Bush II signed a Presidential Authorization for a new and illegal surveillance program, which coincidentally went operational on October 6, 2001.  It would be a few years before Russ Tice, a whistleblower fired by the NSA in May 2005, exposed the program.  In December, 2005 New York Times reporters James Risen and Eric Lichtblau revealed that President Bush had approved a program of warrantless wiretaps of domestic-to-international communications by the NSA. This led to the harvesting of enormous volumes of telecommunications data from U.S. citizens for analysis. It would be discovered that AT&T, according to former employee Mark Klein, and other telecommunications giants were cooperating with the NSA is its illegal surveillance programs.

Another scandal to hit the National Security Agency was the arrest and indictment of Thomas A. Drake, a former employee.  He recognized that the Agency, in catching up with the volume of e-mail and cell phone traffic, spent hundreds of millions of tax dollars on a malfunctioning computer program.  For blowing the whistle, Drake was indicted and faced 35 years imprisonment.  Fortunately, most of the charges were dropped, and by pleading guilty to a misdemeanor he was sentenced to probation and community service.  Both Drake and Tice, moreover, suffered tremendous financial repercussions.

If you find U.S. foreign policy unconscionable, join us at the NSA, as it played a significant role in the military incurions in Afghanistan,Iraq, Libya, Pakistan and Yemen.  This would include selecting targets for drone strikes.

NSA director General Michael Hayden played a key role in crafting Colin Powell’s February, 2003 speech before the UN, which purported to prove that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction.  Hayden was instrumental in providing false information to Colin Powell, at George Bush’s request, so that the invasion of Iraq could proceed.  Thus the NSA was complicit in possibly one of the worst debacles and humanitarian crises in this nation’s history. Despite the NSA’s failure to protect this country on 9/11 during Hayden’s directorship and his role in illegal surveillance, he was eventually promoted to head the Central Intelligence Agency.

Also the NSA was involved in the wiretapping of the UN Security Council in 2003.  The NSA asked British intelligence to tap the phones of the UN Security Council members’ offices so the US would know how each country would vote on the resolution to invade Iraq.  Luckily, Katherine Gunn, a courageous British intelligence linguist, alerted the world to that illegal operation.

The list of criminal activity by the NSA is endless, and the above is just a sampling.  If you want to speak out against the war machine and demand a restoration of our constitutional rights, join us in protesting the National Security Agency which acts with impunity and above the law!!

Abandoning the civilian courts, the bill would be the ultimate concession that the rule of law and
cherished American values cannot survive the fear and hatred that have consumed this country.
The proposed bill makes restrictions on the transfer of detainees even to foreign countries so severe
that no one — whether cleared for release by our own government or acquitted in trials — could be
expected to leave Guantanamo. It therefore mandates the indefinite detention even of innocent
human beings, which is the very essence of tyranny. Congress has an obligation to uphold the US
Constitution. All Americans have the obligation to defend human rights. The proposed bill makes
America a callous and reckless jailer, unworthy of the name of democracy. It must be defeated.
Guantanamo must close. Those unjustly bound must be freed. Justice must rule.
 
As Carmen began reading this statement a roar of noise rose from the House floor as many members stood and began to boo Carmen.  I believe it was primarily the Republicans who were doing this.  I was stunned.  This seemed so unprofessional and sophomoric. 
 
Because Carmen was sitting away from a door in a crowded gallery, it took a few minutes for the police to reach him and remove him.  As Carmen was being removed Tom stood and continued reading the statement as members of Congress continued to boo.  The police removed Tom and the next person began speaking.  After the statement was completed, the rest of us began to stand and speak out for the closure of Guantanamo.  From where I was sitting I could see from an open doorway into the hallway and there were several officers running through the halls as they came together to stop our action.  It was a rolling action that disturbed Congress for several minutes, and that was our intention.  We need members of Congress to hear our message and think about what it means to continue to illegally and indefinitely hold innocent men in Guantanamo.  David Barrows was the last person to speak out and his voice projected over the crowd as he boomed, “Close Guantanamo.  Stand up for human rights.  Close Guantanamo.  Stop killing the bill of rights.”
 
As we stood in the hallway right outside the House gallery, they began to handcuff us and do an initial search.  Reporters tried to get close to us and Carmen continued to explain to them why we were there.  The police began clearing the gallery of all observers because they were not sure if there would be others who would try to interrupt Congress.
 
