they’re about to be party to. This is reprehensible, and I’m just curious — exactly how far will Obama allow this man to go before putting a stop to it? These brave Afghans are putting their lives at risk by helping us, because they have the audacity to want a better country than the one they currently have. And Julian Assange just signed their death warrants. I rarely say this, but God — I hope he burns in hell for this. He has blood on his hands, and I swear to God if he is not arrested then there is no justice in this world. Oh, wait, that’s right — he’s in hiding, the miserable little coward, behind the skirts of the Swedish government. So he can do all of this — published classified documents, put the lives of our informants at risk, hamper the war effort in Afghanistan — with no consequences.

Confederate Yankee reports that there’s a familiar traitor that may also be responsible for this.

The real suspected traitor in this mess is U.S. Army Private Bradley Manning, the analyst who bragged to a white hat hacker that he had stolen over a quarter-million military and diplomatic documents and sent them to WikiLeaks. Manning was taken into custody earlier this year after being fingered by the military as the source of the Apache gun camera footage Assange turned into a propaganda film called “Collateral Murder” that Assange used for fund-raising and not a little self-promotion. Manning is also the primary and obvious suspected leaker of these documents, which may be part of the $250,000 he stole.

I argued back in June that Manning should be charged with treason. If he is found to be the source of those documents, his only choice should be between rope, bullets, or a needle.

I couldn’t agree more. Both Manning and Assange need to be held accountable for the treason they’ve committed.

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