Rice Accosted By Anti-War Protester

Secretary Of State Called A 'War Criminal' At House Committee Hearing

(AP)  Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was accosted by an anti-war protester with her hands painted red to look like blood as she entered the room to testify before the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

The protester shouted that Rice was a "war criminal" and should be taken to the Hague, a reference to international war tribunals.

Rice was stoic and proceeded with business as normal as the protester was immediately spirited from the room. Other protesters were likewise escorted away at the behest of Committee Chairman Tom Lantos, D-Calif.

Despite the protesters' effort to focus on the war, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict dominated much of the hearing. A "two-state solution" in the Middle East is in jeopardy after a series of events including Iran's recent efforts to support Palestinian Hamas militants, Rice said.

Accordingly, the Bush administration decided to convene an upcoming peace conference in Annapolis, Md., to keep from losing a window of opportunity, she told the House panel.

"Our concern is growing that without a serious political prospect for the Palestinians that gives to moderate leaders a horizon that they can show to their people that indeed there is a two-state solution that is possible, we will lose the window for a two-state solution," Rice told the committee.

Sharp questions included ones from Lantos on whether the Bush administration was doing enough to pressure Egypt to crack down on Hamas sympathizers and another on the question of whether Bush was calling for the peace conference to salvage his political legacy.

Rice dismissed suggestions that the conference was a political ploy.

"There are probably easier foreign policy tasks to take on than the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," she said. "The timing comes down to what it is we need to do to give moderate forces in the region a boost and to deal a blow to forces of extremism."

The conference has not been scheduled, but should happen by the end of the year, she said.

On a separate issue, Rice said an emergency State Department review found serious problems with the way private security guards operate in Iraq and that more changes to government policy for contractors may be needed.

Rice said she and Defense Secretary Robert Gates have told their No. 2 officials to do a further study. Rice has already ordered two rounds of changes to the rules for security contractors intended to install greater oversight from Washington.

On Iran, Rice said the administration shares Congress' goal of making sanctions tougher on Iran. But she urged patience among lawmakers, who are increasingly frustrated that not enough was being done to deter Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

Last month, the House passed, by a 397-16 vote, legislation aimed at blocking foreign investment in Iran, in particular its lucrative energy sector. The bill, sponsored by Lantos, would specifically bar the president from waiving U.S. sanctions.

"We are, of course, very concerned, Mr. Chairman, that the policies of Iran constitute perhaps the single greatest challenge for American security interest in the Middle East and possibly around the world, because the combination of Iranian terrorism, Iranian repression at home and the pursuit of nuclear weapons technology . . . is a very dangerous mix," she said.

[thelema-2009]

FeelFree1 provides the best articulation of the real issues I''ve seen to date:

Every U.S. service member, as you know, swears an oath to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States...". Our Constitution cites international treaties as the "Supreme Law of the Land", meaning that ALL U.S. policies are bound by any international treaty of which the U.S. is signatory.

One such treaty is the U.N. Charter, which provides for only 2 cases which a member country may legally wage war against another. One is in the event of an imminent threat (currently being invaded/attacked), and the other requires a specific U.N. Security Council Resolution authorizing the use of force. We know that the Bush regime failed to push through an actionable U.N. Resolution, ahead of the invasion of Iraq, and we know that there was no imminent threat from the Saddam regime. As such, the war against Iraq violates the U.N. Charter, which is in turn a serious violation of our Constitution.

The Iraq War also constitutes an "illegal war of aggression", as described by the Nuremberg Charter, another U.S. obligated treaty, since it was an offensive action by the Bush regime, and there was no threat, only fabricated intelligence, in support of the invasion.

[thelema-2009]

Notblue, your comments (below) sound like you believe every p.r. brand name you hear. If you think that unjustified, un-Constitutional, preemptive bombing of innocent civilians is for their "liberation," and that the citizens of Iraq have any chance to govern themselves under the current U.S./Allied dictatorship, you need to go live on an ostrich farm with your peeps, ostriches. Your head is in the sand, right where the spin doctors want it.

It''s funny how the left/terrorist supporters always justify the actions of the militants by calling the U.S. occupiers. This is an incorrect statement, the U.S. is not there to occupy and take Iraq as Americas property, we are liberators. Giving the people of Iraq a chance to govern themselves not to be supressed by dictatorship or theocracy. After Sadam was removed 12 million Iraqi citizens voted for DEMOCRACY not theocracy which is what the Islamic militants want, they know they cannot be relevant in a democracy so with the support of the leftwing in this country they will scream occupation and drive any chances of freedom from the people of Iraq.

