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 News from Around the Americas | February 2006 
Police Remove Sheehan From Bush Speech
 Laurie Kellman - Associated Press
| | Anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan is escorted out of the spectators' gallery of the House of Representatives prior to the State of the Union Address by US President George W. Bush on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Sheehan was attending the president's speech as a guest of US Representative Lynn Woolsey, a Democrat who has been an outspoken opponent of the war in Iraq. (AFP/Mandel Ngan) |
Washington - Cindy Sheehan finally got her invitation to see President Bush again, but before she set eyes on him at the State of the Union address, Capitol Police removed her from the gallery overlooking the House chamber.
The offense: her shirt, bearing an anti-war message and other "unlawful conduct," police said.
Sheehan, the mother of a fallen soldier in Iraq who reinvigorated the anti-war movement, was handcuffed and charged with unlawful conduct, according to Capitol Police Sgt. Kimberly Schneider. The charge was a misdemeanor and Sheehan was being released on her own recognizance, Schneider said.
Schneider said Sheehan had worn a T-shirt with an anti-war slogan to Tuesday night's speech and covered it up until she took her seat. Police warned her that such displays were not allowed in the House chamber, but she did not respond, the spokeswoman said.
Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif., gave Sheehan her only ticket earlier in the day — Gallery 5, seat 7, row A — while Sheehan was attending an "alternative state of the union" news conference by CODEPINK, a group pushing for an end to the Iraq war.
"I'm proud that Cindy's my guest tonight," Woolsey said in an interview before the speech. "She has made a difference in the debate to bring our troops home from Iraq."
Sheehan, wrapped in a bright pink scarf against the cold, protested outside the White House with a handful of others before heading to the Capitol for Bush's speech. There were no cameras around, but the small band faced the executive mansion and shouted repeatedly, "You're evicted! Get out of our house!"
Sheehan was arrested in September with about 300 other anti-war activists in front of the White House after a weekend of protests against the war in Iraq. In August, she spent 26 days camped near Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, where he was spending a working vacation.
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