Fourteen of us were arrested at around 4:30 pm and we were separated, men and women.  The seven women were Ellen Barfield, Martha Hennesey, Judith Kelly, Bev Rice, Josie Setzer, Alice Sutter, and me, Joy First, and the seven men were David Barrows, Tom Casey, Mark Colville, Brian Hynes, Malachy Kilbride, Mike Levinson, and Carmen Trotta.  The men were put in the back of one police van and the women were put in another, and we were transported to a DC station where they often process mass arrests.
 
We were expecting to be processed and then transferred to Central Lockup to spend the night and then wait in chains the next day to be arraigned in the late afternoon or early evening.  The officer in charge asked us if any of us had any outstanding cases, and said that he did not want to hear that we did because that would be bad news for us.  There are a couple of rules the police generally follow when we are arrested in DC.  If we have an outstanding case, we are usually held overnight and then arraigned the next day¸ or if we live more than 50 miles from DC we will also be held overnight and arraigned the next day.  I was expecting I would be in custody until 7:00 pm or so on Friday as they generally arraign the activists at the end of the day.
 
Being in handcuffs is always the most physically challenging part of the experience for me.  They use plastic cuffs that are very painful on our wrists and after a few hours in cuffs my shoulders are really aching.  So, as I sat there I remembered my brothers in Guantanamo who have been held in painful stress positions for many many hours and even for days.  As I think about missing my family for a few days I remember my brothers in Guantanamo who have not seen their loved ones for nine long heartbreaking years.  I know this is where I must be and what I must be doing.
 
After providing identification, our cuffs were removed.  Both Malachy and I were told that a copy of our drivers license was not acceptable identification.  The police told me I was going to be in trouble for not having my actual license, but nothing ever came of it, and throughout the processing experience they treated our copy as if it was a valid identification.  Next we were thoroughly searched and patted down, and then asked a number of questions to establish our identity, including getting a picture taken with an officer.  These photos will be used in court, and the officer in the photo will be identified as the arresting officer even though it is the same officer in all 14 photos, and it is not the officer who actually arrested each individual activist.  This is what will be used in court to prove our identity and prove we were at the scene of the “crime”. 
 
We were told that the fingerprinting machine was broken and we would have to go back to the main Capitol Police Station near the Capitol to get fingerprinted.  There was talk that we would likely be released, but I didn’t trust the police who said this as some of us had outstanding cases and some of us lived more than 50 miles from DC.  I still did not really believe they would release all of us.  They cuffed the men, loaded them into a police van and the women sat on chairs in a large garage where we were being processed and waited……  and waited…….  and waited.  It was probably a couple of hours before they cuffed us again to transport us for fingerprinting. 
 
Once back at the main Capitol Police Station, the women were divided and locked into a couple of holding cells.  We didn’t know where the men were at this point.  It took another couple of hours to fingerprint the seven of us, take our picture again, and ask us a few more questions.  While I was being fingerprinted I asked the officer if we were going to be held over and he told me that everyone was going to be released.  Finally, about 1:30 am my name was called as I was sitting in the holding cell.  I thought they were going to ask me more questions, but they took me to the door and released me.  It was so good to see David sitting in the lobby area putting his laces back in his shoes.  Malachy was waiting for me outside. 
 
Matt and Beth were there as support and had drinks and granola bars for us.  Another supporter was waiting to give people rides to wherever they needed to go.  It is a comfort that when we risk arrest and are taken into custody, we know there are people outside waiting to take care of us.  That is an experience most people in DC jails do not have, and something the men in Guantanamo definitely do not have. 
 
As we went back to the Hotel Harrington I was very shocked and dismayed to hear that Brian was being held overnight in Central Lockup when I thought we were all being released.  I was even more shocked and could hardly believe it when I heard about the circumstances that occurred that led to Brian’s being held overnight when the rest of us were released.
 
A few years ago several of us who were arrested participated in an action organized by WAT.  Part of this action involved not having our identification on our person when we were arrested.  Rather, we told the police that we were there on behalf of a particular prisoner being held in Guantanamo and we gave the name of the prisoner as the specific person we were representing.  Brian was involved in that action and gave the name of a prisoner.  We were then fingerprinted and the name of the Guantanamo prisoner was attached to our fingerprints.  They were eventually able to identify us because we had been arrested before and our fingerprints were on file in the computerized system and they could match us with fingerprints from previous arrests.
 
