[NYTr] ANSWER: 100,000 Marched Against Iraq War in DC

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

sent by mart

A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
ANSWER at InternationalANSWER.org

September 16, 2007 10:20 AM

To tell the truth, please circulate this widely!

100,000 March Against Iraq War in Washington 
200 Arrested in Dramatic Mass Die-In


C-SPAN broadcast ANSWER rally

Iraq Veterans Against the War speaking at the Sept. 15 rally Yesterday,
nearly 100,000 people -- led by anti-war Iraq veterans, military
families and others -- marched from the White House to the Capitol in
Washington, D.C. to demand an immediate end to the occupation of Iraq.
The march concluded with a dramatic "die-in" of 5,000 people
surrounding the Capitol. Almost 200 people were arrested when police
prevented them taking an anti-war message to Congress.

People marched shoulder-to-shoulder on eight-lane-wide Pennsylvania
Avenue, with the densely packed march stretching more than 10 blocks.
It was a historic action and a step forward for the anti-war movement.

Protesters surged onto the Capitol's south lawn and up the steps where
they were met by a police line. There, Iraq veterans conducted a solemn
ceremony to memorialize the U.S. soldiers and Iraqis killed in the war.

Over 5,000 people then laid down in a symbolic "die-in" -- one of the
largest acts of civil disobedience in recent years.

One hundred ninety-seven people, including dozens of veterans and
activists, were arrested when they tried to deliver their anti-war
message to Congress and were stopped by the police. Among the arrested
were Adam Kokesh, Liam Madden, Jeff Millard, and Garrett Reppenhagen of
Iraq Veterans Against the War; Brian Becker, National Coordinator of
the ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism); Ann Wright,
former U.S. Army Colonel; Michael Prysner, Iraq war veteran and ANSWER
activist in Florida; union president Gloria La Riva; and Eugene
Puryear, Howard University student and National Coordinator of Youth &
Student ANSWER. Police pepper-sprayed demonstrators without provocation.

This mass action came on the heels of the pro-war Petraeus report to
Congress and Bush's wholehearted endorsement of the report. Meanwhile,
the war rages on, destroying Iraqi society. Nearly 4,000 U.S. solidiers
and up to 1 million Iraqis have died since the U.S. invasion in March
2003.

Many organizations and individuals joined together to sponsor the
protest in Washington, D.C. timed to coincide with the Petraeus report
on the "surge" in Iraq, including the ANSWER Coalition; Ramsey Clark;
Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation; Mounzer Sleiman, Vice
Chair, National Council of Arab Americans; Cindy Sheehan; Camp Casey
Peace Institute; Cynthia McKinney; Veterans for Peace (National);
Garett Reppenhagen, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Chair of Board of
Directors; Tina Richards, CEO of Grassroots America; Rev.

Lenox Yearwood, CEO of Hip Hop Caucus; Code Pink; Father Roy Bourgeois
and Eric LeCompte, School of Americas Watch; Al-Awda, The Palestine
Right of Return Coalition; Kevin Zeese, Democracy Rising; Navy Petty
Officer Jonathan Hutto, co-founder Appeal for Redress; Liam Madden,
Pres., Boston Chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War and co-founder
of Appeal for Redress; Malik Rahim, founder of Common Ground
Collective, New Orleans;Howard Zinn, Author and Historian; Carlos &
Melida Arredondo, Gold Star Families for Peace and hundreds of other
organizations and individuals.

A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition http://www.answercoalition.org
info at internationalanswer.org

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