Chelsea joins the hecklers at peace rally

The Times (U.K.) ^ | 11/10/2001 | GLEN OWEN

[Pokey78]

CHELSEA CLINTON was among a group of American students which disrupted an anti-war meeting in Oxford, it was revealed last night.

Frustrated at anti-American feeling, the daughter of the former President arrived at the 500-strong meeting in Oxford Town Hall with a dozen friends who heckled speakers.

Miss Clinton, a postgraduate student in international relations at University College, Oxford, her father’s alma mater, has confessed that she is feeling isolated and threatened by the mood she has detected at the university. She found it difficult encountering “anti-American feeling” from peace demonstrators.

As soon as last Thursday’s meeting, organised by the Oxford Stop the War Coalition, began, members of her mostly American group shouted patriotic slogans from the back. Speakers were prevented from continuing after other young Americans approached them and unfurled a Stars and Stripes flag.

Chris Harman, editor of the Socialist Worker, said: “When the group turned up I thought, oh no, we’re going to have some rugby-type fracas, but luckily it was nothing like that.” The flag-bearers were eventually sent back to their seats by a 76-year-old American woman called Barbara, an Oxford resident.

Katy Beinart, a student CND member who spoke at the meeting, said that Miss Clinton had arrived “making a lot of noise”.

When John Haylett, editor of the Morning Star, began to argue that the media had failed to consider the effects of the bombing on Afghan civilians, Miss Clinton and her friends called out that he should remember the victims of the terrorist attacks on New York. Mr Haylett responded that such meetings were the only way to put an alternative viewpoint to that portrayed in the media.

Miss Clinton left with her Secret Service bodyguards shortly afterwards, stopping to buy a copy of the Morning Star from a vendor, and making “yet more noise”, according to Ms Beinart. “It was a shame that Chelsea Clinton felt the need to interrupt a peaceful discussion with what I felt were inappropriate comments,” she said.

Speakers at the meeting, including the MP Jeremy Corbyn, said yesterday that Miss Clinton took their comments too personally.

[laconic]

It takes guts for a young person to do this, when the wave of their peers finds it easier to go along with the crowd. I salute Chelsea for having the courage to speak out!

[Angelique]

It's a shame she couldn't have been at Georgetown University the other night. There was a REAL anti-American, hate spewing liberal slime ball making a speech there that really needed to be heckled.

Chelsea's actions were obviously staged. The article just published in Talk magazine about the WTC was sent at her behest. I sense a Hillary behind this.

[lavrenti]

Bizarro. A Trotskyite Freeping the Stalinists. A rare and delightful sight.

No. In reality it was a Stalinist Freeping the Trotskyists.

I find nothing delightful in craven opportunism.

[culpeper]

Yeah...her father already gave away nuclear technology,encryption technology, and who knows what else so who would kidnap her.

[Octar]

Good job, Chelsea. You get two scoops of oats in youe nosebag tonight.

[bulldog905]

I agree. I despise her parents. But then again, I despise two of X40's children(Ron and Patti) and like his other two(the late Maureen and Michael).

What would all the Chelsea haters have her do, join with the anti-American scum at Oxford?>

[TopQuark]

Children are not responsible for the sins of their parents, remember? Hope Chelsea continues to prove that.

[lavrenti]

Do not be fooled. This was a calculated move. Sincerity is not a trait shared by either side of her family, and also by the Blythes.

[aculeus]

Give her credit.

[Scott from the Left Coast]

Whoa??? Are we to believe that she's NOT a chip of the old block (heads)?

[Amore]

not begrudge them their revelation which has made them 'born-again' patriots.

Hey, if it lasts, I'm thrilled! But I'm extremely skeptical. I expect most of them will go back to their liberal ways as time wears on. They'll be like the people who voted so approvingly for GWB, Sr. in the opinion polls in the Gulf War, then turned around and voted for Clinton. They are idiots, and they bear responsibility for our present situation because of their actions in keeping Clinton in the White House for 8 years!

[cajungirl]

Here is what I have read about Mz Chelsea in the last two days. She on the day of the WTC was thinking about GWB's tax cut but flattering Rudy at the same time. She while my friends kids were down there serving coffee and helping the medical team wash out eyes was walking north with her friends "expounding" to them. She got her exboyfriend to come to NY to hug her on Thursday because she needed a "big hug". Then she says she doesn't know her place anymore, physically, yadda yadda. My guess? She knows her mom will never be president so her place ain't assured anymore. On the day of the WTC when we were all in shock she was calculating her future, manipulating her exboyfriend, expounding and lecturing her friends, bashing GWB, sucking up to Rudi all the while thinking about heerself. She volunteered nothing that day or later. Now she is heckling while at Oxford,,good move for her future. She is phony, self centered and still shilling for her parents.

[Wrigley]

Could you see a Thanksgiving dinner with Chelsea looking at her father and saying, "You know, I was lurking at the FreeRepublic the other day and I think they are right about__________(fill in the blank)."

[X-USAF]

Her and Amy Carter could compete for the Most Homely Former First Daughter award.

[NH Liberty]

Wouldn't it be sweeeeeeeet if this situation jolted Chelsea into reality so much that she actually became a Republican?

[Paul Atreides]

Is there anyone naive enough to think that this is anything other than damage control for Livia Rodham?! She should have checked with Daddy first: she apparently didn't get the memo that America got what it deserved.

LOL!! What a bunch of hillbillies!

[hattend]

Why is my BS meter twitching?

[Paul Atreides]

If I was a gambler I would be willing to bet a large wad of cash that she was wearing Old Crusty Jr. during all this.

[MissAmericanPie]

You could be right, she might grow up to be a carbon copy of her parents, but my gosh, she hasn't even had a chance to grow into who she is yet, and right now she has no more of an idea of who she will be than I do.

I will withold an opinion about her until she deserves an opinion. It took guts for her to show up with a dozen friends against 500 demonstrators, to expose herself to ridicule and stand up for her nation, I have to give her that. I can't bring myself to just write off a young person, or any person until they prove they are worthless.