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More than 200 people were arrested across the United States as
protesters marking the fifth anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq
obstructed downtown traffic and tried to block access to government
offices.
There were 32 arrests in Washington after demonstrators attempted
to block entrances to the Internal Revenue Service, while 30 others
were arrested outside a congressional office building, police
said.
Protesters had hoped to shut down the IRS, the U.S. tax
collection agency, to highlight the cost of the war. Police cleared
the building's entrances within an hour.
In San Francisco, long a centre of anti-Iraq war sentiment, police
arrested more than 100 people who protested through the day along
Market Street in the central business district, a spokesman
said.
Sergeant Steve Maninna said officers had arrested 143 people on
charges including trespassing, resisting arrest and obstructing
traffic.
Four women were also detained for hanging a large banner off the
city's famous Golden Gate Bridge and then released, said bridge
spokeswoman Mary Currie.
On Washington's National Mall, about 100 protesters carried signs
that read: "The Endlessness Justifies the Meaninglessness" and
waved upside-down US flags, a traditional sign of distress.
"Bush and Cheney, leaders failed, Bush and Cheney belong in jail,"
they chanted, referring to US President George Bush and Vice
President Dick Cheney.
One hour after the IRS standoff, several dozen protesters waved
signs that read: "Stop Paying to Kill" and "How Much Longer?" as a
ragtag brass band played. IRS employees were easily able to enter
the building.
"We wanted to put our bodies between the money and what that money
goes to fund -- the war, the occupation, the bombs," said Frida
Berrigan, an organizer with the War Resisters League.
The war has cost the United States $500 billion since the invasion
to topple Saddam Hussein began in March 2003 and is a major issue
in November's US presidential election. Tens of thousands of Iraqis
have been killed and millions more displaced, with almost 4,000 US
soldiers killed.
Blocking traffic
Later, scores of noisy protesters blocked a busy intersection in
Washington's business district. They picketed in front of the
offices of The Washington Post and threw red paint on the building
that houses the Examiner newspaper and Bechtel National Inc, which
has handled major reconstruction projects in Iraq.
In New York, about 30 members of the "Granny Peace Brigade"
gathered in Times Square, knitting in hand, to demand troops be
brought home now.
"We're out here to show people that this war is madness. We never
should have gotten into this war in the first place," said Shirley
Weiner, 80.
Police in Boston arrested five people who blocked access to a
military recruitment centre by lying on a sidewalk dressed as slain
Iraqi civilians, an Iraqi mourner, a slain U.S. soldier and an
American citizen in mourning.
"We went to this military recruiting station today because we want
to see the war end immediately," said activist Joe Previtera in a
statement. "Silently waiting for Congress to act on this war in
2009 will condemn thousands more people to injury and senseless
death. Enough is enough."