So, on June 23 when Brian was arrested he gave the police his driver’s license which identified him as Brian Hynes.  When the police did a fingerprint search they found the name of the prisoner being held in Guantanamo listed as his real name and Brian Hynes listed as an alias.  The officer in charge accused Brian of lying about his identification and said that he was really the person whose name he gave from Guantanamo – even though he had a valid drivers license listing his name as Brian Hynes.
 
This was absolutely absurd and the officer in charge knew it was absurd.  The officer knew this was not a prisoner from Guantanamo.  This particular officer is often very friendly with activists and talks to us in a very personal way, but can also quickly switch and act in a very sadistic way towards us.  This reminds us that we should never forget who is in charge and has complete control over our lives during the time we are in custody.  One time when I was arrested, he was bantering with me about my grandchildren.  A short time later we were cuffed to be transported.  An officer cuffed me loosely because we were all so sore from spending so much time in cuffs.  The other officer, who can be friendly and then sadistic with us, walked up behind me and yanked the cuff so painfully tight around my wrist just because he could and to show me that he had power over me.  This is a lesson for us to better understand the lives of the men in Guantanamo whose experiences are so extremely more devastating than ours while in custody that we can’t even really compare them.  But we can try to understand the treatment of the men in Guantanamo when we think of the enormous power differential between the prisoners and the guards.
 
Brian was arraigned and released the next day.  The rest of us have an arraignment date set for July 12 and then we will set a trial date.  We were charged with unlawful conduct and will likely get a jury trial because we face 6 months in jail for the action.  We will work together to figure out a way to continue our witness in the courtroom as we continue the struggle for justice for the men in Guantanamo.
 
And, in the meantime, we move on to make plans to continue to speak out against the empire through acts of nonviolent civil resistance.  The National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance (NCNR) is supporting and endorsing october2011.org.  This is an event that will begin with the occupation of Freedom Plaza in Washington, DC on October 6, the 10th anniversary of the invasion of Afghanistan, the longest running war in the history of our country.  We will be there making our voices heard regarding the wars, the environment, healthcare, education, other human needs, etc. etc. etc – all the evils of the empire.  Please go to the website october2011.org and pledge to join us in DC beginning October 6.
 
As part of this bigger event, NCNR will be organizing an action at the NSA in early October.  We must come together.  We must all speak out.  Our government has become so removed from the will of the people, and is beholding to too many large corporations that give them money.  The Bush Administration committed many illegal actions, but too many criminal acts continue under Obama’s watch.  Now is the time for the people to come together and take back our government

The war we resist today began in 2001; declared as a reaction to 9/11, it was fully prepared for prior to 9/11. In less than a year, Bush was agitating for war in Iraq – searching there for weapons of mass destruction. Three nuns found them in Colorado. Ardeth Platte, Carol Gilbert and Jackie Hudson enacted a Citizens’ Weapons Inspection – cutting the fence at the N-8 Missile Silo to expose the presence of a first strike nuclear weapon on high alert.

And I look at the struggle of the Palestinians whose ties to their land go back centuries and whose children can only see giving their lives in that struggle. And I look at the Colombians and the peasants of Central America who have to renew their strength every day and every generation. And I look at the history of our own country and the struggle of working people and people of color and women. None of these struggles is won – like a ball game; each must be borne daily. Clearly, we don’t get everything we struggle for but we have to fight for everything we get. One of the tragedies in this country is the sense that freedom is a possession. We can own it; it can’t be taken from us! It has made us the most pathetic and enslaved people of the world.

I have always written a narrative about my experiences in civil resistance, but I am finding myself wanting to avoid writing about this past action.  Friday morning I found out that Obama has won the Nobel Peace Prize and it sickens me.  Not only does he continue the illegal and immoral wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but I personally felt the expression of violence from his administration as I and 23 others were forcefully removed from the White House sidewalk where we were exercising our First Amendment rights on Oct. 5.

In the spring of this year the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance (NCNR) called together a coalition of peace groups to plan a large demonstration at the White House to mark eight years of war and occupation in Afghanistan.  The coalition eventually included the War Resisters League, Witness Against Torture, Atlantic Life Community, Activist Response Team, World Can’t Wait, Vets For Peace, Haymarket, Code Pink, Peace Action, After Downing Street, Voices for Creative Nonviolence, Voters for Peace, Black is Back, and Progressive Democrats of America.