[thelema-2009]

NavyRetired2, are you actually saying that, because the man returned to the village while being attacked in an open field from the air, he was "hiding behind innocents" and was "gutless?"

Man, you are twisted. That''s all I can say. Do you have PTSD from your time in the military?

[thelema-2009]

Bizzzz,

Reagan was an actor; Bush I, a CIA Director (!!); and Bush II, an insecure, bumbling, dry (questionable) drunk, little boy.

It''s not about the parties. It''s far bigger than that. You don''t think that our presidents are pre-determined beforehand by a ruling elite? Think again. Private interests are now so ubiquitous in relationship to the political process, that they determine its outcome.

[thelema-2009]

Chilling to watch the apathetic complicity of the people in the room. Now I get how Nazi Germany and all totalitarianism can come to pass. The year-long 300-level course on the Holocaust that I took at a prestigious university couldn''t illustrate the phenomenon of mundane evil so well.

[thelema-2009]

continued...more Condi wisdom (not)

On Iran, Rice said the administration shares Congress'' goal of making sanctions tougher on Iran. But she urged patience among lawmakers, who are increasingly frustrated that not enough was being done to deter Tehran''s nuclear ambitions. [And what about U.S. ambitions? Is the U.S. the only civilization on Earth? Come again?]


Rice: "...the combination of Iranian terrorism, Iranian repression at home and the pursuit of nuclear weapons technology . . . is a very dangerous mix," she said. [Substitute "U.S." for "Iranian" and see how it reads. And/or take out any nationalistic reference, and one is left with the obvious: a combo of terrorism, repression at home, and pursuit of nukes = a very dangerous mix. No duh, Condi.]

[thelema-2009]

Rice is so timely and wise (NOT!)

Rice: "The timing comes down to what it is we need to do to give moderate forces in the region a boost and to deal a blow to forces of extremism." [Gee, Condi, does this mean that extremist, occupying murderers like you and yours--will be dealt a blow?]

The conference has not been scheduled, but should happen by the end of the year, she said. [A PEACE conference? Up is down, down is up, 2+2=5; Orwellian wordspeak]

On a separate issue, Rice said an emergency State Department review found serious problems with the way private security guards operate in Iraq and that more changes to government policy for contractors may be needed. [So astute and preventatively ahead of the game, Condi.]

Rice said she and Defense Secretary Robert Gates have told their No. 2 officials to do a further study. Rice has already ordered two rounds of changes to the rules for security contractors intended to install greater oversight from Washington. [A frightening notion.]

continued...

[thelema-2009]

Revision of my previous post:

1. This thing goes way beyond the U.S. govt. The world oligarchy, or plutocracy, has Everyman (in every country) just where they wants us: afraid, terrorized, practically mute, and dismayed, except for a few courageous souls. We''re disposable pawns in their game of controlling resources and culling overpopulation so they can live in conspicuous, unbridled, stupored consumption and false ego fluffing (%u201Cfluffer%u201D pun intended).

The above being said:

2. All %u201Creality%u201D is a macrocosm of the microcosm that is each of us. %u201CWe have met the enemy, and he is us.%u201D (Walt Kelly, Pogo comicstrip) Hence, we get the govt. and world situation that we %u201Cdeserve,%u201D i.e., that we serve of, that we co-create by complicity. Physics now proves the co-relation between the observer and the observed, the imaginer and the imagined.

3. The only hope for a good/harmonious world is if we think, speak, act and behave in the highest good/harmony for all. Eye on the prize: a harmonious, kind, loving, sustainable world. This requires vigilant focus and training of the mind, consciousness, thought, word and deed. I have to give myself this pep talk so I don''t dissolve in despair, which would mean that the evil ones, and the evil within, had won. (%u201CEvil%u201D is the opposite of %u201Clive.%u201D)

[thelema-2009]

The score:
World Oligarchy--Out of the ballpark
Everyman--Benched

This thing goes way beyond the U.S. govt. The world oligarchy, or plutocracy, has Everyman (in every country) just where he wants us: afraid, terrorized, practically mute, and dismayed, except for a few courageous souls. We''re disposable pawns in their game of controlling resources and culling overpopulation so they can live in conspicuous, unbridled, stupored consumption and false ego fluffing ("fluffer" pun intended).

The only hope for a good world is if we think, speak, act and behave in the highest good or all. Eye on the prize: a harmonious, kind, loving world. I have to give myself this peptalk so I don''t dissolve in despair, which would mean that the evil ones had won.

