Anti-war groups are putting the finishing touches on plans to take to city streets on Saturday, the second anniversary of the Iraq war's launch.

The War Resisters League plans to rally, march and block the entrances to three military recruitment centers across the city on that day to protest the war in Iraq, as well as in Afghanistan.

"We're focusing on recruiting stations for the empty promises they make to young people," Frida Berrigan, a member of the group, said yesterday at a news conference.

Protesters plan to target recruiting centers in Times Square, 41 Flatbush Ave. in Brooklyn and at Fordham Road and the Grand Concourse in the Bronx. Those actions will be preceded by rallies and a procession led by coffins representing the dead in both wars. On Friday, the group also plans to demonstrate in front of the Kingsbridge Armory in the Bronx.

"By shutting down recruiting centers, we seek to slow the bloody sacrifice of American youth to Bush administration's bankrupt policies of using war to solve international problems," said Ed Hedemann, one of the organizers of the protests.

Berrigan, niece of activist Daniel Berrigan, said the group has permits to gather, but will keep the coffin procession on the sidewalks.

Another anti-war group, Troops Out Now, says it has permits to rally Saturday in Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem and Central Park's East Meadow. They will make a brief stop in between at the Lenox military recruiting station on 125th Street. However, the group's spokesman, Dustin Langley, said the route has not been nailed down.

"Initially we applied to march down Fifth , but that was denied and they gave us Park Avenue. But now we are challenging and asserting our right to march down Fifth Avenue," he said. "It's in litigation."

A police source said the group insisted on the Fifth Avenue route despite being told that it was off limits, in light of a City Council resolution reserving Fifth Avenue for 11 major parades a year. "When we accommodated them, they offered no solutions, only issues," a police source said.

Langley said after the Central Park rally, protesters will head to Mayor Michael Bloomberg's townhouse on 79th Street. "We want to tie the issue of the war with things like cuts to the city budget, cuts to education, health care, housing, rising tuition and transportation costs," Langley said.

Staff writer Daryl Khan contributed to this story.

Copyright © 2005, Newsday, Inc.

###