Posted on 12/08/2007 3:19:56 PM PST by Lorianne
Washington, Dec 8: One of the two US human rights activists deported from Pakistan has been arrested soon after arrival here.
Tighe Barry was detained for protesting at the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on US assistance to Pakistan. Barry has been asked to return for a court hearing on December 27.
On Friday, Barry and Medea Benjamin, who went to Pakistan to support the pro-democracy movement, protested outside the State Department, urging the Bush Administration to discontinue its support to the Musharraf regime.
The two flew directly from Pakistan to Washington to attend this hearing. They had asked for the opportunity to testify “about their firsthand experience with the heroism of Pakistan’s civil society and the brutality of the government, but were told that the witnesses had already been selected, ” the Dawn quoted Benjamin, a saying.
Richard Boucher, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs was first one to testify.
When Boucher described the emergency as a mere “bump in the road, ” Barry stood up in protest, saying that Boucher’s testimony was ‘full of lies. ’
“Musharraf has beaten lawyers and students, destroyed the judiciary, and censored the press, ” he shouted.
“The US must freeze all funding to this military government until emergency rule is lifted, the independent judiciary is reinstated, the censorship of the media is lifted, and all judges, lawyers, students and human rights defenders are released, ” he said.
Committee’s chairman Senator Robert Menendez asked security to remove Barry. He was pulled out of the room, handcuffed and put in a police van.
A dozen activists of CODEPINK also backed them in their protest.
Code Pink: Women for Peace is a feminist anti-war group that started in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq. It seeks “positive social change through creative protest, non-violent direct action, and community involvement. ”
The name "Code Pink" itself is a play on the Bush Administration's Department of Homeland Security's colour-coded alert system
“We are very upset that the US Government continues to give President Pervez Musharraf 100 million dollars a month, ” said Benjamin, adding, “We want this to be suspended until the Pakistani Government respects the rule of law. ”
“We were kidnapped, hijacked and terrorised in Pakistan. Our only crime: supporting the pro-democracy movement. We were not accused of anything else, ” she added.
CODEPINK is planning to demonstrate outside the Pakistan Embassy in Washington. (ANI)
He was inside the hearing room.
More! LOL
I see that La Whore is back from Lahore.
Medea is addicted to getting arrested.
It’s easy to pass these people off as looney moonbats, but that’s where the denouncers and neck-shooters in totalitarian systems come from. They are dangerous.
Since she never has to serve more than an hour’s time...if only Pakistan had kept her a week or two. It’d still be Bush’s fault, of course, everything is to her, but at least I’d have gotten some fun out of it.
The shame is you can’t punch these morons in the mouth.
It’s the only metric a professional agitator has.
I heartily second your emotion.
DC Chapter ping
DC Chapter ping
DC Chapter ping
Thanks for the ping, RB!
;-)
CODEPINK is planning to demonstrate outside the Pakistan Embassy in Washington.
Wouldn't it be nice if Soros sent all Code Pink members to Pakistan so they could protest there instead of here?
Maybe she likes being a prison bitch...well, I guess the latter applies wherever she hangs her hat.
Thanks BufordP, love to read this “stuff”!
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