Protesters in Bangor want troops home

BANGOR – Bring U.S. combat troops home from Iraq by the end of the year, a group of activists and ministers urged Wednesday morning, offering a veteran of the war as their featured speaker at a downtown news conference.

Later in the day, 12 anti-war protesters who occupied U.S. Sen. Susan Collins’ office were arrested for criminal trespassing after refusing to leave.

The focus of the rally and protest was President Bush’s proposal to increase the U.S. combat presence in Iraq by some 21,000 troops, an escalation known as the surge.

“We want to be much clearer about what we want,” said Sara Stalman of Brooksville during the press conference at the Bangor Public Library in the morning.

Representing the Maine People’s Alliance, a self-described grass-roots organization that claims 28,000 members, Stalman said, “We want all combat troops home by the end of the year. President Bush has shown a total disregard for the views of the Iraq Study Group and the American people.”

Led by former Secretary of State James Baker and former Rep. Lee Hamilton, the Iraq Study Group’s mandate was to conduct an independent assessment of the current and prospective situation on the ground in Iraq, its impact on the surrounding region, and consequences for U.S. interests, according to its Web site.

Brian Clement of Gardiner, an Army veteran who was deployed days after he graduated from high school, was at the news conference to signal his opposition to a widening war.

Clement served as a specialist with the Army’s 1st Cavalry in Taji, a city five miles from Baghdad.

“I thought, at the time, that we could make a difference,” he said.

“But my mentality started to change while I was in Iraq. We were doing more damage and destruction and not being a positive influence,” he said.

Now a student at the University of Maine and a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, Clement said he encouraged Maine’s two Republican U.S. senators, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, to help stop the Iraq war and prevent further loss of life in Iraq.

“I support the troops in Iraq. They are my brothers and sisters,” Clement said.

The Maine People’s Alliance and other protesters said they were joining Americans Against Escalation in Iraq, a national bipartisan group made up of veterans, union members, civic activists and others.

“We believe in our congressmen and senators because of the people they are and the people we are,” said Stalman. “We want to give the power to our government to fix this. That’s the way democracy works.”

Other speakers at the morning event included Sarah Bigney of the Progressive Student Alliance; the Rev. Brad Mitchell, interim minister at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Bangor; the Rev. Elaine Hewes, pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church of Bangor; and the Rev. Gary Vencill of the United Methodist Church of Brooksville.

“Only Americans can save and preserve America,” Mitchell said.

Shortly after the press conference, more than two dozen protesters made their way down the street to Collins’ office at the Margaret Chase Smith Federal Building.

Six protesters sat in her office on the second floor, while another 20 or so stood with anti-war signs in the lobby of the building until it closed at 5 p.m.

After being warned to exit the federal building, 12 of the protesters who refused to leave either the office or the federal building were arrested, according to Bangor police. Everyone who was arrested was cooperative when taken into custody, said Bangor police Sgt. Ed Potter. The six protesters in Collins’ office, said they were with the Civil Disobedience and Occupation Project and expected to be arrested.

“We intend to stay here until we get what we want,” said protester Patricia Wheeler of Deer Isle.

“We’re here today essentially to present our grievances to the war that will hopefully fall on the ears of Susan Collins,” said Judy Robbins of Sedgwick.

At least one of the people arrested Wednesday, Nancy Hill, 54, of Stonington, had been among 11 activists arrested for criminal trespass at Snowe’s Bangor office in September last year.

Another 19 protesters were arrested for refusing to leave Collins’ office in December 2005.

Bangor police provided a list of those arrested Wednesday evening, which in addition to Wheeler, Robbins and Hill, included: Maureen Block, Robert Shetterly, Jonathan Kreps, James Freeman, Dudley Hendrick, Douglas Rawlings, Peter Robbins, Henry Braun, and Diane Fitzgerald. No hometowns were provided.