[rfield9]

Every American should see the Moyers report
from this summer, documenting how our "liberal"
press totally rubberstamped Bush on the pre-war
WMD claim, and failed their mission of true
information. The disproof of it was known at the
time, simply not reported by liberal bastions NYT
and Washington Post. Knight-Ridder had it, and
the national media ignored it.

You can watch it on your computer;

http://pbs.org/moyers/journal/btw/watch.html

You won''t be getting up once you start into it,
it''s riveting. Pass the link on please -

[rfield9]

While rushing Rice in that manor is a threatening
act and is over the line of standard non-violent
protest, one still must credit Ms. Ali-Fairooz for
having the fortitude to go through with it. She
knew that would get it on the news and was correct
about that. Most war opponents would never have
the stones to pull that off.

The rest of the Code Pink group in attendance,
followed traditional non-violent conduct by being
vocally disruptive at Rice and then falling to
the floor when approached by security. They made
their point. Somebody needed to.

Because wherever you side on the question of
pre-war WMD claims - cooked or just a mistake -
there can be no doubt about the intensity with
which Rice, Cheney, Bush and the army of
Neo-con propagandists in the media, sold the
need for pre-emptive war.

They went ape over it and turned out wrong, now
thousands of Americans are dead or crippled, tens
of thousands of Iraqi''s dead - in the civil war they
never understood would follow an invasion by a scant
150,000, which never had a chance to hold order in a nation that size.

So holding to account, is essential to a democratic
form of government. They work for us and were NOT
annointed dictators. They should have to fully
answer for their decisions, which to this day they
stonewall & the commercial media accepts passively.

[klingon69]

Wow. That woman looked like she was about to strangle Condi Rice.

I thought Rice was going to pull a Marie Osmond there. She turned white as a sheet.



Posted by Iceman_1960 at 12:47 AM : Oct 25, 2007

That woman was ready to slap her across the chops with the hand of red paint.
Posted by menofoz at 12:49 AM : Oct 25, 2007
I wonder why she wasn''t tasered. Unlike the other recent events that resulted in police tasering people, t6his "pink lady" did make threatening advances at a government official. Why did they not taser her?

[klingon69]

Deutchland Deutchland Uber alis Uber Alis Over all

Like the german people learn it has happend you have let it happen...
Posted by jerryomara at 06:07 PM : Oct 24, 2007
At least get it right.
Deutschland Deutschland uber alles, uber alles im der welt.

[klingon69]

Hillary Clinton administration, where technique is valued above ideology...
Posted by razzl at 06:01 PM : Oct 24, 2007

Ahahahahahahahahahahaha

[erichsh]

brianbwb - fair enough, I crashed and went to bed, now I''m at work to see if this post is still alive. Quick answers -

(1) No I don''t think Iraq was behind 9/11. I was uncomfortable about the pre-emptive strike against Iraq and still prefer we never went in.

(2) It is established fact that Saddam not only had WMD, but used them against his own people. There has been speculation that some WMD''s were shipped to Syria, and I wouldn''t be surprised if that was true to some extent, but I don''t know for sure.

(3) I reject out of hand the notion that "Bush lied". I reject out of hand that this was all a deliberate scheme to line his pockets. I think it was a misguided, overzealous, narrow-minded decision based on fear and paranoia, but not a deliberate lie for profit.

[gunownerdan]

Dirty Democrats and rotten republicans all profit from war. Endless war is their dream come true!!!

[realpatriot1]

erichsh,

My opinion on whether or not Sept.11 was an inside job is neutral. I see enough questions that haven''t been adequately explained and highly dubious occurances and unusual coincidences surrounding it that I can''t honestly rule it out totally. At the same time, I don''t know enough to say what really happened.

One thing that I do know is that our government has not been eager to leave no stone unturned on the matter and any American who truly loves both their country and the truth should want to know more than we do.

I feel the same way about the Iran-Contra affair, the Kennedy & King assassinations, and the Plame affair.

You may think that makes me a conspiracy loonie, I think it makes me and others like me patriotic Americans.

[drummer94]

Signof4/whispyseas1 wow. Both your persona''s are nuts.

[gkc99]

NOT TO WORRY Condi, Exxon will name another oil tanker after you!

[Ed0719]

Condi should be swinging from the end of a rope along Pennsylvania Ave along with Bush, Cheney, Rumsfield, Feith, Rove, Wolfowitz. All of them are war-criminals and guilty of treason against the United States of America.