All of the groups committed to following the practices of nonviolence as we organized for an action at the White House on the eve of 8 years of war and occupation in Afghanistan.  Our demands would be an end to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, an end to the drone bombing of Pakistan, closing of Bagram and Guantanamo, and paying reparations to the people of Afghanistan and Iraq who have suffered so much as a result of our government’s imperialistic policies.  We had a conference call almost every week for four months to plan this action initiated by NCNR.  It wasn’t always an easy process with so many people working together, but it was important to bring many groups together in coalition to create a large action that could not be ignored by the White House.

Jeff Leys with Voices for Creative Nonviolence did a lot of work in getting a registration form and database set up on the Voices website so we would have a sense of how many people wanted to participate in the action.  The weeks prior to the action, I was watching the number of names in the database grow.  By the time I left Madison, we were expecting that close to a hundred people would risk arrest at the White House on Oct. 5.

I flew to DC on Friday with my daughter Jennifer who would be working with seasoned activists on coordinating support work.  We always need good support people and so I was very happy that Jennifer would have this opportunity to learn more about what is involved in coordinating support for a large action.  I am hoping that this experience will give her the confidence she needs to step more deeply into the important role of coordinating support for future actions.

On Saturday I went to a meeting with the Witness Against Torture group to discuss plans for January.  I have been involved in Witness Against Torture actions, risking arrest as we call for the closure of Guantanamo for the past three years.  On his second day in office, Obama signed an executive order to close Guantanamo within a year, which would be January of 2010.  Now it looks like that deadline will not be met and so we needed to discuss how we will continue the campaign,  including adding the growing concerns of Bagram to what needs to be addressed.  About 60 men who have been cleared for release are still being illegally detained in Guantanamo.  Men are still being tortured there.  And now there are similar things going on in Bagram.  Plans are being made for actions in January to demand an end to torture and illegal detainment of innocent people by the U.S. government.

Sunday was a very intense day with a four-hour meeting to work out our final action planning for Monday.  Over 100 people came together at the Festival Center in Washington, DC for this meeting.  We briefly laid out the basic action scenario, determined the affinity groups who would be participating, and each affinity group shared what they would be doing.  This action would be somewhat different from previous actions that I had been involved in.  In other actions, we would all be together doing the same thing, but for this action we decided to break into smaller affinity groups, with each affinity group doing something a little bit different.  And though each group would be doing something a little bit different, we would all be working together demanding an end to U.S. imperialism.  Art Laffin and Susan Crane gave a moving presentation on legal issues.  Susan began by discussing the importance of civil resistance, reminding us that we are not going to the White House to break the law, but rather to uphold the law.  We finished the meeting by breaking into our affinity groups so we could finalize our action plans within each group for Monday.  At the same time the support group met and finalized their plans.  I was exhausted by the end of the meeting.

After dinner, we went back to our hotel for an early night.  I was feeling excited and anxious about the next day as I drifted off to sleep.

Witness Against Torture was asking people to gather at the Supreme Court building at 8:30 am as the high court began a new session, the first official day of court for Sonia Sotomayer.  I wanted to be there, but I had other responsibilities.  I had to get ready for the 10:30 am rally in McPherson Square that would be followed by a solemn procession to the White House.  So on Monday morning, I went directly to McPherson Square to prepare for the rally which I would be emceeing with Max.  I was feeling very nervous.  I really hate to speak in front of people, but sometimes this is part of what I must do in this work.  We had a gathering of a couple hundred people at the rally where John Carroll and Emma’s Revolution provided music, and Carol Graser and Dave Kunes read poetry.  Chi from Black is Back spoke.

We finished off the rally listening to the inspiring Liz McAlister who reminded us of the importance of clinging to hope.  She said, “It is happening here today/among us.  It is happening all over our world.  Things are way more dynamic and alive than those in power calculate….. Many of us understand that a deeper resistance is summoned of us.  We are trying, praying, working – to be strategic, to be faithful, to be human.  And we know that we must keep at it…… So, dear friends, let us not be awed by the mayhem with which the powers of this world bamboozle us.  Let us embrace intransigent resistance; let us imagine that a new world is possible.  And then let us live as if that new world were indeed among us and so live it into being.”  And with those words, we were ready to step off to the White House as we continued our struggle to bring about a new world.

