Anti-war activists gathered outside of the Old South Meeting House on Monday to protest two-time former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld as he spoke about American policy.
WRKO radio station hosted the question-and-answer, session where Rumsfeld addressed issues ranging from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to the national debt crisis.
Rumsfeld, who was one of the key figures in forming policy decisions for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, was also promoting his book, “Known and Unknown,” a memoir chronicling his career in the U.S. government.
About 40 protestors from several Boston-area organizations, including Code Pink, the United National Anti-War Coalition, Smedley Butler Brigade and Veterans for Peace, stood outside of the meeting house.
“Hey, Rumsfeld, you can’t hide, we will charge you with genocide,” the demonstrators chanted while protesters carried signs with similar statements. One protester from the Veterans for Peace organization wore a Rumsfeld mask and prison jumpsuit.
Protesters told attendees that they were “contributing to a war criminal” by paying money to hear Rumsfeld speak. Tickets for the talk cost about $50.
“I’m motivated [to protest] because I’ve had enough, I’m motivated because Donald Rumsfeld is a war criminal…in any other country, he would be considered an international war criminal,” said an activist from the Occupy Boston movement who asked to remain anonymous.
She said that he is part of the governmental and corporate establishment that is “keeping people unemployed and afraid.”
“We believe – actually, we know – that the illegal invasion of Iraq is based on lies that Donald Rumsfeld perpetuated,” said Code Pink activist Trish Gallagher. “We believe he is a war criminal who needs to be prosecuted.”
Some of the protestors in attendance were veterans of American wars.
“I’m a Vietnam veteran…[We] are here today because this man is a war criminal,” said Veterans for Peace activist and Boston University class of 1982 alum Pat Scanlon, “George Bush, Cheney, Condoleeza Rice, and Rumsfeld should be charged in an international court as war criminals.”
Attendees of Rumsfeld’s talk, however, supported his policy decisions and said that they disagreed with the protesters view of Rumsfeld.
“[I came to this event] because Rumsfeld is a remarkable human being, and I’m looking forward to hearing his insight,” said an attendee who asked to remain anonymous.
He said that the protesters standing outside the meeting house were misguided in their beliefs.
“I happen to like Rumsfeld because he saved us, because he’s intelligent,” said a woman who also asked to remain anonymous. “He’s a man who understands what’s wrong with this world, and what to do about it, and he’s told us all.”
She said that the protesters were too young to know about Rumsfeld’s time in office.
“I think that [the protesters] are young people who don’t even know what they’re talking about, and haven’t even been born since Rumsfeld,” she said. “They don’t know who he is.”
Police officers clashed with one protester after they tried to seize a megaphone he was carrying. The protester resisted, and was arrested.
In reaction to this arrest, the demonstrators said, “Racist cops go home.”
Ann, an activist from Code Pink, said she planned to attend the Rumsfeld lecture, but was escorted out by the security personnel when she held up a sign during his talk. The sign, she said, called out Rumsfeld as a war criminal.
Activist Sofia Albaiti voiced her distaste with the American judicial system outside the meeting house.
“If this government or this society can execute an innocent man like Troy Davis, who deserved a new trial because there was so much doubt on his case and was denied that ‘til the last minute, and someone like Donald Rumsfeld can roam freely – it’s an outrage,” she said.
The Daily Free Press was unable to obtain press credentials for “An Evening with Donald Rumsfeld.”
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