Code Pink's Anti-War Antics

The feminist group who often demonstrates against the Iraq War in attention-grabbing ways has recently grabbed headlines after protester Desiree Anita Ali-Fairooz approached U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice with fake blood on her hands. As the Toronto Star reports, Ali-Fairooz called Rice a "war criminal" and shouted "The blood of millions of Iraqis is on your hands!" before being taken away by security and arrested. (1)

This isn't the first time the group has made news. During General David Petraeus' testimony to Congress on September 10th of this year, the group protested loudly and interrupted the testimony and were "forcibly removed" according to the Code Pink Wikipedia page. (2) In March, protesters were arrested outside of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's office, and crashed a Hillary Clinton fundraiser and a conference a week later. (2)

On their official site (codepink4peace.org) the group describes themselves as "women-initiated grassroots peace and social justice movement working to end the war in Iraq, stop new wars, and redirect our resources into healthcare, education and other life-affirming activities". (3) The group traces its roots to November 2002, when they marched in Washington D.C. and began a four month vigil to protest the pre-emptive strike in Iraq. Their name is a sarcastic take on the color coded security system, using pink instead of orange, red, and yellow.

Their antics have caused problems with the FBI. The International Herald Tribune reported that Code Pink member and retired U.S. Army Col. Ann Wright was not allowed to enter Canada. (4) The problem came from past arrests from anti-war protests which put Wright on an FBI crime database usually used for "fugitives, potential terrorists, missing persons and violent felons" according to the article. (4) Wright and another Code Pink activist Medea Benjamin were told that they had to apply for "criminal rehabilitation" and pay a two hundred dollar fine if they wanted to enter Canada. The protesters have made petitions against the Canadian ban, with Wright calling the move "political intimidation" against Iraq war opponents.

Code Pink continues to run numerous campaigns despite such trouble, with participants signing petitions, marching, and a campaign to give Vice President Dick Cheney a pink slip, in which people can sign an online petition that promotes impeaching Cheney.

Anti-war protesters are subject to the be the center of controversy because of opposing viewpoints, but Code Pink also draws criticism from those who don't agree with their tendency to protest in front of military hospitals. In August 2005 the Cybercast News Service reported Code Pink members demonstrating outside the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. The article quoted veteran Kevin Pannell stated that he found their use of flag draped coffins in their protest "distasteful", and that "Walter Reed is a sheltered environment and it needs to stay that way." (5) Although, in an interview with Fox's "Hannity and Colmes" with CNS's Marc Marano and Code Pink's Laura Costas, Costas insisted that they were hosting a vigil, and not actually protesting. While Sean Hannity opposed Costa's and Code Pink's overall demonstration, insisting that the group had a lack of taste in demonstrating outside of Walter Reed, Alan Colmes argued that the media doesn't show wounded soldiers or the coffins of soldiers who died in combat. "They don't want to show returning flag-draped coffins," he stated. "We're given the sense that there's no sacrifice for this war. They have people coming into the hospital at night. You don't even see the wounded going into the hospital. And that's what Code Pink is trying to point out to the American public." (6)

Code Pink is indeed a colorful organization with attention-grabbing demonstrations, some of which start controversy with their tactics and the locations of their protests. In the aftermath of the recent Condoleezza Rice incident, the Baltimore Sun raised the question if a protester should be able to get so close to the U.S.
Secretary of State. As Frank James reports in the article, "Fairooz actually had her red-painted hands on either side of Rice's head at one point," and if Ali-Fairooz had wanted to, she could have caused physical harm to Rice. (7)

Elaborate antics seem to be an essential part of Code Pink's arsenal, and while their intentions are to promote peace and protest against the Bush administration, it's not clear if their message is lost in translation when the public focuses on the delivery method rather than the message. It's difficult to gauge whether Code Pink is effective in promoting peace and drawing attention to what they consider to be significant faults of the Bush administration. Still, it's impossible to ignore this colorful group, and in that sense Code Pink is working quite well.

SOURCES:

1 - "`Bloodied' anti-war protester gets in face of `criminal' Rice" Toronto Star, October 25, 2007. (http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/270322)

2 - "Code Pink" Wikipedia.org (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_Pink)

3 - "CODEPINK: About Us" (http://www.codepink4peace.org/article.php?list=type&type=3)

4 - "US peace activist barred again from entering Canada" International Herald Tribune, October 25, 2007. (http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/10/25/america/NA-GEN-Canada-Protesters-Border.php)

5 - "Anti-War Protests Target Wounded at Army Hospital" By Marc Morano, CNSNews.com. August 25, 2005. (http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewSpecialReports.asp?Page=%5CSpecialReports%5Carchive%5C200508%5CSPE20050825a.html)

6 - "'Code Pink' protestors target Walter Reed Medical Center" Interview Archive, Hannity and Colmes,
FOXNews.com. August 26, 2005. (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,167017,00.html)

7 - "Should a protester be able to get so close to Rice?" By Frank James, The Swamp, BaltimoreSun.com. October 25, 2007. (http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/politics/blog/2007/10/_by_frank_james_code.html)