Code Pink Activist Talks About Iran, Meeting With Joe Lieberman
Wearing her trademark pink attire, including a pink tiara with glittery peace signs, activist Leslie Angeline came to Gateway Community College Wednesday to talk about her 24-day hunger strike to get a meeting with U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman.
She wants Lieberman, I-Conn., to stop “making blanket statements” for the United States to bomb Iran. “They have attacked no one. They love Americans,” she said.
On June 10, Lieberman appeared on the CBS television show “Face the Nation” and said the U.S. should send airstrikes to terrorist training camps in Iran. According to the CBS Web site, Lieberman said: “I think we’ve got to be prepared to take aggressive military action against the Iranians to stop them from killing Americans in Iraq. And to me, that would include a strike … over the border into Iran, where we have good evidence that they have a base at which they are training these people coming back into Iraq to kill our soldiers.”
Angeline, a member of the Code Pink women’s peace movement, learned of Lieberman’s remarks soon after she returned from a two-week trip to Iran with Global Exchange, a humanitarian organization.
Before an audience of about 20, she presented a video on her travels through Iran’s tree-lined streets. In one scene of the video, an Iranian asks her about her position on Iran’s use of nuclear technology, to which Angeline replies: “It’s in the treaty that Iranian people can use nuclear technology.”
Another scene shows her asking a group of female students what message they would like her to take back to America. One quips: “Please be more careful when you choose your presidents from now on.”
She stressed throughout her talk that Iranians understand that the will of the American people may differ from the will of the president, just as the will of Iranian people may differ from the will of their president. Angeline had to wear a head covering throughout her visit to Iran in deference to the country’s strict Islamic requirements that forbid women to appear with their heads uncovered.
Lieberman’s office declined to comment on her visit other than to refer to his past statements on Iran.
Angeline’s fast, which included water and clear juice, landed her in the hospital for dehydration before she could meet with the senator. She said she collapsed in his office on the 16th day of her fast. A week later the senator’s staff called police and had her arrested and charged with “unlawful entry” when she entered his office to make an appointment. After Roll Call, the capitol’s daily newspaper, published her photo and the incident the next day, Lieberman’s staff arranged a five-minute meeting for Angeline on the condition that she come alone and with no press.
While she described it as a positive meeting that lasted 15 minutes, the senator’s staff is still pressing charges, she said, and she faces up to 60 days in jail.
Local activists were irate to learn of her dilemma.
“I don’t know what is more infuriating: Lieberman’s double talk or his efforts to put you in jail,” said Jerry Topitzer, 73, of New Haven, a member of Veterans for Peace.
Event organizers encouraged those who attended to phone and e-mail Lieberman’s Chief of Staff Clarine Nardi Riddle, to ask that the charges be dropped.
The meeting was sponsored by the Greater New Haven Peace Council, Greater New Haven chapter of the National Organization for Women and the Peace Committee of the Unitarian Society of New Haven.
©New Haven Register 2007
What an asshole. Not that this comes as a surprise, I already had a pretty good inkling he was an asshole…
Joe Lieberman an asshole…thinks you have that wrong…even assholes are useful…Joe Lieberman is what passes through an asshole…something smelly and a body waste thats needs flushing
Lieberman is a disgrace to America, and the Connecticut coalition of Republicans and hardline Democrats who voted him in again should hang their heads in shame. He actively wants to get America more militarily embroiled in the Middle East. Why? He is so loyal to the right wing governments of Israel that he automatically parrots the Israeli line; Israel wanted Saddam Husein out, and now they want the US to bomb targets in Iran. Israel is grievously wrong, as is Lieberman. And the US should get our army the hell out of the Middle East.
It is hard to believe that this is the man who was Al Gore’s running mate.
As always I am glad I voted for Nader. I like Gore but wtf why did he choose this lunatic likudnik back in 2000 as his running mate? That’s why he lost the election. A lot of us already knew where Liebermans loyalties lied to begin with. Liberman is the reason we have Bush in power. Hillary Clinton is just Lierberman in drag by the way when it comes to her policies.
Maybe thats one of the reasons Gore got beat? This guy is just an agent of the zionist group looking out primarily for Israels interrest.Religion in politics is toxic.Bush is a perfect example of a religious zealot everything is black and white,without never considering the tones of grey in between.
I know that Al Gore is the new saint of left wing America, but doesn’t it make you wonder what is really behind his “I am the nr 1 saviour of the world do gooder guy” if he has choosen a guy like Lieberman as his runningmate in the not so far away past. He is either stupid in which case his message about the climate loses a bit of ground or he is cunning which is much more likely. That should make you wonder what is really behind his climate message.
kucinich will stop the carnage….
She was arrested for trying to make an appointment with a legislator? How on earth does Lieberman and the cops think they can make the charges stick? Reminds me of when Cindy Sheehan and Medea Benjamin along with other Code Pink ladies were arrested and held overnight in jail simply for trying to deliver petitions to the United Nations.
