Melanie Morgan: RED, WHITE AND BLUE ALERT! CodePink Claims Victory

This is the whole original title:

RED, WHITE AND BLUE ALERT! CodePink Claims Victory In Forcing Marines From Berkeley Recruiting Center

I was too long to post at FR in it's original length, so I removed some of it and put Melanie Morgan's name at the beginning.

Also in this part above she has blue font that doesn't show up in the FR post for some reason. Must be a HMTL thingie.

UPATE: Stephen Pearcy, the peace activist who alerted me to the gloat-fest scheduled tomorrow just sent me this: "I just heard the same thing--i.e., that it was an April fool's joke... Here's what the message said:
i'm really really sorry- i just found out this is an april fool's trick cp is playing on the media to get them to a press conference tomorrow
i'm the real fool here." So we both got screwed.

So that is how it is supposed to look

*** UPDATE ***

Code Pink Plays an April Fool's Joke ... on Whom?

April 1, 2008

The Express received an email that was (apparently) making the rounds of local media this morning, announcing that the US Marine Corps was about to vacate the downtown Berkeley space where it has maintained an officer-recruitment center since last year. The announcement indicated that representatives from the Marines would speak at a press conference at the center at noon today, along with representatives from Code Pink, the group whose protests outside the recruitment center have drawn national attention. The landlord from whom the Marines rent the space was also listed among the scheduled speakers. The announcement declared that a joyous celebration would follow.

Today being April 1, the smell of fish filled the air and a little bird whispered, Hoax. But perpetrated by whom? Contact numbers were provided in the announcement, including a number at the Marines headquarters in Quantico, Virginia.

The officer who answered the phone there said he'd been deluged with calls on this matter all morning, but (1) he hadn't been told by any colleagues that the Marines might be leaving Berkeley, and (2) his department has nothing to do with recruitment or the media, and his number seemed to have been chosen at random.

A few more calls down the line, Marines Recruiting Command spokesperson Major Wes Hayes confirmed that the email was based on a fib.

"The Berkeley recruiting office," he said, "is remaining where it is. It's going to be open and its operation and mission remains the same. We're going to continue to do what the American public expects us to do, and that is to recruit America's finest young men and women."

A jaunt to the recruiting center at noon found a coterie of Code Pink activists, including Medea Benjamin. Why, they'd staged the hoax themselves! A row of police officers (whoops - more overtime to add to the $200,000-plus that Berkeley taxpayers have already spent on Marines-protestalia) watched as the activists posed for local news cameras and declared victory ... over the Marines ... who aren't actually leaving.

At a podium bearing a sign saying "LANDLORD," a man portraying the Marines' landlord announced to the small crowd that although "this is a city where I can make a dollar — where I can make many dollars" — he had been persuaded by the protesters to cancel the Marines' lease.

"Cancel the lease! Cancel the lease!" activists chanted in unison.

The mock landlord continued: "Now that the Marines will be leaving, we will all come together as a peaceful community. ... I feel so much better in my soul."

"Celebration!" one activist shouted. — Anneli Rufus

Hey Code Pink! Remember what they say about the little boy who cried wolf...

Another UPDATE: several news sources

Berkeley anti-war group's hoax upsets many

/highlights only/

``If you want to be taken seriously as an organization of serious protest, then you don't play jokes _ even on April Fools' Day,'' said Robin Lakoff, a professor of linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley, who has written about the politics of language.

The release said Sasha Shamszad, the owner and landlord of the Marine recruiting center, ``has reached an amicable agreement with the Marines to redeploy from Berkeley'' and that further details would be given at noon news conference Tuesday.

Reached by telephone Tuesday, Shamszad said, ``Someone is in la la land here. There's a lease involved here. We live in a society where contracts are a big deal. These people are my tenants and I'm a professional. Once they have a lease, unless they break the rules, you can't get them out.''

The center's lease runs through December 2009, subject to termination if the government cannot provide funding, Franklin said. [Gunnery Sgt. Pauline Franklin with the Marine Corps Recruiting Command in Washington, D.C.]

Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates said the publicity stunt had people calling his office and others in the city. Although Bates initially supported giving CodePink a permit fee waiver and a free parking space at the Marine center for their weekly protests, he criticized their prank.

``I think they have hurt their credibility with this farce,'' he said.

Despite criticism early Tuesday, CodePink went ahead with a ``mock'' news conference at noon Tuesday where a ``pink Marine'' announced the Marines were moving out.

A real Marine in uniform, who declined to give his name, was outside the recruiting center Tuesday afternoon because he had heard reports that the Marines were leaving Berkeley.

He held a sign that read, ``I thought Berkeley wouldn't judge me.''

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