Anti-torture activists protest on Dick Cheney's front porch, 2 arrested
About 20 protesters made their way onto the property of the former vice president’s Virginia home, where they protested the 14th anniversary of the opening of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.
Activists from the anti-war group CODEPINK and Witness Against Torture, many of them wearing military-issued orange jumpsuits, broke through an iron gate surrounding the former vice president’s sprawling property in McLean, Virginia, and demonstrated on his front porch.
READ MORE:Dick Cheney should be in prison, not on ‘Meet the Press’ - Greenwald
Fairfax County Police soon arrived on the scene and escorted the protesters, some of them chanting “arrest Dick Cheney,” off the property.
Got onto Dick Cheney's property to protest war profiteering, torture, and war crimes! #torturetour#codepinkpic.twitter.com/EPLTtyu4iB
— CODEPINK (@codepink) January 10, 2015
Two protesters who refused to leave the premises were arrested on trespassing charges, police spokesman Roger Henriquez said, Reuters reported.
Police identified the pair as Tighe Barry, 57, and Eve Tetaz, 83, both from the Washington DC area. The two face misdemeanor charges of trespassing and disorderly conduct, police said.
The demonstrators carried signs that read: “Torturer lives here” and “Stop torture now” and “Close Guantanamo Bay”.
Earlier, the group staged a demonstration outside the home of CIA Director John Brennan, who also lives in McLean, Virginia. None of the activists were arrested in that protest.
Cheney: Wanted for torture! Scuffles with police ensue during protest at dick Cheney's house, 2 activists arrested pic.twitter.com/cvkj3wczMD
— CODEPINK (@codepink) January 10, 2015
The protests come one month after the Senate Intelligence Committee released its so-called “torture report” that revealed how the CIA allegedly misled the White House and Congress over the brutality of its “enhanced interrogation techniques” –a military euphemism for torture.
Cheney expressed no remorse over the cruel accounts of torture techniques performed by the CIA at various foreign “black sites” as described in the Senate Intelligence Committee’s lengthy investigation.
"I'd do it again in a minute," Cheney told Meet the Press's Chuck Todd last month.
This was not the first time Cheney took to the airwaves to express his support of the controversial methods in gaining intelligence, as well as his wish to keep Gitmo open for business.
1. Buy Dick Cheney's memoir. 2. Tie it to a board. 3. Pour water on it. 4. Demand the truth. 5. Fail to get it.
— Nancy Richardson (@decathlontrip) January 11, 2015
When Barack Obama attempted in the early days of his presidency to close Guantanamo, as he had pledged to do on the campaign trail, Cheney was suddenly ubiquitous on the news channels, demanding that Gitmo remain open and the prisoners – many of whom are innocent of any wrongdoing – appear before a secret military tribunal as opposed to a civil trial on US territory.
READ MORE:'I'd do it again!' Cheney defends CIA torture, calls interrogators heroes
Cheney, despite basement ratings in opinion polls when he exited office, eventually got his way and today 127 detainees are still held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
