Los Angeles Times [Los Angeles, CA]
September 27, 2005

Online Version

Sheehan, Activists Arrested at White House

By Ryan G. Murphy and Emma Vaughn, Times Staff Writers

WASHINGTON - Cindy Sheehan, the Vacaville, Calif., woman whose protest this
summer outside President Bush's Texas ranch became a focal point of the
antiwar movement, was arrested Monday at the White House during a civil
disobedience campaign.

On the third day of demonstrations that began with tens of thousands of
protesters rallying Saturday on the National Mall, a group of about 300 sat
on the sidewalk in front of the executive mansion after being refused the
opportunity to meet with a White House staff member to present a petition
calling for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. About 370 people were
arrested.

Before Sheehan was detained, she removed a picture of her son, Casey, who
was killed last year in Baghdad, from around her neck and tied it with a
pink ribbon to the wrought-iron fence that surrounds the White House.
Sheehan, 48, was the first to be arrested.

Earlier Monday, 41 protesters were arrested near the subway stop at the
Pentagon. They were charged with disorderly conduct and impeding people's
ability to enter and leave the building. 

The protesters at the White House were given three warnings, then arrested
for demonstrating without a permit. A Park Police representative said they
would be taken to a local facility, charged and given a court date. The
offense is a misdemeanor that carries a $50 fine. 

On Capitol Hill, meanwhile, other foes of the war sought to lobby Congress
to withhold funding for military operations.

Mimi Kennedy, who chairs the Progressive Democrats of America, and other
activists spent the day seeking to meet with Sen. Dianne Feinstein of
California and other Democrats. Feinstein left her office moments before the
group arrived.

"Feinstein wasn't there to hear our concerns, and she could have been,"
Kennedy said. "She chose not to because she does not want to hear our
concerns." 

--Times staff writer James Gerstenzang contributed to this report.

                                        

San Francisco Chronicle [San Francisco, CA]
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Page A-2

Vacaville mother arrested in protest at White House 
Anti-war activists booked for rallying without a permit

By Zachary Coile, Chronicle Washington Bureau

Washington -- Cindy Sheehan, the Vacaville mother who ignited the anti-war
movement this past summer with her 26-day protest outside President Bush's
Texas ranch, was arrested Monday at the White House for demonstrating
without a permit. 

Sheehan and about 200 other protesters joined in the planned act of civil
disobedience, sitting down in front of the black iron gates on Pennsylvania
Avenue and chanting "Stop the war now!" She carried a photo of her
24-year-old son Casey, a U.S. soldier who was killed in an ambush in Iraq
last year. 

U.S. Park Service police warned demonstrators several times they were
breaking the law by failing to keep moving, then began making arrests. 

Sheehan, 48, who had never been arrested before, was the first taken into
custody. Police officers lifted her off her feet and handcuffed her before
leading her away to a police vehicle. 

"People were screaming her name," said Samantha Miller, a 20-year-old
student from Los Angeles and activist with the anti-war group Code Pink, who
witnessed the arrest. "People were cheering for her and thanking her." 

One man climbed over the fence to enter White House grounds, but he was
quickly apprehended by Secret Service agents. 

Police also arrested Sheehan's sister, Dede Miller, as well as other
military family members and several members of the clergy. The protesters
cooperated with police, and there were no signs of violence. 

Park police said those arrested were taken to a processing center to be
fingerprinted, photographed and given tickets for demonstrating without a
permit, a misdemeanor. All the protesters were expected to be released by
Monday evening. 

The crowd outside the White House included Buddhist monks in saffron-colored
robes, who beat drums in support of the protesters, and young, black-clad
anarchists who danced on an American flag and kissed one another in a
symbolic "love-in" demonstration. 

When police backed up two city buses to haul away handcuffed protesters, the
crowd began chanting, "Where were the buses in New Orleans?" 

Among those arrested with Sheehan was Al Zappala of Philadelphia, whose son,
Sgt. Sherwood Baker, a Pennsylvania National Guardsman, was killed in Iraq
in April 2004 while providing security for inspectors searching for weapons
of mass destruction. 

"There's a long history of civil disobedience going back to Gandhi and
Martin Luther King Jr.," said Zappala, 65, shortly before he and his wife,
Joan Kosloff, were arrested by police. "We felt we needed to do this to
bring attention to this illegal war." 

