Seven Anti-War Demonstrators Arrested At House Hearing

Seven anti-war protesters were arrested by Capitol Police Thursday after repeatedly interrupting the testimony of Defense officials at a House Armed Services hearing.

The anti-war demonstrators, who have been identified as part of the Occupy DC movement in Freedom Plaza, teamed up with Code Pink and shuffled their way into the crowded hearing room that was expected to hear testimony from Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Martin Dempsey.

According to a statement released by October2011.org, an advocate website for the Occupy DC movement, one of the demonstrators arrested was 21-year-old veteran Michael Patterson, who was deployed to Iraq as an interrogator at the age of 18.

Patterson interrupted the testimony of Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and was eventually arrested and escorted from the hearing room by two Capitol Police officers.

“You are murdering people,” Patterson shouted. “I saw what you do to people in Iraq.”

Demonstrators who failed to infiltrate the hearing room continued to shout, “We are the 99 percent and we don’t support these wars,” throughout the hallways of Rayburn House Office Building.

The seven demonstrators were arrested and charged with disruption of Congress.

Hecklers Disrupt Joint Deficit Reduction Committee Meeting

As members of the Joint Deficit Reduction Committee met Thursday to make opening remarks and consider proposed committee rules, hecklers outside the hearing room raised their voices high. 

The 12-member committee was dedicated to their looming task at hand - to reduce the federal deficits by $1.5 trillion by Thanksgiving - but a group of protestors outside the hearing room caused the meeting to come to a temporary halt as they shouted their imminent need for jobs.

In addition to the protestors outside the hearing room, three protestors garbed in bold, pink outfits touted “Tax the Rich!” signs and sat front and the center in the audience of the committee hearing room. 

As protestors raised their voices louder, committee co-chair Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) instructed staffers to close the door and for committee members to speak louder.

And that is exactly what they did. 

As each committee member addressed the need to reduce the deficit and create jobs for Americans, they all agreed that compromise would be a critical component of the committee’s task. 

“A successful final product that comes from this committee must include compromises on both sides,” committee co-chair Senator Patty Murray declared. 

“If this committee fails, it won’t be for lack of ideas. It will be for lack of political will,” Rep. Christopher Van Hollen (D-Md.) stated. “We need to bite the bullet and put our country first. Compromise is not a dirty word.”

The next committee meeting is set for Tuesday, September 13. 

Click here and here to see photos from today 

Protesters Urge D.C. Drivers To Boycott BP

By Linn Grubbstrom - Talk Radio News Service

After protests outside BP's D.C. headquarters and the White House in recent weeks, the organization Code Pink staged a demonstration in front of a D.C. based BP gas station Saturday with the goal of encouraging drivers to support a boycott against the company responsible for the oil spill in the Gulf Coast. Armed with banners and signs, the demonstrators blocked the driveway in to the station.

"One thing we're trying to do is to get people to stop from going in here," said Diane Wilson, a shrimper from Texas who co-found Code Pink. "There was a fellow just trying to turn in a little while ago and ... I was saying boycott BP and he shook his head, yelled ... squirreled around and left."

Added Wilson, "I hope he went to a different gas station."

During the last two weeks, Wilson has been arrested twice, most recently while disrupting BP CEO Tony Hayward's testimony before Congress. This time she and Code Pink hope that the local protest will do more to hurt BP's pocketbook.

"We are hoping to economically impact BP. That is the way these guys ... listen to reason," said Wilson. "You impact them economically and then it kind of registers in their heads."

Protesters' Message To Obama: Get Tough On BP

By Linn Grubbstrom - Talk Radio News Service

While President Barack Obama met with officials from BP Wednesday, a handful of demonstrators gathered outside the White House to urge the President to take stronger action against the oil giant responsible for the massive spill in the Gulf Coast.

"[The White House has] yet to start talking about a criminal prosecution," said Diane Wilson, a shrimper and activist from Texas who last week poured what appeared to be oil on herself during a hearing with BP executives.

Mahdi Bray, the executive director of the Muslim American Society, also participated in the protest and joined the call for a tougher response.

"We want to apply more pressure on the White House and our public officials," Bray told Talk Radio News. "They really need to seize the assets of BP before they find some kind of financial loophole, possibly bankruptcy."

Gates on Iraq: We must get the endgame there right

“The surge helped achieve a lower level of violence. It has not yet achieved its stated purpose- political accommodation among Iraq’s leaders,” Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich) said in his opening statement at the Senate Armed Services Committee Hearing on the Situation in Iraq and Afghanistan. Our “open-ended commitment in Iraq” is an invitation to “continued Iraqi dawdling and dependency,” and it’s carrying the costs of the lives of Americans and billions of dollars.

Senator John Warner (R-Va) expressed his respect for Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and said that he’d had the opportunity to work with every Secretary of Defense since 1969, and that “you never shot from the hip.” Gates, Warner said, understood that they needed bipartisan support and that Gates had it like Warner had never seen before. We thank you, Warner said, but there is much to be done. I commend the concept of the surge, he said, and I commend most heartily the courage of the troops. By any fair and pragmatic judgement, it has been a success.

The withdrawal of approximately 3,400 non-combat forces began this month, Gates began, saying that it will continue through the fall and winter, and finish in January. The drawdown is possible, he said, “because of the success achieved in reducing violence and building Iraqi security capacity.” There has been a fundamental change in the nature of the conflict, and “no matter what you think about the origins of the war in Iraq, we must get the endgame there right.”

In response to a congressional question of the assessment of the new government in Pakistan and their willingness to work with the United States, Gates said they're already seeing positive signs with Pakistan, because Pakistan has suffered a lot of casualties and they’ve captured terrorists. What’s important in Pakistan, is to forge a new stronger partnership with the civilian government. The recent attacks have made it clear to them that there is an existential threat to Pakistan.

Gates said he is not satisfied with the civil reconstruction and the development of the capacity of the Afghan government. “That war on terror started in this region, and it must end there.” The reality is, Gates continued, is that in the last 18 months, we have added over 20,000 troops to Afghanistan, and there are two considerations about the situation. One, we need to think about how heavy a “military footprint” the United States ought to have in Afghanistan, and are we better off channeling resources instead into “building the Afghan Army” as quickly as possible. Two, (which he says he feels is evident to all), is that without changing deployment patterns, and length of tours, we do not have the forces to send three additional brigade combat teams to Afghanistan at this point, but they will probably become available in the spring/summer of 2009. That’s a decision that will ultimately be up to President Bush’s successor.

Code Pink, an anti-war group, proliferated the audience, wearing “Bail out of Iraq” placards and multitudes of pink buttons, signs, and t-shirts. They mainly sat quietly in the audience, appropriately not holding signs above their heads, but at one point one member started calling out “shame!” during Gates’ speech.