The savaging of Cindy Sheehan (FR mentioned)

The New York Sun echoes the charge, evidently reading the same rightwing talking points.

In an editorial on August 11, it says Sheehan "has put herself in league with some extreme groups and individuals."

The editorial quotes Sheehan about some of the groups she's involved with, including Code Pink, Veterans for Peace, and Military Families Speak Out.

It then notes that these groups are on the steering committee of United for Peace and Justice, along with the Communist Party USA. (A person representing that party is one of the forty-one members who was voted onto the steering committee.)

This classic guilt-by-association trope just shows the reflexive response of the right: When your critic has credibility, and you can't find anything else on her, destroy her with the old standby: You're a communist dupe!

The Sun also points out that Sheehan is working with the Crawford Peace House, and it says that group's website "includes a photo depicting the entire state of Israel as Palestine." Actually, it depicts a protester holding a sign showing four maps of what is now Israel and the Occupied Territories, noting how Palestinians have been allowed less and less land over the past 60 years.

"Nobody is anti-Israel here," says John Wolf, one of the founders of the Crawford Peace House. "We're just asking for peace with justice and respect for international law."

But for the New York Sun, the Crawford Peace House's view of the Israel-Palestine conflict is convenient enough to tar Cindy Sheehan with.

Rightwing talk show host Phil Hendrie goes even lower, writing an article amazingly entitled "Anti-War Mom: Another Ignorant Cow," Hendrie called Sheehan a "self-righteous ignoramus," and then went into full mockery mode: "A mother grieving her loss. The inhumanity of war. Oh, the wickedness of it all."

I've seen callousness before, but this piece may top them all. And catch Hendrie's defense of the Iraq War: "This war was unavoidable, brought on by an historic clash of culture and ideal, powered by the American people themselves, rising to meet the future, pissing off the rag heads." Rag heads?

By the way, Hendrie's screed was posted on the website, freerepublic.com, which calls itself "the premier online gathering place for independent, grassroots conservatism on the web."

Sheehan responds to her critics: "Nothing you can say can hurt me or make me stop what we are doing. We are working for peace with justice. We are using peaceful means and the truth to do it."

That's interesting - Sheehan and Lynne Stewart.

...That also brings Ramsey Clark and some others of interest into the picture:
Who Is Behind Lynne Stewart?
It was Ramsey Clark who urged Lynne Stewart to become the blind sheik's defense attorney. Clark's two previous choices, Center for Constitutional Rights attorneys and noted defenders of criminals and terrorists — including the Palestinian assassin of Meyer Kahane — William Kuntsler and Ron Kuby, had recused themselves.
On the CCR's links to the Vietnam antiwar movement and Soviet terrorist network in the 1960s-1970s, see my comments at:
Soros Funded Stewart Defense , Post 49
23 posted on 02/19/2005 12:08:12 PM PST by Fedora

.............."It is far more likely that Ms. Sheehan has flip-flopped because she has either been unwittingly co-opted or has willingly aligned herself with some of the more virulent radical leftwing groups protesting the war. Ms. Sheehan posts her blog on both Michael Moore's website and at the website of Code Pink, the lovely leftists who sent $600,000 to the "insurgents" in Iraq and who protest every week outside Walter Reed hospital, in full view of the wounded soldiers recovering there.

"Digging further, it has been discovered that Ms. Sheehan participated in a rally for Steve and Virginia Pearcy, the Sacramento couple that came under fire for hanging a U.S. soldier in effigy outside of their home. Ms. Sheehan also spoke at a rally at San Francisco State University, with the group "Students Against War". This rally was to honor Lynne Stewart, the radical lawyer whose most egregious client was Omar Abdul Rahman - the convicted bomber of the first WTC attacks.

"During this rally, Ms. Sheehan stated, "Lynne is my human Atticus Finch. He did what he knew was right, but wasn't popular. That is what Lynne is doing." Sheehan further stated that, "we (Americans) have been killing people, we are responsible for death and destruction over the past 200 years." Sheehan further denoted George W. Bush as the "biggest terrorist" and ludicrously asserted that the United States was waging a "nuclear war" in Iraq. She further stated that Iraq is suffering under a "U.S. imposed sense of freedom and democracy". Yes, things must have been so much better under Saddam! Also at this rally, flyers entitled, "Should We Help the Iraqi Resistance?" were passed out. "..........

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1461790/posts

The New York Sun editorial and its new blog
http://www.itshinesforall.com/
by Ira Stoll says it all.
Ira Stoll talked about the editorial on John Gibson subbing for O'Reilly.

August 11, 2005
Anti-War Movement

Cindy Sheehan's Crowd

It's easy to see why Cindy Sheehan, the 48-year-old mother of a soldier killed in Iraq, has become the new face of the anti-war movement, featured in a New York Times editorial yesterday and a Maureen Dowd column this morning. Camped out in Crawford, Texas, near the Bush ranch, she's a more sympathetic face than a lot of the alternatives.

But as sad as Ms. Sheehan's loss is, it's worth noting that she's put herself in league with some extreme groups and individuals. She's been posting on Michael Moore's Web site, writing, "We have such a strong coalition of groups. GSFP, Code Pink, Veterans for Peace, Military Families Speak Out and the Crawford Peace House. I talked with John Conyers today and he wrote a letter to George signed by about 18 other Congress members to request that he meet with me. I also talked to Maxine Waters tonight and she is probably going to be here tomorrow."

Well, the Crawford Peace House Web site helpfully includes a photo depicting the entire state of Israel as "Palestine" and it carries a link to a report that when Prime Minister Sharon visited Crawford, the "peace house" greeted him with an "800-foot-long banner containing all of the United Nations resolutions that Israel is in violation of." The Crawford Peace House site also features a photo of Eugene Bird, who has suggested that Israeli intelligence was responsible for the abuses at Abu Ghraib.

Code Pink, Veterans for Peace, and Military Families Speak Out all have representatives on the steering committee of United for Peace and Justice, the big anti-war umbrella group. (They share that distinction with the Communist Party, USA). United for Peace and Justice organized the big march during the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York, at which a New York Sun poll of 253 of the protesters found that fully 67% of those surveyed said they agreed with the statement "Iraqi attacks on American troops occupying Iraq are legitimate resistance." In other words, Ms. Sheehan's "coalition" includes a lot of people who think the people who killed her son were justified.

United for Peace is nonetheless flogging Ms. Sheehan's story in the run-up to its big weekend of "civil disobedience" and "direct action" next month in Washington. That protest is timed to coincide with World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings, so that the people who were throwing rocks at Starbucks in Seattle to protest free trade back during the Clinton administration can now make common cause with the anti-war folks.

The news that Congressman Conyers and Congresswoman Waters are involved fits with the rest of the picture. Mr. Conyers was the host of a Democratic "hearing" in June on the Iraq war that his fellow Democrat, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, protested was a forum for "people motivated by anti-Semitic or anti-Israel animus." And Ms. Waters is still best known for having endorsed the conspiracy theory that the CIA caused the crack epidemic in American cities.

This whole crowd probably gains more from its association with Ms. Sheehan than she gains from her association with them. But all together, it's not a pretty picture.

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