Cindy Sheehan Updates

by Benjamin T. Greenberg on August 8, 2005

Cindy Sheehan to Be Arrested Thursday

by David Swanson

Mon Aug 8th, 2005 at 10:55:39 PDT

(From the diaries -- kos)

Cindy Sheehan phoned me from Texas a few minutes ago to say that she's been informed that beginning Thursday, she and her companions will be considered a threat to national security and will be arrested. Coincidentally, Thursday is the day that Rice and Rumsfeld visit the ranch, and Friday is a fundraiser event for the haves and the have mores. Cindy said that she and others plan to be arrested.

http://www.meetwithcindy.org

Daniel wrote, "I have not been able to confirm this, but for what it is worth, it would not entirely surprise me." What I wrote back to him may have sounded like hyperbole to some:

No, it would not surprise me at all. In fact, I think it is likely. What Cindy Sheehan is doing has too much potential to draw popular support for the government to allow this to go on.

Arresting her as a threat to national security will be true to long standing COINTELPRO tactics that are not unique to this administration but which this administration has immeasurably increased its powers to practice.

But another unconfirmed report from AfterDowningStreet.org suggests my radar is properly calibrated:

Cindy Sheehan called After Downing Street moments ago at 10 p.m. ET to report that the Secret Service is trying to intimidate her and members of Gold Star Families for Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War, and Veterans for Peace into leaving their protest near President Bush's Crawford, Texas ranch.

This morning Cindy led dozens of protesters as close as they could get to the ranch; they were stopped by local police about five miles away. Cindy and others plan to stay there throughout Bush's five-week August vacation until he agrees to meet with her and other family members of soldiers killed in Iraq and answer their questions about the war.

Throughout the afternoon and evening, however, the Secret Service has been telling protesters that if they stay there they may be hit by Secret Service vehicles. Cindy says, "They've told us this at least ten times. There isn't much room between the side of the road and the fence, and they go zooming by far over the speed limit." Cindy reports the Secret Service already ran a mother and her six year-old off the road. She believes the Secret Service's actions are a clear attempt to coerce her and the other protesters into leaving.

Cindy and others are asking to meet with the Secret Service and local police to ensure the safety of everyone involved. In the meantime, she asks that anyone who can contact the media to alert them to the situation.

If you are able to do this, media contact information can be found here. Please politely let them know what's been happening with the Secret Service, and encourage them to continue covering Cindy's efforts to meet with President Bush.

If this kind of government targeting of people with opposing views is new to you, or you think it is a thing of the past, gone after COINTELPRO was "abolished" in the 1970s, go read about Judi Bari.