The planned acts of civil disobedience followed a weekend of anti-war
protests around the country, punctuated by the largest demonstration since
the Iraq war started, which brought tens of thousands of people to
Washington on Saturday. Sheehan was a featured speaker at the protest. About
500 supporters of the administration's Iraq policy also rallied this past
weekend in the nation's capital. 

White House spokesman Scott McClellan, asked about the anti-war protesters'
message Monday, said: "They're well-intentioned, but the president strongly
believes that withdrawing ... would make us less safe and make the world
more dangerous." 

Kristinn Taylor, who organized conservative counter-protests all weekend for
the Web site FreeRepublic.com, said Monday's arrests wiped out any positive
impression the large anti-war demonstration might have made with politically
moderate Americans. 

"Plus, it motivates the terrorists overseas," Taylor said Monday. "They say,
'Look, the American people are protesting Bush at the gates of the White
House.' " 

On Monday, while Sheehan and others protested at the White House, 40 people
were arrested at the Pentagon, where they briefly blocked two entrances to
the building. They carried signs with photos of U.S. soldiers and Iraqi
civilians killed in the war and handed out flyers to Defense Department
workers. 

"We came with this very simple invitation to Pentagon employees to think
about what they are doing and the war machine they are part of," said Frida
Berrigan, a Brooklyn activist with the War Resisters League. "We invited
them to do something different with their work and their livelihood." 

But the discussion between protesters and Pentagon employees soon fizzled. 

"Most of us were arrested very quickly by Pentagon police," said Berrigan,
who was released within a few hours, but must return to Alexandria, Va., for
a court appearance in December. "We think they heard us, and they saw us,
but the conversation really wasn't able to happen." 

Critics of the anti-war protesters noted that few top Democrats appeared at
this weekend's demonstrations. But aides to House Minority Leader Nancy
Pelosi said the San Francisco Democrat, who opposed the war in Iraq, plans
to have a private meeting -- but no photo opportunity -- with Sheehan in her
Capitol Hill office Thursday. 

"She's from the region. It's a courtesy meeting," said Pelosi spokeswoman
Jennifer Crider. "What Mrs. Sheehan brings is a very personal story about
how this war is impacting families around the country, and putting a face to
it for members and people around the country who have not been directly
affected." 

--Chronicle staff writer Joe Garofoli contributed to this report. E-mail
Zachary Coile at zcoile@sfchronicle.com. 

                                        

Washington Post [Washington, DC]
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Page B1

Online Version

By Petula Dvorak, Washington Post Staff Writer

About 370 antiwar demonstrators were arrested yesterday after planting
themselves on the sidewalk in front of the White House, a protest that
stretched out for nearly five hours as police removed them in stages to
avoid a backlog at a processing center.

The demonstrators, who had stayed in Washington after Saturday's antiwar
rally and march past the White House, were carted away in Metro buses and
police vans. Fingerprinting and booking continued late into the evening at a
U.S. Park Police operations facility in Anacostia.
 
Those arrested were charged with demonstrating without a permit, a
misdemeanor that carries a $50 fine and -- like a traffic ticket -- can be
paid by mail or challenged later in court, said Sgt. Scott Fear, a Park
Police spokesman.

In an action that they had planned several weeks ago and discussed with
police, the demonstrators went to the White House gate on Pennsylvania
Avenue NW about 12:30 p.m. and tried to deliver to President Bush the names
of all the soldiers and civilians killed in Iraq. When the president did not
meet with them, they sat down for their protest.

With bullhorns and hoarse voices, they yelled at the executive mansion,
asking whether the president was peeking from behind a curtain or hearing
them at all.

"You are a coward! You didn't meet us in Crawford; come meet us now," said
Beatriz Saldivar of Fort Worth, whose nephew, Army Sgt. Daniel Torres, was
killed in action nearly eight months ago during his second tour in Iraq. In
August, Saldivar had joined antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan during a protest
outside the president's Texas ranch, when Sheehan had asked to talk with
Bush about the death of her son, Casey Sheehan, in Iraq.

Cindy Sheehan, who was among the demonstrators yesterday, was the first to
be taken into police custody. She smiled at the crowd when police lifted her
from the sidewalk and escorted her to a van.

