After learning “the system has cracks, and you can get in”, Medea Benjamin once again interrupts a conservative speaker. Today, Condoleezza Rice, was interrupted by Medea Benjamin, “in the name of peace”, of course…
A flattering shot of one of the protesters.
Hoping for an “Axis of Eve” like demonstration, attendees at Condoleezza Rice’s talk today at San Francisco Davies Symphony Hall were sadly disappointed by a lame rendition of Abu Ghraib, but without the panties…
Demonstrators interrupted a speech by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Friday by recreating an image of the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal in which a hooded prisoner stood with his arms outstretched attached to electric wires.
Amid tight security at San Francisco’s Davies Symphony Hall, three women and one man pulled on black hoods and cloaks and stood on their seats, acting out the scene caught in one of the photographs of abuse that undermined U.S. prestige abroad.
Rice initially continued her speech on American foreign policy under President Bush but paused when the protesters shouted “Stop the torture. Stop the killing. U.S. out of Iraq,” as police led them out of the auditorium.
Medea Benjamin, one of the protesters, said they were kept in police custody for about an hour and a half and then released with a misdemeanor citation. “We feel we made our point,” said Benjamin, a founding director of the human rights group Global Exchange.
Hoping for a remake of the infamous “naked pyramid”, attendees were sadly disappointed to see the cloak and wire show, without cigarrettes and without pointing.
This is not the first time that “peace activist” Medea has had a police escourt. Medea Benjamin also rushed Vice President Dick Cheney at the Republican National Convention in November:
As Republican Delegates held signs proclaiming “Arnold!” during the Republican National Convention on Tuesday night, Medea Benjamin brought a more profound message to the Republican leadership. Coming within fifteen feet of Vice President Cheney, Benjamin unfurled a sign reading, “Be Pro Life, Stop the Killing in Iraq,” before she was grabbed, handcuffed, and, in the words of Benjamin, “flown out of there.” She was taken to an undisclosed location in the basement of Madison Square Garden, questioned, detained, and finally released onto the street with strict orders never to return…
…Fresh from her release, Benjamin summed up the night’s actions with quiet but enthusiastic resoultion. “The lesson from tonight is that the system is not impenetrable — the system has cracks that you can get in. I think people need to know that they should protest on the outside, but that they should also protest on the inside.
Finally, Here is a profound line from Medea Benjamin’s Global Exchange website…
Ask yourself: If broccoli were the number one export from the Middle East, would we have invaded Iraq? Hmm…
