Posted on 08/30/2005 11:33:27 AM PDT by Choose Ye This Day
Rush transcript of NPR's Neil Conan, speaking by phone with Cindy Sheehan:
NC: Very nice of you to be with us today.
CS: [cheerfully] Oh, thank youuu!
NC: I know that you were, uh, out in California last week because your mother was ill. How’s she doing?
CS: Um, she’s doing better. They’re trying to keep her from having another stroke. And if she doesn’t have another stroke, she should be able to recover.
NC: That’s good news. Now, tell us, a little bit about your son, Casey.
CS: My son Casey was an amazing human being. He was gentle, loving, peaceful, sweet. He always just wanted to help people. He was an Eagle Scout and an altar boy for ten years. He had been in college for three years before he was recruited. He was just, uh, an almost perfect son and a really good big brother to his two sisters and his other brother.
NC: Why did he decide to join the Army?
CS: Well, he got lied to by his recruiter. His recruiter made him five promises that he broke all the promises to Casey. Casey was a very trusting and trustworthy person. So, he felt everyone else was trustworthy. Especially somebody who represents the government.
NC: Mmm hmmm. But, so, did he say afterwards, “I was duped?”
CS: Um, he, he, when we’d ask him about all these things that your recruiter promised you, he’s just say, “Well, Mom, you know, it’s the Army. They didn’t tell us they didn’t have to fulfill their promises. We were the only ones who had to fulfill our promises.”
NC: Mmm hmm. And did he write you letters about what he was doing in Iraq?
CS: Well, he was only there five days before he was killed. He started one letter that he never finished, and we got it back with his things.
NC: What did it say?
CS: Um…well, I’ll give you the general thing, but it was kind of personal. Y’know, he said that, um…it should be a pretty smooth year, that they were looking forward to a smooth year. And he was killed four days later. And he said that he wished he could be home for his sister’s graduation. And some other personal things.
NC: Um, and of course, I don’t want to get too personal, but…I wonder: When he was deciding to join the Army, did you try to talk him out of it?
CS: We didn’t have a chance because he joined before he talked to us.
NC: Before he talked. So, he made a choice of his own.
CS: [pause] Right.
NC: Um, now, you were…
CS: [not so cheerfully] But does that have to do with him being sent to a war that’s illegal and immoral to kill people and get killed for, um, a country that was no threat or harm to the United States of America?
NC: Uhhh…no. But, he wasn’t drafted. He made a choice of free will.
CS: Yeah, and if we give our children to the government to serve their country, we should make sure that they’re only used if it’s absolutely necessary to defend the United States of America.
NC: I wonder, now, you got a chance to meet with President Bush with a group of other families for a brief time. What happened in that meeting?
CS: Ummm…I’ve talked about this a lot. Do we have to talk about this? Do you have any questions about what’s going on right now or what we’re gonna do in the future?
NC: I’m just curious; I’ve not heard your answer to this.
CS: Um, excuse me?
NC: I’ve not heard your answer, if you wouldn’t mind.
CS: [someone speaking in background] I have two minutes.
NC: [amazed] You have two minutes.
CS: I have two minutes so…he was—George Bush acted like we were at a tea party, he was rude to us, and we felt worse than we did after we met with him.
NC: Mm hmm. Um, I didn’t realize you just had two minutes. We thought we had more time with you today, but, uh…I did want to ask. I know you’re planning to, when President Bush comes back to Washington, you’re planning to continue the protest here in Washington D.C.
CS: Yeah, we’re taking the bus tour to Washington D.C. and we’re all meeting there on September 24 for the big United for Peace and Justice…um, war protest.
NC: And you did get a chance to meet with some of his senior advisors a couple of weeks ago. Did you get a chance—did they listen to you, or did they talk to you?
CS: He-hello?
NC: Did they listen to you? Or did they talk to you?
CS: Hello?
NC: Yes. Hi?
CS: [clear as a bell] I didn’t hear your question, I’m sorry. We have a really bad connection.
NC: I apologize for that. It’s the cell—
CS: That’s not your fault. I’m in the middle of Crawford, so, you know, it’s very spotty cell phone service out here.
NC: I understand. I was asking about your meeting with some of the President’s chief advisors, including the National Security Advisor. In that meeting, did they, did they listen to you?
CS: Um, they listened to me and they talked to me. They tried to tell me things that I knew weren’t true, and so finally I said, “Just because I’m a grieving mother doesn’t mean that I am stupid.” And I said, “I don’t believe you guys are stupid either.” So we ended the meeting and they said they would pass on my concerns to the president, and then…they left.
NC: So you felt like you were being dismissed.
CS: I felt like I was being patronized.
