Anti war protest in washington now! (Get a bag!)

boston.com ^ | 10/24/03 | phantirath

[phantirath]

Anti-war protesters gathering in Washington, San Francisco By Jennifer C. Kerr, Associated Press, 10/24/2003 18:26

WASHINGTON (AP) Protesters began converging on the nation's capital Friday for what they hope will be the largest anti-war demonstration since the fall of Baghdad.

Organizers predicted tens of thousands of people would turn out Saturday in Washington for a march and speeches calling for the removal of U.S. forces from Iraq. Thousands of demonstrators also were expected to flock to San Francisco at the same time for the largest protests there since April, when more than 10,000 people filled the streets.

''The U.S. government has no right to try and recolonize Iraq,'' said Peta Lindsay, national youth and student coordinator for International ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism), which organized the protests with another group, United for Peace and Justice.

To counter the anti-war demonstrations, the Washington chapter of Free Republic, an independent grassroots conservative group, also planned a rally for Saturday at the U.S. Capitol, where organizers expect about 1,000 people.

''We support our troops and the commander in chief and their mission,'' said Kristinn Taylor, co-leader of the group.

Organizers of the anti-war protest in Washington said they expected most of the protesters to be high school and college students from 140 cities in the United States and Canada. They planned to gather at the Washington Monument before marching to the White House and Justice Department. Former Attorney General Ramsey Clark and Martin Luther King III were among those expected to speak.

ANSWER coordinator Brian Becker said Muslim groups, veterans, and families who have loved ones in Iraq or in the military also plan to attend.

''We feel compelled to take part in this because we think this war is wrong,'' said Charley Richardson, one of the co-founders of the group Military Families Speak Out. ''It never should have been fought in the first place.''

Richardson's 25-year-old son, Joe, returned from Iraq over the summer. Richardson said his son supports ''very strongly'' his parents' right to speak out.

Vietnam veteran David Cline said he will attend the protest because he sees a lot of ''eerie parallels to what we went through 30 years ago.'' Cline is the national president of the 3,500-member Veterans for Peace.

For the San Francisco protest, ANSWER and several other groups Bay Area United Against War, Not in Our Name, United for Peace and Justice, and the Vanguard Foundation arranged transportation so that protesters from Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and 27 California cities could attend.

Associated Press writer Mielikki Org in San Francisco contributed to this report.

On the Net:

International ANSWER: http://www.internationalanswer.org

DC chapter of Free Republic: http://www.dcchapter.com

[Free_at_last_-2001]

I fought the bastards with the construction workers in 68.. Well done and thank you!

[At _War_With_Liberals]

A communist led protest featuring rebellious teenagers, imported from all over. Not too impressive.

It will be interesting to see the media coverage, and if they downplay these facts.

[allaglow]

I'm amazed at their numbers. I thought it would be a big flop but there are thousands and thousands there. Wow.

[At _War_With_Liberals]

[phantirath]

Im gonna Hurl!

[Pikamax]

whatever numbers they say will be highly inflated considering what was shown on cspan. even Dungers are not stupid enough to get behind today's "huge" march.

[SandRat]

I caught some of C-SPEW2 showing the crowd and to paraphrase a quote from Boggart's movie "Casablanca" it was a round up of the usual suspects. Workers of the World, American Commie Party every ilk of anti-Semitic group imaginable.

As the camera panned the crowd it showed that it was not big, maybe 800. When it came time to applaud a speaker (if you can call any of them that from the indiscernible verbiage of hate that was vomited out), it was faint at best. I could get an assembly of grade-schoolers welcoming Emeral Lagassi to school to make more noise.

[Legerdemain]

I'm amazed at their numbers. I thought it would be a big flop but there are thousands and thousands there. Wow

I watched it and I would estimate about 2-3k people, a far cry from the 30k-50k answer stated would be there

[Lion in Winter]

AND... millions upon millions Americans stayed home and supported the President!

The antiwar group is a part of the lunatic fringe. Why, even on FR we have some folks who are on those same fringes.

Like those very few who dislike Republican Gov. Bush in Florida and his recent actions to save a poor lady from her malicious husband and his kooky lawyer. What could be more conservative than to save from a lady from EUPHANASIA?

The left is not about helping people, they are all about helping themselves "look" as if, they want to help people. They NEVER do any good, anywhere or at anytime. It is all just a show and ACT with them. "Pretend world" is their lifestyle!!

Examples: ben affeck, alex baldwin, martin sheen, jesse jackson, the dixie chicks, babs streisand, bill clinton... you get the picture.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

As the camera panned the crowd it showed that it was not big, maybe 800..

Whoo hoo, thanks SandRat. Always good to have Freeper eye-witnesses.

Hard for cANSWER to make a case for keeping a mass-murdering, rapist, terrorist-supporter in power. Not a popular view for most humans.

Is anyone posting live from the DC rally?

[bert]

Report from the Field.......

Approximately 40 Freepers occupied the hill in Pershing park and met the unwashed onslought as it rounded the corner from 15 th street. Many were foaming at the mouth with anger that their efforts were challanged.

When the parade was over Kristenn stood on top of the still occupied hill.

[SandRat]

Just pulled this off of the home page of MY ISP, be sure to read all the way to the bottom to see the name of the news source

15,000 Stage Anti-Iraq War Protest in Washington
October 25 12:35:00 PM EST
Some of 15,000 protesters from across the nation demonstrate near the Washington Monument in Washington, DC, 25 October 2003, calling for what they describe as "an end to the occupation of Iraq" by the US. Organizers said buses picked up participants from New York City to Philadelphia, and as far away as Cleveland and brought them to Washington, DC for the march. It was the biggest anti-war protest since the fall of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in April and came amid mounting public disquiet in the United States over the growing toll on US troops in Iraq and the financial cost. (Agence France-Presse AFP International Telephoto Service) WASHINGTON, Oct 25 (AFP) - About 15,000 staged a demonstration in Washington on Saturday to oppose US presence in Iraq. It was the biggest anti-war protest since the fall of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in April and came amid mounting public disquiet in the United States over the growing toll on US troops in Iraq and the financial cost. More than 100 US troops have been killed in combat incidents since President George W. Bush declared on May 1 that "major combat" was over. And demonstrators virulently criticised the Bush administration over the war and the US-led occupation since. "We don't need any more deaths," said speaker Fernando de Solar Suarez, whose son Jesus was a marine killed in the occupation. "President Bush -- wrongly called president -- has lied to the entire world about this war." Crowds braved autumn cold under sunny skies, carrying signs in English, Spanish, Arabic, Hebrew and Korean: "Bush lied;" "Bush is looting the future;" "No war for empire." The demonstration was organized by ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) and United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ), which brought together some 600 groups. Another demonstration was planned in San Francisco later in the day. According to a Pew Research Center survey released Tuesday, 39 percent of US people support the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq as soon as possible, up from 32 percent answering the same question in September. pa-chr/kd/tw US-Iraq-demo COPYRIGHT 2003 Agence France-Presse. All rights reserved. Hey Agence France-Presse!

[Laserman]

Notice nobody in the press shows aerial views of the crowd anymore after all the previous "marches" with "tens of thousands" were proven to be busts by actual photos! Instead they try and sell inflated crowd numbers.

[The_Republican]

[slimer]

[yankeedame]

LOL! Lord, I know I'm aging myself but this dame looks like she stepped right out of that 1960s Tom Wolf's book "Radical Chic". (You know, the South Hampton socialist, the Long Island liberal.)