By the time we got to the White House, two blocks from McPherson Square, there were about 400 people who were with us.  It was a bit chaotic.  There were a couple of large cleaning trucks making an incredible noise and so even with a bull horn, it was almost impossible to hear anyone speaking.  Luckily after 20 minutes, the crew stopped for lunch and the noise stopped.  After a few words by Medea Benjamin, and a reading of the International Declaration of Peace by Cindy Sheehan, the various affinity groups began their actions on the White House sidewalk.  Those with Witness Against Torture, dressed in orange jumpsuits with black hoods, chained themselves to the White House fence.  The War Resisters League, wearing pictures of Afghanis who had suffered because of the war, lay down on the sidewalk, World Can’t Wait did a waterboarding demonstration and exhibited their museum of torture.  Other groups participated in other ways, each group sharing the same sentiments as we called on Obama to end the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, to stop the drone bombing of Pakistan, to close Bagram and Guantanamo, and to pay reparations to help the people that we have done so much harm to.

I was with 23 others in the NCNR/Peace Action affinity group.  We went to the guard house to deliver a letter to President Obama.  The letter was refused and so as we announced one-by-one that we could not leave as long as the war continued, we lay down on the sidewalk in front of the guard gate.  We laid there on the sidewalk, simulating death, for one hour.  Then June, a member of our group, touched each person and said it was time to get up because we had more work to do.  By that time the police had cordoned off the area we were in with yellow crime scene tape.  Other officers were in the process of arresting 61 people from the other affinity groups who had remained directly in front of the White House, about half a block down from where we were.  We talked about joining our brothers and sisters there, but the police told us we would not be allowed to do that and so we remained where we were.

There are quite a few different police jurisdictions that we work with when we do an action in DC.  Generally, as was the case that day, it is the U.S. Park Service Police who we deal with in front of the White House.  They told us many different stories throughout the next couple of hours.  At one point they said they could not arrest us because they did not have resources, Then they told us they would arrest us, and on and on.  We knew that we could not believe anything they were saying to us.  At one point they said they could only arrest 12 of us and that the other 12 would have to leave the restricted area.  We said that we were a community and that was impossible.

At various times they told us we could leave and not face arrest.  We refused to leave.  We are not there because we want to get arrested, but because we have a right to be there under the First Amendment and we also have the responsibility to be there.  As Susan Crane said during the training, we are not there to break the law, but to uphold it.  We could not in good conscience walk away as the people of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and other places around the world continue to suffer as a result of the imperialistic policies of the US government – and so we stayed to face whatever would follow.

By the time we were there in front of the guard house for about three hours, the 61 arrested in front of the White House had been taken away on a bus and there were only a handful of supporters, including my daughter Jennifer, remaining to witness our action.  The supporters were standing directly on the other side of the crime scene tape and we could walk up to them and talk to them.  They tried to give us water, but they were warned that they would be arrested if they passed anything into a restricted area.

Eventually the DC Metropolitan Police also showed up.  They also gave us varying stories of what was going to happen to us.  We noticed there were also a number of officers from the U.S. Secret Service Police force at the scene after we had been there for more than a couple of hours.  So, eventually there were almost 100 police officers there from three different police jurisdictions for 24 peaceful people, many of us over 50 years old.  It’s hard to believe we were that threatening.  Eventually, they moved our supporters back away from us, and put up more crime scene tape to create a zone between us and our supporters.  They parked two vans in this zone so that visibility was limited between us and our supporters.

As our supporters, now separated from us, began singing “Peace, Salaam, Shalom”, those of us in the restricted zone who were risking arrest joined hands in a circle and began singing along with them.  As I begin to write about what happened next, I can feel the tension and shakiness in my body grow.

After singing and a short discussion on what the police may do next, the circle broke.  As we continued our discussion, it looked like an arrest might be imminent.  The park police were standing nearby with the plastic cuffs.  Some of us thought we should resume our die-in in solidarity with our brothers and sisters suffering in Afghanistan and so we lay down on the sidewalk.

I noticed that there was a solid line of Metropolitan police standing along the edge of the sidewalk between us and our supporters and that the Secret Service police were standing off to the left of the guard house.  Our group was in front of the guard house.  I lay down on the sidewalk and was only there for a few minutes when we were rushed by strong and brutal Secret Service officers.  They came at us in a line.  They pushed the people who were standing over the people who were lying with no concern for anyone getting hurt or stepped on.  An officer rushed in and standing near the top of head while I was lying on the sidewalk, he reached down and grabbed me under the arms, roughly pulled me to my feet and gave me a sharp push in my back.  I was dumb-founded about what was happening.  Violence like this from the police had never occurred in any action I had been part of.  I remember feeling like this was wrong for them to be pushing us away.  I remember feeling like I wanted to hold my ground, that I had every right to be standing there.  But of course, physically that was impossible.  They pushed us brutally and kept pushing us until we were outside of the restricted area, which was about 100 feet.  As I got my third or fourth sharp push, I said, “Don’t touch me.”  Just before they got me to the edge of the taped in area, about 3 or 4 officers began batting me back and forth, and I was finally flung outside of the taped-in area.