NC: Patronized.
CS: And I felt that they thought that they were gonna be able to intimidate me into leaving, and, or impress me by the high level of officials that they sent.
NC: What would you say to President Bush if you had another chance to meet him?
CS: I’d say, what was the noble cause he sent my son to die for? And, why are soldiers still fighting over there when we know this war is based on lies, and to tell him to quit using my son’s name to justify the continued killing.
NC: As you know, there are parents of other men and women who died in Iraq who say you’re using their sons’ and daughters’ names in your cause.
CS: To stop the killing? You know, just because my son’s killed, why should I want any other children to be killed? Why would I want any other families to be going through this and this seems to be the President’s reason for continuing the war because he’s killed so many American soldiers already he has to kill more. And I believe that’s the most insane and the most immoral reason for continuing the war.
NC: I understand what you’re saying, but, they say you don’t speak for them.
CS: I never said I spoke for them. I never said I spoke for 100% of the military families. I never claimed to. I know they have their opinions and I believe that’s their right to their opinions.
NC: Fair enough. Do you st—You’ve come out…A lot of statements have been attributed to you as this…Camp Casey has grown, as this movement has grown, and uh…
CS: I gotta, I have to go now. Thank youuuu. [click]
NC: [dumbfounded] Cindy Sheehan. Leaving us there in Crawford, Texas. We apologize for that. We had arranged with people there to speak with Cindy Sheehan for the remainder of this segment and take some phone calls as well. Uh, evidently, plans changed at the last minute and we apologize for that.
I cannot believe that none of Casey's friends or relatives have come forward with copies of his letters or e-mails stating HIS feelings or opinions about the war in Iraq.
"maybe cindy's mother had a stroke because of cindy's anti-american, anti-military, and anti-cindy's brother's actions."
That was the first thing that came to mind when they reported her mother was sick.
Maybe a phone call from Cindy set her off./s
I was thinking Rosie O'Delusional, myself. (sorry that I was, too)
Neal Connan was captured during the Iraq war back in 1991 by the Iraqis. I am sure he thought that the Iraqis would never do harm to an American reporter because they were secretly rooting for the defeat of the USA. Maybe he learned his lesson on who these people really are while in captivity.
"You also nead to HEAR how vapid and vacant she sound as she repeats her memorized anti-Bush script"
Yes! Especially that part about "he acted like it was a tea party, he was rude to us, etc..." Her voice there just went into noticable recitation mode - using the exact same words etc...
Its not like we didn't know both sides have their "talking points", but she really doesn't pull it off very well.
Well, the communications part IS true. Having been there and tried to call out and having to call back and forth with basil during Saturday's rally, I can guarantee the cell phone reception is TERRIBLE.
After reading the transcript, I now know that when I said she was a 'mental midget', I was totally correct.
Wouldn't it be great to have a Bush Impersonator call her and get on while she's alone and see what she has to say without her being coached. They know they have to keep her on a short leach . Sounded like the prescripted Katie Homes interview.
They signed the "family letter" asking her to stop the idiotic leftist tripe. I guess they are Americans.
Were those promises on paper? Then they had to fulfill them. The recruiter made other promises? Well then the kid should have read that last bit of his enlistment contract that clearly states only promises written in this block are guaranteed, all others are meaningless.
The fact that he re-enlisted is an important one due to Cindy's continually talking about him being killed after only 5 days in Iraq, after being lied to by the recruiter! This was his second hitch.
CS: "Well, he was only there five days before he was killed. He started one letter that he never finished, and we got it back with his things."
I thought he was on a SECOND tour in Iraq?
And when is ANY regular media venue going to ask an interviewee like Sheehan: "So then, are you working with the organizers of 'United for Peace and Justice'." "Does it bother you that they are organized by International A.N.S.W.E.R., an American Bolshevik organization?" Oh, no, tha't impossible, it would be telling the listeners something really meaningful about Ms. Sheehan, and God forbid they ever do that; that would be breaking the rules.
In fact...cindy's entire, horrific bio of years of protests and associations would be the the lips of every american......geeeeeeeez...the press truly did expose the last vestiges of their failed agenda with their failure to introduce america to this heinous manipulator.
What is that creature behind her doing? Did she call the Orkin Man?
Yeah, I saw another thread earlier where they showed a staellite communications truck in "Camp Spacey" - ostensibly for media communications.
How'd you like to have a job being one of her handlers? Man, that's gotta be nerver racking!
Ping
You act as if there's something disreputable about Communists.
I agree. Jane Fonda should have been shot or hanged. But this Cindy woman is a nutcase. And in 10 years, she will be uglier than Helen Thomas.
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