Cindy Sheehan
Cindy gives the peace sign in front of the White House in 2006.
Born	(1957-07-10) July 10, 1957 (age 54) Inglewood, California
Occupation	Activist

Cindy Lee Miller Sheehan (born July 10, 1957) is an American anti-war activist whose son, U.S. Army Specialist Casey Sheehan, was killed by enemy action during the Iraq War. She attracted national and international media attention in August 2005 for her extended anti-war protest at a makeshift camp outside President George W. Bush's Texas ranch—a stand that drew both passionate support and angry criticism. Sheehan ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2008. She is a vocal critic of President Barack Obama's foreign policy. Her memoir, Peace Mom: A Mother's Journey Through Heartache to Activism, was published in 2006.

Personal life[link]

Cindy Sheehan was born in Inglewood, California in 1957. Her father worked at Lockheed while her mother raised her family. She graduated with honors from Cerritos College and studied history at UCLA. She worked as a youth minister at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Vacaville, California for eight years, and also coordinated an after-school program for at-risk middle school children for the City of Vacaville. In 1977 she married Patrick Sheehan, in Norwalk, California; they had four children, including Casey Sheehan (born in 1979), who was killed in action in Iraq on April 4, 2004. Patrick Sheehan filed for divorce on August 12, 2005, citing irreconcilable differences.^[1][2]

Casey Sheehan[link]

Casey Austin Sheehan (May 29, 1979–April 4, 2004) was a Specialist in the United States Army who was killed by enemy action while serving in the Iraq War. He was the son of Patrick Sheehan, a sales representative, and Cindy Sheehan.

Military service[link]

In May 2000, Sheehan enlisted in the United States Army as a light-wheeled vehicle mechanic, MOS 63B. It has been reported that he may have considered enlisting as a Chaplain's assistant MOS 56M. (Sheehan had acted as an altar server during the Palm Sunday mass on the morning of his death).^[3]

Near the end of his active service, the U.S. invasion of Iraq began. Sheehan re-enlisted, knowing that his unit would be sent there.^[4] Sheehan's division, the First Cavalry Division, was sent to Iraq. On March 19, 2004, Sheehan's Battery C, 1st Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment, arrived at FOB Camp War Eagle in Sadr City. On April 4, 2004, Sheehan was killed in action after volunteering to be part of a Quick Reaction Force to rescue American troops.

Burial[link]

Sheehan is buried in Vacaville-Elmira Cemetery in Vacaville, California. In May 2006, his mother finally provided a tombstone at his grave following criticism that Casey, who died in 2004, lacked one. Cindy Sheehan paid for the tombstone herself, stating "It is important for the rest of Casey's family to have one... I guess the pain of seeing it etched in marble that he is dead is another pain I will have to deal with." Cindy Sheehan maintains that the U.S. "government should have paid for it because of its responsibility for his death." The Department of Veterans Affairs does provide such monuments upon request.^[5]

Legacy[link]

Casey Sheehan was awarded the Purple Heart and Bronze Star with V for Valor posthumously for his actions April 4, 2004.^[6] The chapel at Fort Hood started a new Knights of Columbus chapter that was named the Specialist Casey Austin Sheehan Council.^[7] After his death, the Casey Austin Sheehan Memorial Award was created as an annual award to honor his memory.^{[citation needed]} His mother, Cindy Sheehan, became a prominent anti-war activist after his death.

Anti-war campaign[link]

Sheehan states she initially questioned the urgency of the invasion of Iraq, but did not become active in the anti-war effort until after her son's death.^[8] Sheehan and other military families met with United States President George W. Bush in June 2004 at Fort Lewis, near Tacoma, Washington, about three months after her son's death. In a June 24, 2004 interview with the Vacaville Reporter, published soon after the meeting, she stated, "We haven't been happy with the way the war has been handled. The President has changed his reasons for being over there every time a reason is proven false or an objective reached." She also stated that President Bush was "... sincere about wanting freedom for the Iraqis. I know [he] feels pain for our loss. And I know he's a man of God."^[9]

Sheehan gave another interview on October 4, 2004, stating that she did not understand the reasons for the Iraq invasion and never thought that Iraq posed an imminent threat to the United States. She further stated that her son's death had compelled her to speak out against the war.^[8]

Friends and family of Cindy Sheehan hold a photo of Casey Sheehan at an anti-war demonstration in Arlington, Virginia on October 2, 2004.