My dear friend alachy, who was also part of the group and was brutally and violently shoved, was standing there and I fell into his arms crying.  I felt so powerless and so violated.  Then Jennifer came over.  She had seen the whole thing and was feeling upset, having watched her Mom being treated that way.  Our group, along with our supporters, walked across the street to Lafayette Park to process what had happened and determine what we wanted to do next.  We decided that we would send out press releases about what had happened and file a formal complaint against the Secret Service police.

I later found out that around the same time this brutality was happening outside, a reporter asked Press Secretary Robert Gibbs about the protesters outside during the daily press briefing.  Mr. Gibbs said, “I think the President has long believed that whether your opinion is on one side of this issue or the other, that this is the — the greatness of our country is that you get to amplify that opinion.”

Who gave the orders to treat us in such a violent manner?  The Secret Service are in the service of the White House.    We were becoming a nuisance and they wanted us to leave.  If we were breaking the law, they should have arrested us.  If we were not breaking the law, we should have been allowed to continue our activities.  Never, during the Bush years, were we treated like this at the White House.   There were about 60 police officers from the U.S. Park Service Police and the D.C. Metropolitan Police who witnessed the brutality of the Secret Service police, yet did nothing to stop it.  Max reported that after the violence, the head of the Park Police told Max that it was not their decision to treat us this way, yet they did nothing to stop it.  Is there a change of tactics in the Obama White House to use force with protesters?

On Tuesday I went to see my congressional representatives to share what had happened with them.  The aides in Senator Feingold’s office and Congresswoman Baldwin’s office were very interested in my story and asked that they be kept in the loop.  They said they would see if they could help in anyway as we continue to examine what happened and why the Secret Service would use violence on peaceful citizens exercising their First Amendment rights in front of the White House.

Because of the violence used against us, this action was more traumatic than many previous actions.  However, they cannot and will not deter us.  I always carry a quote from Dan Berrigan into my actions.  He said, “We have assumed the name of peacemaker, but we have been, by and large, unwilling to pay any significant price.  And because we want peace with half a heart and half a life and will, the war of course, continues, because the waging of war by its nature, is total, but the waging of peace, by our own cowardice, is partial….We cry peace and cry peace and there is not peace.

There is no peace because the making of peace is at least as costly as the making of war, at as exigent, at least as disruptive, at least as liable to bring disgrace, prison, and death in its wake.”

We cannot give up and must continue our struggle for peace and justice, whatever comes.  This winter and spring Voices for Creative Nonviolence is initiating the Peaceable Assembly Campaign.  Witness Against Torture will continue their call to end torture, and close Bagram and Guantanamo.  I will be joining both of these groups in DC in January.  I will also be facing charges on January 25 in a trial with Malachy for our action in June at the Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition vigil at the White House.  Beginning in February, the Peaceable Assembly Campaign will continue locally, and I hope that we can build a strong campaign around that initiative here in Wisconsin.  I look forward to continuing this work with all my dear friends and as Liz McAlister reminds us, “let us live as if that new world were indeed among us and so live it into being.”

Activists had sought a meeting with the Obama Administration to urge an end to the war in Afghanistan

Washington, D.C. – Twenty-three non-violent peace activists calling for an end to the US war in Afghanistan were violently pushed and dragged away from a White House gate by Secret Service officers this afternoon. The activists, participating in a larger demonstration of over 300 people organized by the National Campaign for Non-Violent Resistance, had sent a letter to President Obama last month requesting a meeting today to discuss their opposition to the war.

After a non-violent “die-in” at the White House gate, the peace activists waited for over three hours while various police departments, including the Washington, DC Metro Police, Park Police and Secret Service, gave conflicting stories about whether the activists would be arrested or not, the group’s request to meet with someone from the Administration having been summarily rebuffed by White House guards.

Suddenly, with no warning and with dozens of other police officers watching, a group of about a dozen Secret Service officers swooped in to push and drag the protesters, who included a number of retirees, away from the White House gate and outside a police perimeter that had been established in the normally public area in front of the White House.