At his daily news briefing yesterday, White House spokesman Scott McClellan
said Bush is "very much aware" of the past few days of protests and
"recognizes that there are differences of opinion" on the Iraq war.

"It's the right of the American people to peacefully express their views.
And that's what you're seeing here in Washington, D.C.," McClellan said.
"They're well-intentioned, but the president strongly believes that
withdrawing . . . would make us less safe and make the world more
dangerous."

The group arrested yesterday was led by a coalition of religious leaders.
They were joined by anarchists, military families, Iraq war veterans and
political activists of various stripes.

"Only people can stop the war," said Laura Linder, 44, of Chicago. She was
wearing a red, white and blue bandanna and a Plexiglas hockey mask, and her
hands were trembling. She said that the weekend's protests were the first
she had attended and that she had never been arrested. "I'm afraid of
getting my face bashed in."

But the relationship between police and protesters was placid, even jovial
at times.

The crowd had headed for the White House with signs, chants and guitars.
Four monks kept time with drums and a gong. Half a dozen women pulled off
their shirts, standing topless with signs that read, "Breasts, Not Bombs!"

In front of the White House, however, the chants and songs grew quieter as
the remaining protesters wilted in the humid afternoon.

Earlier in the day, 41 protesters were arrested about 6:30 a.m. at two
entrances to the Pentagon and charged with disorderly conduct, said Maj.
Todd Vician, a Defense Department spokesman. They were all released and
given court dates, Vician said.

Frida Berrigan, 31, of Brooklyn, N.Y., who organized the protest, said the
demonstrators unfurled signs that read "War is Terrorism" and blocked
workers' access to the building.

                                        

Reuters
Monday, September 26, 2005 8:52 PM BST 

Online Version

Anti-war mother Sheehan arrested near White House
  
By Deborah Zabarenko

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. military mother Cindy Sheehan, whose vigil
outside President George W. Bush's Texas ranch drew attention to the
anti-war movement, was arrested on Monday at a White House sit-in after she
refused to obey police orders to leave.

Sheehan, whose son Casey was killed in combat in Iraq last year, was one of
some 200 protesters who sat in circles on the sidewalk along the White House
compound's northern edge, purposely courting arrest. Hundreds more rallied
in Lafayette Park, across Pennsylvania Avenue from the executive mansion.

Sheehan was the first of several dozen to be taken into custody, said Bill
Dobbs, a spokesman for the group United for Peace and Justice, an anti-war
coalition involved in the demonstration.

The crowd, which had earlier swarmed around Sheehan in support, booed the
police vans meant to hold detainees and chanted "The whole world's watching"
as arrests proceeded.

Those arrested were charged by the U.S. Park Police with demonstrating
without a permit, a misdemeanour that carries a $50 (28 pounds) fine.

Other slogans ranged from "Mothers say no to war" and "Liar, liar, Iraq's on
fire" to "War is terrorism with a bigger budget."

"It's a very powerful protest to tell the Bush administration to end the war
in Iraq," Dobbs said.

INSIDE THE GATES

Inside the White House, presidential spokesman Scott McClellan parried
questions about the protest going on just beyond the gates.

Bush is "very much aware of the people here who have come to Washington,
D.C., some to express support for the steps that we're taking and a number
of others that have expressed a different view," McClellan said. "It's the
right of the American people to peacefully express their views."

Sheehan camped out for much of August outside Bush's ranch in Crawford,
Texas, demanding a meeting with the president. Bush, who met with Sheehan in
2004 after her son was killed, refused to meet with her a second time, but
her rallies there drew hundreds of people.

Monday's protests were part of three days of anti-war actions in Washington,
including a demonstration on Saturday that drew more than 100,000 people.

Earlier on Monday, 41 people were arrested by Pentagon Force Protection
Agency police during an anti-war protest outside the huge U.S. military
headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, said Pentagon spokeswoman Cheryl Irwin.

The protest took place outside the Pentagon subway train stop used by
thousands of commuters and Pentagon employees daily and near a main entrance
to the building.

Irwin said the protesters were charged with disorderly conduct and impeding
the entering and exiting of the Pentagon, taken to a processing facility and
released with court dates.