For the presidential inauguration in January 2005, Sheehan traveled to Washington, DC to speak at the opening of "Eyes Wide Open: the Human Cost of War," a traveling exhibition created by the American Friends Service Committee that displays pairs of combat boots to represent U.S. military casualties.^[10] She also traveled with the exhibition to other locations and donated her son Casey's boots, stating, "Behind these boots is one broken-hearted family."^[11][12]

Sheehan was one of the nine founding members of Gold Star Families for Peace, an organization she created in January 2005 with other families she met at the inauguration. It seeks to end the U.S. occupation of Iraq, and provides support for families of soldiers killed in Iraq.^{[10][13] [14]}

Sheehan attracted international attention in early August 2005, when she traveled to President Bush's Prairie Chapel Ranch, just outside Crawford, Texas, demanding a second meeting with the President.^[15][16] She told members of Veterans for Peace, "I'm gonna say, 'And you tell me, what the noble cause is that my son died for.' And if he even starts to say freedom and democracy, I'm gonna say, bullshit. You tell me the truth. You tell me that my son died for oil. You tell me that my son died to make your friends rich...You tell me that, you don't tell me my son died for freedom and democracy." She also vowed not to pay her federal income tax for 2004 because that was the year her son was killed.^[17]

Tax Position[link]

Sheehan is being sued by the IRS for failure to pay taxes. Sheehan said "I feel like I gave my son to this country in an illegal and immoral war. I'll never get him back," Sheehan said. "And, so, if they can give me my son back, then I'll pay my taxes. And that's not going to happen." ^[18]

Camp Casey[link]

On August 6, 2005, Sheehan created a makeshift camp in a ditch by the side of the road about three miles (5 km) from President Bush's Prairie Chapel Ranch near Crawford, Texas and announced her intention to stay (sleeping in a pup tent at night) until she was granted a face-to-face meeting with the President.^[19] Sheehan started her protest the day the President started a planned five-week vacation. The encampment was publicized widely by the Mintwood Media Collective on behalf of Gold Star Families for Peace and Military Families Speak Out. A few days later, the media began referring to Sheehan's camp as "Camp Casey."^[20]

Members of White House vigil on August 17, 2005 in support of Cindy Sheehan's protest at President Bush's Crawford ranch

Sheehan spent most of the next four weeks in Crawford. On some days as many as 1,500 supporters visited Camp Casey,^[21] including members of the U.S. Congress, as well as several notable actors, singers, and civil rights activists.

Gold Star Families for Peace, of which Sheehan is a founding member, released a TV commercial featuring Sheehan, broadcast on Crawford and Waco cable channels near Bush's ranch.^[22] The group conducted a walk to a police station just outside Bush's ranch and delivered a bundle of oversized letters written by them to First Lady Laura Bush, appealing to her as a mother to support their movement.^[23]

On August 16, Sheehan moved her camp closer to the Bush ranch after being offered the use of a piece of land owned by a supporter, Fred Mattlage.^[24]

In late August, Sheehan stated that she would continue to campaign against the Iraq war even if granted a meeting with Bush. She also announced the Bring Them Home Now Tour, to depart on September 1 and arrive in Washington, DC, on September 24 for three days of demonstrations. The tour, which covered 42 cities in 26 states, was publicized by the Mintwood Media Collective, and garnered international media coverage. On the third day, Sheehan and about 370 other anti-war activists were arrested for demonstrating on the White House sidewalk.^[25]

Sheehan's actions led supporters such as Rev. Lennox Yearwood, CEO of the Hip Hop Caucus, to describe her as "the Rosa Parks of the antiwar movement."^[26] Sheehan also gained the label of "Peace Mom" from the mainstream media.^[27][28][29]

Political activism[link]

In September 2005, Sheehan moved into the Berkeley, California home of Stephen Pearcy and Virginia Pearcy,^[30][31][32] where she lived for just over a year, during which time she wrote two books. Also that month, Sheehan met with Senator John McCain, and later called him a "warmonger."^[33] Between 2005 and 2007, Sheehan attended several anti-war events in Sacramento organized by the Pearcys.^{[34][35][36][37][38][39]} Also in September 2005, the Bring Them Home Now Tour was organized by Gold Star Families for Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out, and Veterans For Peace. Inspired by Sheehan and frequently including Sheehan as a speaker, it was a rolling anti-war protest against the Iraq War, beginning in Crawford, Texas, traveling three routes across the country (with rallies along the way) and culminating in a rally in Washington, DC later in September 2005.