We are in a military police state if constituents get arrested just for delivering petitions and trying to make appointments with a politician!
Under Bush’s “Military Commissions Act of 2006 ANY American citizen can be arrested without a shred of evidence by the FBI/Homeland Security and sent to a top secret naval military brig in Charleston South Carolina - sexually tortured, denied bail, denied a trial, no legal counsel and refused medical treatment - for an INDEFINITE period of time.
About the blurb with Iranians telling the American Code Pink activist - “Tell your fellow AMericans to be more careful who they elect President” - Bush was NOT legally elected president - he sailed into office via massive election fraud. Gore won the popular vote and Bush wriggled into the White House ONLY because Florida Registrar of Voters, Kathleen Harris was simultaneouls working full time as 2000 Florida “Elect Bush” Republican Party Chairperson - this is felony conflict of interest. 100’s of thousands of legitimately registered black voters in Florida were tossed off the roster. It happened AGAIN in Ohio in 2004, when Mr. Blackwell, Ohio Registrar of Voters was the state “Re-Elect Bush” leader and dumped hundreds of thousands of black voters from Voters Registration polls.
Don’t get me wrong - Iran is not a place I’d like to live - but their elections are more honest and free than here in AMerica. Iran doesn’t have Diebold voting machines.
Check out the Iranian indie art house film “Secret Ballot” - it is a phenomenal film about the importance of clean elections. The star of the film is a very strong, formidable Iranian women who travels around the country monitoring elections to insure a democratic process. “Secret Ballot” is available for rental at www.netflix.com
Keep Hope Alive,
Grailmaiden
i didn’t realise that an israli could get elected in america. what a country.
Write in Kucinech 08.
Any changes in America have to come from WE THE PEOPLE. We simply have to exercise our power with OUR government. And let’s hope that under martial law by GWB or a follower that our fellow American police/soldiers will not blindly follow orders. Sadly there has been a lot of divide/conquer tactics to manipulate Americans into polarization.
We have to not only vote, but LOUDLY insist on transparent lawful elections and insist on thorough investigations when there is fraud suspected. We should not simply cooperate in an election process in which there is a possibility of tampering. Instead of meekly voting in such we should be on strike at polling locations for months prior to elections if a region does not have secure voting. WHAT IS SO HARD ABOUT VOLUNTEERS IN EVERY PRECINCT COUNTING BY HAND PAPER BALLOTS!!!!!!!!! 1, 2, 3, … make piles of 100s, then piles of 1000s… Then lock them in a safe for checking and documentation. THIS IS NOT ROCKET SCIENCE!!!!!! We should be leaning on our senator and reps phones calling for handwritten ballots and hand counting only as the law. SO WHAT if TV networks can’t start reporting on election results early on election days.
We need to peacefully assert our legitimate power in our government by our votes, by how we oversee our elected representatives, and by how we spend our money. VOTE WITH OUR FEET AND OUR MONEY. Govt needs our enabling, hence all the propaganda.
I concur that Kucinich would make a STRONG leader of a US and a world in peace and prosperity. Do research his positions. He is consistently wonderful. Do vote for him or write him in if necessary.
Peace and no fear folks.
I think it is obvious that control and stealing Iranian OIL is the focus.
We should declare OIL a terrorist and ban it. End of problem.
Its just a matter of time before the American flag has a 51st star representing- Israel, or really, the flag of Israel has 1 big star representing the promised land-the USA.
If we weren’t over there we wouldn’t be getting shot at. If they came here would we shoot at them? would we then be terrorists? of coarse. So a terrorist can be someone protecting their lands or neighbors lands/OIL.
Maybe a law should be passed to send the likes of Lieberman and Schwarzenegger back to their prospective countries and stop meddling in our affairs.
Joe Lieberman is someone who should have been drop kicked a long time ago.
Can’t disagree with most everyone here, but we gotta let go of the Gore thing. It’s old and dead meat. Time to move on. Gore is involved in bigger problems than American politics…at least for now. Kucinich does make the most sense, and he seems to have the best heart, but Joe Biden makes sense too and seems to be honest. Neither one is really electable even if we do write in his name. We do not want to lose this election to the Republicans, under any circumstances. We have to keep prodding the candidates until they know we mean business and that they had better too. And we have to keep on MSM’s collective asses as well to ask for the truth and report the truth regardless of how fantastical that may sound.
“Today, the most serious challenge is that the culprits are arrogating to themselves the role of the prosecutor. Even more dangerous is that certain parties relying on their power and wealth try to impose a climate of intimidation and injustice over the world make bullying, while through their huge media resources portray themselves as defenders of freedom, democracy and human rights.”
from Iranian President Ahmadinejad’s speech at General Assembly United Nations, New York, Sept 17 2005
http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/news/iran/2005/iran-050918-irna02.htm
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YES to Dennis Kucinich!