--Additional reporting by Will Dunham

                                        

TheNation.com
Posted 09/26/2005 @ 5:22pm 

Online Version

BLOG
OnLine Beat

By John Nichols

"Well-Intentioned"--And Arrested 
 
Amid chants of "Arrest Bush," hundreds of antiwar activists participated in
a peaceful but boisterous sit-in outside the White House Monday, as part of
a day of protests that saw Cindy Sheehan and others taken into custody. 

Sheehan, the California woman whose 24-year-old son Casey was killed in the
Iraq War, drew international attention in August when she camped out near
George Bush's ranchette in Crawford, Texas, as part of an effort to secure a
face-to-face meeting with the President. Over the weekend, the woman whom
Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chair Lynn Woolsey, D-California,
praised for "waking up America" brought her demand to Washington, where she
participated in the mass demonstration against the war on Saturday. 

On Monday, more than 1,000 people gathered in Lafayette Park across from the
White House. Code Pink activists stretched a huge "Mothers Say No to War"
banner across Pennsylvania Avenue, and early in the afternoon several
hundred members of the crowd, including Sheehan, approached the northwest
entrance of the executive residence. Holding a picture of her son in his US
Army uniform, Sheehan again requested an opportunity to talk with the
President about the Iraq War. 

After about ten minutes, Sheehan joined a sit-in along the fence outside the
White House. As the group chanted "Stop the War!" and "The whole world is
watching!" she was the first arrested by US Park Police. Like the others who
were taken into custody, she was charged with demonstrating without a
permit, a misdemeanor that carries a $50 fine. (In addition to the roughly
200 people who joined the sit-in near the White House, another
forty-one--including a number of members of the group Veterans for
Peace--were arrested earlier in the day near the Pentagon.) 

Though Bush did not meet with Sheehan on Monday, his spokesman Scott
McClellan was forced to acknowledge that the President is "very much aware
of the people here who have come to Washington." 

McClellan, whose statements often display all the authenticity of
pronouncements from the Politburo, made a hamhanded attempt to compare the
weekend's mass anti-war protests with the tiny counter-protests by groups
that are supportive of the war--suggesting that the crowds that poured into
Washington included "some [who had come] to express support for the steps
that we're taking and a number of others that have expressed a different
view." 

McClellan did allow as how the antiwar activists were "well-intentioned."
But he added, "The President strongly believes that withdrawing [US troops
from Iraq] would make us less safe and make the world more dangerous." 

Sheehan took a different view, suggesting that the real danger comes from
those in Congress who gave the Bush Administration permission to launch its
war, and who have failed to demand an end to the misguided mission. 

"We need a people's movement to end this war," Sheehan told Saturday's
rally, during which she urged activists to increase the pressure on members
of Congress to break with Bush and support the withdrawal of US forces from
Iraq. "We're going to ask them: How many more of other people's children are
you willing to sacrifice for the lies?" 

The White House may not be taking Sheehan or the broader antiwar movement
seriously, but some members of the House of Representative seem to be
getting the message. Woolsey, who has sponsored a resolution calling for an
exit strategy, told Saturday's rally of antiwar activists: "You are far
ahead of the Congress and the policy-makers on this war."

                                        

People's Daily Online
September 27, 2005

Online Version

Hundreds of anti-war protestors arrested in Washington 

Over 300 anti-war protestors were arrested outside the White House on
Monday, including the "anti-war mom" Cindy Sheehan from California. 

Sheehan, whose soldier son was killed in Iraq last year and who has become
an icon of the anti-Iraq war movement recently, was detained by police when
she was taking a rest on a sidewalk near the White House with other anti-war
activists. 

News reports here said around more than 500 demonstrators had gathered on
the sidewalk near the main entrance to the White House. Some walked away
after police warnings of arrests and about 370 others were detained. 

Sheehan was the first to be arrested. 

"The world is watching," said the protesters. 

Sheehan and other demonstrators would be charged with demonstrating in a
restricted zone without permission, and would be released after being
fingerprinted and photographed, police said. 

Earlier in the day, 41 others were arrested by police for blocking entrances
to the Pentagon, the Defense Department's headquarters. 

The protest on Monday was part of a three-day anti-war campaign in
Washington, which attracted over 100,000 people from around the country on
Saturday calling for withdrawal of American troops from Iraq and an end to
the war. 

President George W. Bush "recognizes that there are differences of opinion
on Iraq and our role in the broader Middle East," White House spokesman
Scott McClellan said at a news briefing on Monday. 

