Jailed Rice Protester Surprised by Dearth of Security at Hearing
An Iraq war protester who got within inches of Condoleezza Rice at a hearing last week said she was shocked that tighter security did not prevent her from coming so close to the secretary of state.
If there had been more security at the House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, protester Desiree Anita Ali-Fairooz said, she probably wouldn’t have approached Rice. “I anticipated that she would have been surrounded by SS [Secret Service] or by private security,” she said.
Photos from the hearing show Ali-Fairooz sticking her hands, which had been soaked in fake blood, in the face of a startled Rice. She then screamed that the blood “of millions of Iraqis” was on the hands of the administration.
Ali-Fairooz, a member of Code Pink who has been arrested four times in the last seven months, was charged with disorderly conduct, defacing of government property and assault on a federal officer. She was one of five protesters arrested at the Oct. 24 hearing.
Ali-Fairooz, 51, said she didn’t go to the hearing with the intention of getting so close to the secretary of state. She planned to hold up a picture of Rice and soak her hands in fake blood, but when she saw an opening she decided to take it.
Ali-Fairooz said she spent 30 hours in jail following her arrest. Her court date is set for Dec. 5; she could face up to 10 years in prison. She also faces a “stay away” order that bars her from entering the Capitol grounds.
Despite the incident, Foreign Affairs Committee leadership from both sides of the aisle aren’t calling for tighter security.
“Code Pink and other groups have come to our hearings for a long time and if once in a while someone crosses the line then that’s viewed as an isolated incident,” said Lynne Weil, a spokeswoman for Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), the committee’s chairman. Weil said the incident should not lead to tightened security.
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Fla.), the committee’s ranking Republican, criticized protesters for unruly behavior, but stopped short of calling for additional security measures.
“Visitors should understand the security issues related to high-ranking officials and not get so physically close to them as to threaten their safety,” Ros-Lehtinen said.
Rep. Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.), who also sits on the committee, said there is sufficient security in place, both in hearing rooms and at building entrances where visitors go through metal detectors.
At the same time, he said a hearing is “not the appropriate venue” for a protest.
U.S. Capitol Police declined to comment on any impact the incident may have on security policies. “We don’t discuss our security procedures,” Capitol Police spokeswoman Sgt. Kimberly Schneider said.
The House sergeant at arms also declined comment, citing a policy not to discuss security procedures. “We constantly review how we can balance the right of public access with the need for Congress to conduct its work,” said Deputy House Sergeant at Arms Kerri Hanley.
Ali-Fairooz said members of the activist group Code Pink routinely walk up to witnesses before hearings. There are no barriers between witnesses who sit at a table facing House members and the visitors seated behind them.
Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas), a committee member who watched the incident unfold, has a unique perspective. A former judge used to seeing people get upset in a courtroom, he said there is always a balance in conducting hearings: They need to be open and public, yet safe and secure.
Poe also stopped short of calling for beefed-up security in the wake of the incident, although he suggested police should have reacted faster when Ali-Fairooz approached Rice.
“I would hope the Capitol Police would be quicker to react in those situations,” Poe said. “She was very threatening in the way she approached Condoleezza Rice.” At the same time, Poe said he did not feel threatened. “They didn’t get far enough,” he said.
Ali-Fairooz said no one had anything to fear from her, and that security should not be increased in hearings because she never intended to harm Rice.
“I didn’t do anything; it just looks scary. Even though I dislike Condoleezza Rice, I didn’t intend to hurt her. I don’t even like to kill roaches. I’m a grandmother,” she said.
© 2007 The Hill
The wrong person in the above photograph is in jail.
Copy the picture make stickers and postcards stick them send them everywhere. All of us need to see these pictures. Send them out to everyone in your email list. same with all photos of protests. same with photos of the good things, the good people. use the net, print out your own. Let the word go out.
Rep. Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.), who also sits on the committee, said there is sufficient security in place, both in hearing rooms and at building entrances where visitors go through metal detectors.
At the same time, he said a hearing is “not the appropriate venue” for a protest.
If protesting is not appropriate before the August Body, then when it is appropriate? In a free speech zone, miles away in the woods? Behind razor wire in a camp? In a crowd being dispersed by mounted police, stun guns, gas, batons and rubber bullets?
Ah well, I guess the August Body is too important to be bothered by the concerns of We the People. They are far too busy placating the wealthy corporations and the military arms manufacturers who give them their campaign money. First things first.
“At the same time, he said a hearing is “not the appropriate venue” for a protest.”
Correct. The “appropriate venue” for a protest is the caged Protest Zone conveniently located just 7 miles from nowhere.
