A Few Dozen People Gather at British Consulate to Declare Manning, Assange Heroes

The Bay Area may be rife with adamant supporters of free speech, freedom of information, and the leaking of any and all government documents to the media, but that population was not entirely evident at a small rally yesterday outside the British consulate (1 Sansome Street). About 50 protesters gathered to show their support for the two men currently imprisoned over the WikiLeaks/diplomatic cables leak -- even though Julian Assange, technically, was being held on rape charges and actually just got granted bail today by a British judge. Says one of the organizer's of yesterday's rally, "I would have been happy with five people because that's more than zero."

Pfc. Bradley Manning, meanwhile, sits in solitary confinement at Quantico, and a number of people both here and in Berkeley (ok, and in a few other places) would like him to be declared a hero.