Sunday, August 06, 2006
Cindy Sheehan is coming home from Jordan and here is her plan...
Sheehan will try again to meet with the president
Updated 8/5/2006 7:38 PM ET
Richard Benedetto, USA TODAY
At Camp Casey, hundreds of small, white wooden crosses, symbolizing the graves of Americans killed in Iraq.
Richard Benedetto, USA TODAY
CRAWFORD, Texas — Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, whose son Casey was killed in Iraq in 2004, begins her summer peace vigil here Sunday, only seven miles from President Bush's ranch.
Bush came to the ranch for a 10-day respite last Thursday and plans to stay until Aug. 13.
Sheehan, who will arrive here from a trip to Jordan, where she met and talked with Iraqi families, said she will once again seek a meeting with the president.
" I want to ask him why he continues to stay in Iraq when the killing gets worse every day. I want to continue to hold him accountable," she told USA TODAY in a phone interview from Jordan.
She said she also wants to tell Bush what she has heard from the Iraqi families — their problems and their needs.
"One of the things they want is a timeline for U.S. troops to get out of their country," she said.
Sheehan came to Crawford last August seeking a meeting with Bush and setting up a camp on the road to the president's ranch. Hundreds of peace activists and war protesters followed her down, making her encampment a media magnet that beamed stories and pictures of the protest around the world. Her protest triggered a counter protest by supporters of the war on the final weekend of August.
Bush, who met with Sheehan in 2004 at Fort Lewis, Wash., along with other parents of troops killed in Iraq, but refused to meet with her last summer, saying he disagreed with her call for an immediate pullout. However, he did send administration aides to meet with her, however.
On Friday, White House press secretary Tony Snow held out little hope that Bush would give in this time. He said there were "no plans" for any meetings this time with Sheehan, presidential or otherwise.
Snow said that with the White House focused on hammering out a United Nations resolution that would end hostilities in the Middle East, he said the subject of Sheehan had not risen to that level.
And then, in a nod to the searing 100-degree temperatures here, Snow added, "I would advise her to bring water, Gatorade, or both."
Bush spent part of Saturday meeting at his ranch with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and national security adviser Stephen Hadley as they monitored U.N. negotiations on Lebanon.
Sheehan will kick off her vigil Sunday morning with a prayer service and a press conference, which will be staged on five acres of vacant land she bought about one mile down the road from the center of Crawford, a quiet town of about 700 residents. Sheehan will stay in a tent on the land, which still has no running water and electricity.
On Saturday, a handful of volunteers braved the heat and white gravel dust kicked up by visiting cars to pitch tents and putting up signs. One sign at the entrance said. "Welcome Home Camp Casey," the name, after her son, Sheehan gave to her encampment last year.
Also on the land were hundreds of small, white wooden crosses, symbolizing the graves of Americans killed in Iraq.
Updated 8/5/2006 7:38 PM ET
Richard Benedetto, USA TODAY
At Camp Casey, hundreds of small, white wooden crosses, symbolizing the graves of Americans killed in Iraq.
Richard Benedetto, USA TODAY
CRAWFORD, Texas — Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, whose son Casey was killed in Iraq in 2004, begins her summer peace vigil here Sunday, only seven miles from President Bush's ranch.
Bush came to the ranch for a 10-day respite last Thursday and plans to stay until Aug. 13.
Sheehan, who will arrive here from a trip to Jordan, where she met and talked with Iraqi families, said she will once again seek a meeting with the president.
" I want to ask him why he continues to stay in Iraq when the killing gets worse every day. I want to continue to hold him accountable," she told USA TODAY in a phone interview from Jordan.
She said she also wants to tell Bush what she has heard from the Iraqi families — their problems and their needs.
"One of the things they want is a timeline for U.S. troops to get out of their country," she said.
Sheehan came to Crawford last August seeking a meeting with Bush and setting up a camp on the road to the president's ranch. Hundreds of peace activists and war protesters followed her down, making her encampment a media magnet that beamed stories and pictures of the protest around the world. Her protest triggered a counter protest by supporters of the war on the final weekend of August.
Bush, who met with Sheehan in 2004 at Fort Lewis, Wash., along with other parents of troops killed in Iraq, but refused to meet with her last summer, saying he disagreed with her call for an immediate pullout. However, he did send administration aides to meet with her, however.
On Friday, White House press secretary Tony Snow held out little hope that Bush would give in this time. He said there were "no plans" for any meetings this time with Sheehan, presidential or otherwise.
Snow said that with the White House focused on hammering out a United Nations resolution that would end hostilities in the Middle East, he said the subject of Sheehan had not risen to that level.
And then, in a nod to the searing 100-degree temperatures here, Snow added, "I would advise her to bring water, Gatorade, or both."
Bush spent part of Saturday meeting at his ranch with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and national security adviser Stephen Hadley as they monitored U.N. negotiations on Lebanon.
Sheehan will kick off her vigil Sunday morning with a prayer service and a press conference, which will be staged on five acres of vacant land she bought about one mile down the road from the center of Crawford, a quiet town of about 700 residents. Sheehan will stay in a tent on the land, which still has no running water and electricity.
On Saturday, a handful of volunteers braved the heat and white gravel dust kicked up by visiting cars to pitch tents and putting up signs. One sign at the entrance said. "Welcome Home Camp Casey," the name, after her son, Sheehan gave to her encampment last year.
Also on the land were hundreds of small, white wooden crosses, symbolizing the graves of Americans killed in Iraq.
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Cindy is a hero. Anyone who will live in a tent in Texas in August with no running water and no electricity is damn committed to their cause. The heat index today is over 110 degrees. You feel like you're drowning in hot bath water. I greatly admire her.
Snowjob can kiss my ass too Hill! I agree that Cindy is a hero too. She's very selfless because she's trying to make it perfectly clear to the American people that our soldiers are dying needlessly over in Iraq! You have to admire someone who is willing to put her life and reputation on the line. She pro-war right hates her, but in the end, Cindy will be looked upon as an articulate mother of a dead soldier who was trying to get an answer from the goddamn president on what noble cause are our soldiers dying for!!!
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