"Anti-War Protest Set for Republican Convention"

Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- A coalition of anti-war groups plan to greet
delegates to next summer's Republican National Convention with a massive
protest against U.S. foreign policy, hoping to keep the Iraqi war alive as
an issue in the 2004 election, organizers said on Tuesday.

The march could be one of the largest demonstrations in U.S. history,
organizers said.The coalition called United for Peace and Justice wants to march through
Manhattan to Central Park on Aug. 29, the day before the Republican Party
meets to nominate President Bush in his reelection effort.

"United for Peace and Justice will be organizing what we believe will be
one of the largest demonstrations in this country's history," said
organizer Leslie Cagan at a news conference. "We believe it will be in the
hundreds of thousands."

The capture of Saddam Hussein has not changed the group's plans, she added.

"There's no evidence at all that Saddam Hussein has any connection to the
9/11 attacks," she said. "In fact there's yet to be any evidence for any
of the reasons the Bush administration used to go to war.

"What we hope is this will be a turning point for what is going on in
Iraq," she said. "It is time to end the war and end the occupation."

The group also plans to stage protests outside the Democratic National
Convention in Boston in July. Of the nine Democrats seeking the party's
nomination, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean has made his opposition to the
Iraq war one of the major issues in his campaign.

In New York, the protest coalition has applied for a permit to march past
Madison Square Garden, where the Republican convention will be held, she
said.

Protests have become commonplace at U.S. political conventions, and
organizers of the party events in the past have made efforts to keep the
demonstrations apart from the delegates and other attending officials.

Protests outside the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles in 2000
turned violent, with police firing on the crowd with rubber bullets. The
same summer, hundreds of protesters were arrested at the Republican
National Convention in Philadelphia.

Organizers said they want to send a message to Bush and other Republicans
to change the nation's foreign policy.

"It is time to end the empire-building agenda of this country. It is time
to build a foreign policy based on respect for international law and
respect for the sovereignty of all independent nations," Cagan said.