Press 'swarm' as Pentagon leadership, protester 'enjoy' chat
Ron Brynaert
Published:
Friday January 12, 2007
 CNN reports that the press "swarmed" to cover the rare sighting of an anti-war protester enjoying a cordial chat with the Pentagon leadership.
"An anti-war protester and the Secretary of Defense don't appear to be a couple likely to get along -- especially when the latter is advocating a troop escalation," CNN's Alexander Mooney and Steve Brusk report.
"But during a break in the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Friday, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Peter Pace engaged in what seemed to be a pleasant conversation with a woman wearing a bright pink shirt with the words 'No War,'" the article continues.
CNN added that the unnamed woman most probably belonged to the group CodePink, who have been very active in the anti-war movement, going back to its formation on November 17, 2002 during a protest months before the invasion of Iraq.
According to its website, "CODEPINK is a women-initiated grassroots peace and social justice movement working to end the war in Iraq, stop new wars, and redirect our resources into healthcare, education and other life-affirming activities."
CodePink also recently participated in the 12-person delegation of anti-war activists who traveled to Guantanamo to protest the prison for detainees. "Peace Mom" Cindy Sheehan also made the trip to Cuba, which didn't gather much US press attention, according to a foreign newspaper.
"The attempt of a peace group to highlight the plight of Guantanamo prisoners by protesting outside the notorious US detention facility has been ignored by the mainstream American press," Pakistan's Daily Times lamented.
Medea Benjamin of CodePink was quoted in the Pakistani article, "From the beginning this was a prison that was set up without any kind of due process. People in prison have no access to see their family members. It took a long time for them to even have lawyers and those lawyers don’t even have access to their clients. Most of them have no charges against them, and none of them have had a fair trial."
FULL CNN ARTICLE AT THIS LINK
(Editor's Note: Many observant RAW STORY readers noticed that the activist's shirt appears to read "Out of Iraq" rather than "No war," as CNN reported. However, it may be the case that CNN was reading the back of her shirt.)
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