“I wonder how the officers who brought a grandmother to tears with their completely unnecessary, harsh use of force will explain how their day went when they go home to their families at the end of their shift,” asked Kevin Martin, Executive Director of Peace Action. Martin was shoved hard in the back by two Secret Service officers, causing him to fall into National Campaign for Non-Violent Resistance Co-convener Joy First, a grandmother from Wisconsin. First was roughed up by several officers and was still in tears twenty minutes after the incident.

“Clearly, the Obama Administration, which has increased the violence in Afghanistan with its escalation of troops earlier this year, would rather have Secret Service thugs rough up peace activists than to engage in a dialogue with us about Afghanistan,” said Martin. Paul Kawika Martin (no relation), Peace Action’s Policy Director, had just returned from a citizens’ peacemaker delegation to Afghanistan organized by the peace group Code Pink. “But we will not be deterred, and the American people have turned decidedly against this war. We call on Obama to meet with us to discuss Afghanistan and apologize for the brutality of the White House police force, and to begin bringing US troops home so the people of Afghanistan can resolve their country’s problems.”

Peace Action is the country’s largest peace and disarmament group with over 100,000 members nationwide.

The National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance has worked for peace in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2002.

It was a scene repeated countless times during the Bush years:

A few hundred people massed on Pennsylvania Avenue outside the White House, wearing orange jumpsuits and hoods, holding photos of wounded children or carrying coffins. They chanted antiwar slogans, acted out waterboarding and pretended to die on the sidewalk. Those who refused orders to leave the area — including ubiquitous activist Cindy Sheehan — were arrested.

But the remarkable thing about this familiar antiwar demonstration is that it occurred Monday, and the target was not George W. Bush but the White House’s current occupant. Protesters’ signs carried Obama-specific barbs: “Change? What Change?” “The Audacity of War Crimes.” “Yes We Can: U.S. Out of Afghanistan.”

Read the rest of the article at the Washington Post here.

About 370 antiwar demonstrators were arrested yesterday after planting themselves on the sidewalk in front of the White House, a protest that stretched out for nearly five hours as police removed them in stages to avoid a backlog at a processing center.

The demonstrators, who had stayed in Washington after Saturday’s antiwar rally and march past the White House, were carted away in Metro buses and police vans. Fingerprinting and booking continued late into the evening at a U.S. Park Police operations facility in Anacostia.

Those arrested were charged with demonstrating without a permit, a misdemeanor that carries a $50 fine and — like a traffic ticket — can be paid by mail or challenged later in court, said Sgt. Scott Fear, a Park Police spokesman.

In an action that they had planned several weeks ago and discussed with police, the demonstrators went to the White House gate on Pennsylvania Avenue NW about 12:30 p.m. and tried to deliver to President Bush the names of all the soldiers and civilians killed in Iraq. When the president did not meet with them, they sat down for their protest.

With bullhorns and hoarse voices, they yelled at the executive mansion, asking whether the president was peeking from behind a curtain or hearing them at all.

“You are a coward! You didn’t meet us in Crawford; come meet us now,” said Beatriz Saldivar of Fort Worth, whose nephew, Army Sgt. Daniel Torres, was killed in action nearly eight months ago during his second tour in Iraq. In August, Saldivar had joined antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan during a protest outside the president’s Texas ranch, when Sheehan had asked to talk with Bush about the death of her son, Casey Sheehan, in Iraq.

Cindy Sheehan, who was among the demonstrators yesterday, was the first to be taken into police custody. She smiled at the crowd when police lifted her from the sidewalk and escorted her to a van.

At his daily news briefing yesterday, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Bush is “very much aware” of the past few days of protests and “recognizes that there are differences of opinion” on the Iraq war.

“It’s the right of the American people to peacefully express their views. And that’s what you’re seeing here in Washington, D.C.,” McClellan said. “They’re well-intentioned, but the president strongly believes that withdrawing . . . would make us less safe and make the world more dangerous.”

The group arrested yesterday was led by a coalition of religious leaders. They were joined by anarchists, military families, Iraq war veterans and political activists of various stripes.

“Only people can stop the war,” said Laura Linder, 44, of Chicago. She was wearing a red, white and blue bandanna and a Plexiglas hockey mask, and her hands were trembling. She said that the weekend’s protests were the first she had attended and that she had never been arrested. “I’m afraid of getting my face bashed in.”

But the relationship between police and protesters was placid, even jovial at times.

The crowd had headed for the White House with signs, chants and guitars. Four monks kept time with drums and a gong. Half a dozen women pulled off their shirts, standing topless with signs that read, “Breasts, Not Bombs!”