The only good protests are those which take place in inappropriate venues.
Desiree could face up to 10 years in prison?!? What did she do, commit manslaughter? Is Dr. Death so precious no one can get near her? This is ridiculous.
The ghosts of the million innocent Iraqis who have been killed should haunt Rice tonight, Halloween night.
code pink-i applaud you-i wish there were a million more,just like you….and yes,commander…the wrong person is in jail..condi rice should be in jail,she(rice) is a stone cold blackhearted venomous killer-snake and deserves (extermination) of some kind or another….
that pic says it all. one of the best I’ve seen in a while.
I guess that Rice wasn’t high ranking enough to warrant body guards. Surprise surprise! My guess is that she’s on the way out and before you get a new president.
Ten years for that!
I wonder how much Anita would have gotten if she pied, chocolate milked or, in true Marg Princess Warrior style, smooched Condi!
As far as I can tell from the picture, Anita did not even touch Condi!
You do know what Bush’s security did to Queen Elizabeth’s prized rose bushes.
She is facing 10 years in prison for “Assaulting a federal officer”. This charge could come from her stepping on their foot as she was being apprehended. It’s a BS charge but they will try to use it to put her away for a long time.
If Republicans had their way, protests would be held in remote desert areas or the Alaskan tundra.
It is clear that Republicans are not American. They openly preach racial and religious bigotry. Republicans continuously attempt to take away the freedoms that our fighting men and women are dying to protect while praising the ’sacrifices’ these soldiers are making. That makes Republicans the most perverse human beings on the planet. The ones hanging the nooses and threatening black people are all Republican. When I see a Republican, I see a racist jackbooted anti-semitic thug. It turns my stomach that some of these people claim to be patriots. Hitler would love every one of them.
Well, that’s just ridiculous…how the heck can she be getting 10 years?!
The blood facial is a triumphant symbol of resistance. Anyone who’s disgusted or lables the behavior inappropriate should apply a similar litmus test to an armed band of thugs blowing away family members in the name of motorcade safety.
So Desiree is facing 10 years for “assaulting a federal officer?” I’d like them to provide PROOF that she did. What did she do? From the news clip I saw, they assaulted her. Let’s remember the officers outnumbered her and were the ones with the weapons, not Desiree.
“TheLorax,” you’re right. The Republicans used Rice and Gonzales to get black and Latino support. They are racists in sheep’s clothing.
Imprisoning Desiree,(or even fining her) would be the height of hypocrisy. Maybe it would become a rallying cry for greater awareness, “FREE DESIREE” has a good ring to it.
desiree anita ali-fairooz saw a chance and took it and gave the world one of the truest images it has seen. rice’s shame is now a photograph and the whole world agrees - this will be one of the era’s definitive images. this grandmother is a hero.
Desiree, I congratulate you seizing the moment and confronting a unique functionary in the Bush regime, Condi Rice. I appreciate your comments that you are a Grandmother and have an aversion in killing all things, even a cockroach!
The facts on Condi stand: She was an active planner within the Bush White House in 2002 (and I’m sure, 2001) for the Irag invasion based on lies which they, not the CIA or the British, created. The blood painted on your hands, Desiree, represents less than a drop of those many thousands of Iraqis who have been dying and suffering since the invasion.
If Condi wants to increase security at the Congress, as I’m sure she does, why doesn’t she speak for herself? Possibly she is savvy enough to realize that all her personal security concerns might backfire on her. People will immediately question the balance between her security with the rest of the people of the world-people who’s own security and peace, Condi has helped to destablize.
These people feel they don’t answer to anyone. They obviously have the upmost contempt for the public, and by extension for a democratic system of government.
Is there any other way to read this? We are living in a form of an authoritarian state — where the office of the unitary executive branch lays down the law and reports to and is accountable to no one. Under the authority, the public is servile, paying tithes to the war machine. Any sign of resistance is treated with the most severe available form of repression.
Let’s see . . . Ms. Ali-Fairooz faces 10 years in prison for having her hands painted red, and Stone-Killer Condi Rice faces, what?, a cushy academic position and another stint on the (Burmese monk-murdering) Chevron board of directors?
I’m surprised she wasn’t flown out of US and tortured. That’s what this country likes to do–torture. Did anyone see the movie “Rendition?”
My understanding of this incident was that Condi was asking her security to let Des go, which should give you some idea of how “threatened” Condi was feeling.