"Some people want us to withdraw from Iraq and withdraw from the Middle
East, and they are well-intentioned. But the president strongly believes
that withdrawing from Iraq and the Middle East would make us less safe and
make the world more dangerous," he said. 

Source: Xinhua 

                                        

The Washington Times
September 27, 2005

Online Version

Protesters arrested

By Gary Emerling, THE WASHINGTON TIMES

More than 400 anti-war demonstrators -- including so-called "Peace Mom"
Cindy Sheehan -- were arrested yesterday during protests at the White House
and the Pentagon. 
    
Mrs. Sheehan, who has used her son's death in Iraq to spur the anti-war
movement, and hundreds of others marched along the pedestrian walkway on
Pennsylvania Avenue. At the front of the White House, dozens sat on the
sidewalk, knowing that they would be arrested, and began singing and
chanting "Stop the war now." 
    
Others grabbed hold of the iron fence along the White House front lawn and
plastered signs on it, one of which read "Remember the Dead." Dozens of
others stood in support behind a police barricade about 20 feet from the
sidewalk. 
    
Police warned the sidewalk protesters three times that they were breaking
the law by not moving along. Then police began making arrests. 
    
By the end of the protest, police had arrested about 370 people. Several
hours earlier, outside the Pentagon, police had arrested 41 anti-war
demonstrators who had blocked entrances to the Pentagon metro and bus stops.

    
"This is in the tradition of civil resistance, a dramatic way to demand that
the Bush administration end the war in Iraq and bring the troops home now,"
said Bill Dobbs, a spokesman for United for Peace and Justice, a national
anti-war coalition that sponsored the protest at the White House. 
    
Mrs. Sheehan, 48, was the first protester to be taken into custody. She
smiled as officers carried her by the arms to a police vehicle. As police
arrested her, protesters chanted, "The whole world is watching." 
    
Others arrested included Princeton professor and activist Cornel West and
religious leaders from across the country. 
    
The Rev. Jamie Washam, an American Baptist minister from Milwaukee, stood in
full ministerial garb as she waited for her turn to be arrested. "We are
speaking truth to power in love today," she said. "It takes more courage for
me at this point to keep my mouth closed." 
    
Protesters outside the White House said they expected to be arrested and
that they were looking forward to it. 
    
"I'm going to do anything I can to stop this war," said Sarah Steiner, 34.
"As many times as it takes me to get arrested, I will." 
    
"It's an honor to be arrested with this group of people," said Gary
Handschumacher, 58. 
    
Sgt. Scott Fear, a spokesman for the U.S. Park Police, said those arrested
would be taken to a processing facility and released with a court date. Each
was charged with demonstrating without a permit, a misdemeanor. 
    
"The people who want to leave are allowed to leave," Sgt. Fear said as he
stood outside the White House. "All these people are staying voluntarily to
be arrested." 

At one point, a group of Secret Service agents subdued and arrested a man
who climbed over the White House fence. 
    
Park Police officers in riot gear subdued and arrested a woman who tried to
cross a police line to join fellow members of the Code Pink Women for Peace
organization on the sidewalk. 
    
Outside the Pentagon, most of the 41 protesters arrested were affiliated
with the New York-based War Resisters League, said Frida Berrigan, a member
of its National Committee. About 70 protesters showed up, she said. 
    
Ms. Berrigan, who was among those arrested, said the protesters passed out
fliers with messages that read: "War is terrorism with a bigger budget," and
contained images of soldiers and Iraqi civilians killed in Iraq. 
    
"We put our bodies between the checkpoints and [the Pentagon] employees,"
said Ms. Berrigan, of Brooklyn, N.Y., several hours after she was released
from police custody. 
    
The protesters at the Pentagon were charged with either failure to obey
police orders or impeding government admin- istration, all misdemeanors. 
    
"If nothing else, Pentagon employees saw our genuine intent ... and we
challenged them to think in a different way," Ms. Berrigan said. 
    
Yesterday's meeting and protests came after a massive demonstration Saturday
on the Mall that drew a crowd of about 100,000, the largest such gathering
in the capital since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003. On Sunday, a rally
supporting the war drew roughly 500. 
    
D.C. police said they made four arrests during the weekend rallies.