In front of the White House, however, the chants and songs grew quieter as the remaining protesters wilted in the humid afternoon.

Earlier in the day, 41 protesters were arrested about 6:30 a.m. at two entrances to the Pentagon and charged with disorderly conduct, said Maj. Todd Vician, a Defense Department spokesman. They were all released and given court dates, Vician said.

Frida Berrigan, 31, of Brooklyn, N.Y., who organized the protest, said the demonstrators unfurled signs that read “War is Terrorism” and blocked workers’ access to the building.

In late June Holder asked an aide for a copy of the CIA inspector general’s thick classified report on interrogation abuses. He cleared his schedule and, over two days, holed up alone in his Justice Depart ment office, immersed himself in what Dick Cheney once referred to as “the dark side.” He read the report twice, the first time as a lawyer, looking for evidence and instances of transgressions that might call for prosecution. The second time, he started to absorb what he was reading at a more emotional level. He was “shocked and saddened” he told a friend, by what government servants were alleged to have done in America’s name. When he was done he stood at his window for a long time, staring at Constitution Avenue.” Independent Day, Daniel Klaidman, NEWSWEEK dated Jul. 20, 2009

For several years, members of the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance [NCNR] have tried to speak truth to power. For example, after an exuberant rally in Washington, D.C.’s John Marshall Park on June 25, Torture Accountability Action Day, NCNR led a march to the Department of Justice to seek a meeting to discuss the indictment of George W. Bush and Richard Cheney.

A letter had been sent on May 11 to Attorney General Eric Holder requesting a meeting. He never responded, so we marched to the DOJ entrance on Pennsylvania Avenue with banners calling for the prosecution of members of the Bush Administration for war crimes.

Last year, we sent a similar letter to then-Attorney General Michael Mukasey. Since he did not respond, we rallied on November 10 outside the DOJ’s Constitution Avenue entrance. A public relations person came out and said he would only deliver our letter. Since we were denied a meeting, sixteen of us did a die-in on the sidewalk. The police declined to arrest us.

The same PR person came out on June 25 and took a copy of the Holder letter. This time he claimed we would receive a response, but said nothing about a meeting. So again we did a die-in, and twelve of us got on the sidewalk to express our disgust. First, representatives of the DOJ were refusing to meet with concerned citizens, and second, it seemed the illegal machinations of the Bush administration were not going to be investigated. The police had orders not to arrest, so we remained on the sidewalk for at least an hour. Afterwards, we resolved that we would continue our efforts to challenge the Department of Justice.

Media reports surfaced in July suggesting Attorney General Holder is seriously considering the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate torture and other abuses that occurred during the Bush-Cheney administrations. This was remarkable, more so considering the Obama White House is opposed to digging up the skeletons.

It is difficult to ascertain what exactly Holder intends to do. Will this be another whitewash, designed to placate the protesters who are demanding justice for all? Or will Holder actually try to restore the rule of law with a thorough investigation followed by a vigorous prosecution of the war crimes?

What interests me is what effect, if any, Torture Accountability Action Day and the other protests might have had on Eric Holder. Is he a government official with a conscience? Is he prepared to go against the president and his advisors?

Members of NCNR have frequent discussions about “effectiveness.” Presumably all groups have similar discussions. Of course, these discussions have to be grounded in the reality that we are challenging the actions of the U.S. government, the greatest imperial power in world history. And it is essential to recognize we have the best Congress corporate lobbyists can buy.

We have no idea if anyone in government, except for the police, notices NCNR’s acts of civil resistance. It was decades later before it was revealed the Vietnam War protests did affect the likes of Robert McNamara and Richard Nixon. We still have not yet received a response from the attorney general, but we are prepared to remind him it is his duty to investigate further the high crimes and misdemeanors of possibly the most notorious administration in the country’s history. Calling for a serious investigation would ensure Holder’s place in history.

Presumably, our actions directed at the Department of Justice have had no effect on its decision-making. Nevertheless, we will continue to act against injustice regardless of our effectiveness. Any nonviolent direct action can have an effect on those who are participating, those supporting, those observing and those being challenged. Quantifying the effect is very difficult.

The need to speak truth to power is an essential part of my life, and I try to be effective. But in these times when our government persists in its warmongering, refuses to stop shredding the Constitution, passes lame climate change legislation and ignores single payer heath care reform, we must act regardless of our effectiveness.

Max Obuszewski has been a member of the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance since its inception.