Rev. Yearwood had a trumped-up charge of assault against him. First, the assault charge was withdrawn, and then he was judged “Not Guilty” on the remaining charge. I hope Des gets the same consideration. Just the same, it’s always risky to expose yourself to the vagaries of the so-called “Criminal Justice System”. Des, you’re braver than me. I hope things work out for you. I’ll be getting in touch with Gael etc. to see if there is something I can do in an “Old Guy Who Likes His Comfort” kind of way.
What Desiree does, did and will continue to do for us as citizen’s that no longer have status to peacefully protest or tell a war criminal front and upclose what they are, indeed guilty of allowing muderous, criminal and unlawful WAR CRIMES to occur without the bat of an eye.
I am proud to be #8 on the site, then again, I am mom of #9, do my part for #3 and the scourge of all that I am, yes, #2, - Family Security Matters, then again check out #2, ‘The Ten Most Dangerous Organizations in America’ they’re at; http://www.familysecuritymatters.org
I thanked Desiree at the protest in Philly, the 27th, had a chance to thank her for courage and restraint, myself, I do not know if I could have come that close to Rice and not have touched her. For not even laying a hand on that piece of sewage, they try to give her 10 years.Anyone in Pink was arrested that day.
I will talk to you soon, Desiree, I know you need some tush’s to fill some seats.
Luv ‘Ya
Peace from Philly
Rhoda
I would change places with this woman in a heart beat even with a 10 year sentence hanging over my head to be the one to confront this truly black-hearted, cold,unfeeling over-reaching, had an oil tanker named after me,wouldn’t apologize to the tortured Canadian ice princess!
Tenzing @ 5:20pm:
Thankyou, I was thinking much the same thing.
10 years? -for a little telling of the TRUTH?
On that basis, a commensurate penalty for Dr. Death ought to be about 150,000 years of hard labor!
Mind you, if the laws of Karma hold true, this is precisely what she will be getting: about 50,000+ lives of utter misery, ~ time in which to try to make amends / reparation to the *many millions* she and her blaggard cronies have treated so cruelly.
I wonder also: if Desiree gets 10yrs for this *righteous* action, what would the same corrupt savages of the US administration hand out to someone like Christ, for booting the money lenders out of the Temple, -or for challenging authority in the many other ways he did?
Maybe they’d cook up something special, like strapping him to a ‘waterboard’? …
… or a CRUCIFIX -erected specially for the purpose?
I know, how about *really* humiliating ‘Christ the Terrorist’ first, -by getting him to carry his crucifix through Washington DC en route… ?
That way, all the crackpot evan-jellocals could get to laugh and jeer at him…
… …
I think that Cheney deserves your hate more.
Condi had two choices - say what she said or quit her job.
I think Condi still thinks that she can talk Bush out of bombing Iraq. My money is on Cheney, who is trying to talk Bush into it.
There is no way that Anita deserves 10 years! As far as I can tell, Anita did not even touch Condi. Even if she did, that is BS.
What does the threat of 10 years do, though? How many will show up at a protest if they think there is even a remote chance that they might spend 10 years of their life in jail. And then the media will report that hardly anybody showed up.
Condi is no poor little victim of Cheney or Bush. If she had any integrity, she’d have resigned long ago. No one is forcing her to do anything she doesn’t want to do.
Will her Halloween costume be the world’s biggest Oreo tonight?
No, don’t you guys get it?! Orchestrating genocides, usurping land and resources, promoting torture, these are all legitimate, dignified, legal and proper ways to act. But PROTESTING against any of that is just savage… That’s what the message is.
“They will not criminalize us, rob us of our true identity, steal our individualism, depoliticize us, churn us out as systemized, institutionalized, decent law-abiding robots.”
One of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite people!
I think this quote is pretty self-explanatory. I wish more people had this attitude today. We wouldn’t be so easily intimidated or suckered into obeying oppressive powers. A big problem I see with most of us is that we don’t want to loose the little security we have by being “institutionalized, decent law-abiding robots.”
The thing is humans, by nature, want to belong. We all have this desire and need to be a part of a larger group of humans and connect with them. So most people will just accept the status quo for that comfort. But it’s not really comfort; it cannot last. If one is sacrificing their rights or accepting the oppression of others merely to have that sense of belonging, they’ll never be satisfied.
It takes a lot of insight to recognize that the society you live in enforces these oppressive acts, that it forbids true creative (and critical) thinking, that it keeps control of you through intimidation and bribery. And it takes even more courage to articulate it and do something about it. Bobby Sands did all three.
People who take these stands are often, if not always, labeled criminals (or terrorists). And the others, who sit meekly by, become robots. I love that he says “decent law-abiding” because anyone just reading those adjectives would think those are obviously good qualities to have. But Bobby Sands was wise enough to understand that the power structure dubs submission to them “decent” and “law-abiding.” So, he refused to be shackled by fear and intimidation. He saw right through their false illusions and façades. He understood exactly what he was doing: He rejected the foundations of that power, saying he wanted no part in it. He didn’t want the paltry security that came with it, or the condescending praise.
He stood against it, never bending. So they killed him.
May God bless him forever and always.
We need to hear more about war protectors but we’re not. There was the big October 27 october27.org protest, but no one heard about it because the mainstream media doesn’t tell you this stuff. I listen to NPR, but I can tell they’ve sold us out.
If H.R. 1955 passes, Code Pink is going to be considered a terrorist organization. We know what the government does with terrorists. Everyone needs to read up on this. Google it.
Mr. X, please tell me you’re kidding about H.R. 1955. Has this government gone mad? Code Pink a terrorist organization?
According to the facists in charge of the U.S. government, ANYONE is a terrorist if they disagree with the government.
It is well past the time too lock and load! has anyone got the courage to do so? I hope so, it is time to revolt and do away with all vestiges of the NEOCON NAZIS!!
New World Order swine disgust the hell out of me.
tmbluesbflat November 1st, 2007 1:09 am
As for the violent approach, uh uh, not here in the US anymore:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h110-1955
Be sure to read Section 899B. Findings #3
Hats off to the”commander in chimp”.
You have definítely gotten the picture regarding the criminal state of the nation thanks to the fact that we are now temporarily under the malicious control of known mass murdering criminals who are yet at large as fugitives from the certain justice that is now pursuing them for their heinous acts against the American people, our statutes, the Iraqi peoples, as well as the binding international treaties to which we are signatories.
Nothing, and I mean literally nothing less will suffice in order to regain our national sanity, reinstate our legal government, reestablish our commitment to international peace and cooperation, and most importantly redress the wrongs commited against the innocent both abroad and at home.
Above “O roe” asks you to surf to the web site “Family Security Matters.”
DON’T DO IT! It is a neoconservative web site!
I did a bit of research — some of their editors work for neoconservative think tanks.
Clearly, they believe people are sheep who believe whatever they read.
DON’T DO IT.
Read with a critical eye for content.
Ask: “Who is behind this media?” and “What is their objective?”
Family Security Matters has links to help your kids learn about terrorism. (Get them indoctrinated to the fear and compliance early.) They have links showing why you should be afraid even if you live in a rural area. (Al Qaeda wants big media-intense targets.) “Fun group activities to become more aware of and more prepared for terrorism.” The site has a link explaining all the GOOD features of the Patriot Act!
I believe Family Security Matters was created by the very neoconservatives who support the Iraq invasion.
They are here, on Common Dreams, trying to manipulate us.
DON’T LET THEM. Remember: “Who is behind this media?”
Burn the Bitch at the stake.
How dare Desiree use her first amendment rights to demonstrate her displeasure with princess Condi, or better known as the Bride of Frankenstein?
(She once accidentally referred to Bush as her husband)
Actually, it is Tom Lantos the chairman of the committee and a puppet for AIPAC who should be going to jail for 10 years.
He had complete control of that room and he chose to have her prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
It is difficult to imagine a more sinister miscarriage of justice.
The First Amendment has become trash, not worth the parchment it is written on.
Lantos is one democrat who should be thrown out with the republican war machine proponents.
Dr. Death Rice accidentally referred to George Bush has her “husband.” LOL……there’s got to be some hanky panky going on between those two criminals for her to make a slip like that.
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the committee’s ranking Republican, is also one of the most vociferous supporters of Bush and his wars. [She] criticized protesters for unruly behavior, “Visitors should understand the security issues related to high-ranking officials and not get so physically close to them as to threaten their safety,” Ros-Lehtinen said. God forbid the safety of someone responsible for the deaths of half a million Iraqis be threatened! Who would dare imagine posing any threat to Ms. Rice, who tirelessly sold the Iraq war over and over… and over to every Sunday talk show? Remember, the same shows who have guests like Ms. Ali-Fairooz, Code Pink, United for Peace, Peace Action so often that there really is no need to protest inside of Congress? Ouch. Just got pinched. For a moment I thought I was living in a democracy.
Anaconda Rice, a slithering beast in the jungle of ziocon amerika and proof to the rest of the world than plantation amerika, cobbled together at the expense of the lesser tribes,is an equal opportunity employer at least when it comes to gutting and slaughtering.
Aunt Jemima along with Uncle Tom Powell, the brazen faced murderer who has been lying since his My Lai coverup allow the pretty white folks and the nice zio folks to suck on their mint juleps as amerika goes Dixie and down the drain.