On October 24, 2005, Sheehan said that she planned to speak at the White House and then tie herself to the fence.^[40] She and 28 others were arrested in a sit-in at the White House on October 26.^[41]

Sheehan went to London in early December 2005 and was interviewed by BBC Radio 4^[42] and by The Guardian.^[43] On December 10, Sheehan addressed the International Peace Conference, organized by the Stop the War Coalition. Later in the evening, she attended the London Premiere of Peace Mom, a play written by Dario Fo (Literature Nobel laureate) about her,^[44] in which the role of Sheehan was played by Frances de la Tour. On December 13, Sheehan traveled to Ireland, where she met Irish Foreign Affairs minister Dermot Ahern. She voiced her objection to U.S. aircraft refueling at Shannon Airport, stating, "Your Government, even though they didn't send troops to Iraq, are complicit in the crimes by allowing the planes to land and refuel."^[45]

On January 31, 2006, Sheehan wore a T-shirt reading "2,245 Dead. How many more?" to Bush's State of the Union address and was removed and arrested by Capitol Police.^[46] Additionally, Beverly Young, the wife of Representative Bill Young (R., Fla.), was told to leave because she was wearing a T-shirt that read "Support the Troops: Defending Our Freedom." (As a matter of policy, visitors to Congress are not allowed to wear clothing displaying type of any kind.)

Sheehan in Melbourne speaking in support of David Hicks, May 2006.

On March 7, 2006, Sheehan was arrested in New York "after blocking the door to the U.S. Mission to the U.N. offices" during a protest with Iraqi women against the war.^[47]

Sheehan and Gold Star Families for Peace were awarded the 'Domestic Human Rights Award' by Global Exchange, an international human rights organization based in San Francisco.

Several organizations planned a hunger strike to begin on July 4, 2006;^[48] Sheehan stated she would participate. On July 5, Sheehan appeared on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews to discuss the war and her upcoming hunger strike. On the show, she called Bush "the biggest terrorist in the world" and "worse than Osama Bin Laden," and conceded that she would rather live under Venezuela's Hugo Chávez than Bush.^[49] Later that month, Sheehan purchased 5 acres (20,000 m²) of land in Crawford, Texas, near Bush's private residence.

On May 26 and May 28, 2007, Sheehan posted two messages to Daily Kos announcing that she was leaving the Democratic Party after the Democratic-controlled Congress passed a bill authorizing the continued funding of the war in Iraq.^[50] She also submitted her resignation as the "face" of the American anti-war movement, stating that she wanted to go home and be a mother to her surviving children. However, on July 3, 2007, in response to President Bush's commutation of Scooter Libby's sentence, she announced her return to activism.^[51] She focused on her Congressional campaign in 2008.

In August 2009, Sheehan protested at Martha's Vineyard during President Barack Obama's stay there. According to ABC News: "Sheehan invoked Senator Ted Kennedy's passing as part of her message, noting that he was firmly anti-war and how he said his proudest vote as a senator was his 2002 vote against the Iraq war."^[52] On October 5, 2009, Sheehan was arrested with 60 others at the White House protesting President Obama's continuation of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. She told CNN: "I think the mood of the country and the mood of our movement is getting a little bit more desperate, and (that) this will be the time to be able to translate our tireless activism and work for peace."^[53] On December 10, 2009, Sheehan protested on the streets of Oslo, Norway, as President Barack Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize.^[54]

On March 20, 2010, Sheehan was again arrested in front of the White House, along with seven others, after they defied orders by officers of the United States Park Police to clear the sidewalk on Pennsylvania Avenue.^[55] On July 12, Sheehan and four other activists were on trial in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia stemming from the arrests. The government decided not to try three others arrested that day, and had their cases dismissed. Sheehan and two others were acquitted of crossing a police line, while the other two were found guilty.^[56]

On May 2, 2011, Sheehan released a statement indicating that she considers the death of Osama bin Laden to be a hoax, stating: "If you believe the newest death of OBL, you’re stupid."^[57] She referred to America as a "lying, murderous Empire" and told Americans, whom she called "brainwashed," to "put [their] flags away."^[57][58]

In October 2011, Sheehan was arrested in Sacramento as part of an anti-Wall Street movement.^[59]

Despite agreeing to stand as the Socialist Party USA's vice-presidential nominee for the 2012 elections, the party's national convention voted on October 15, 2011, to block her candidacy, on the official grounds that she isn't a member of the party.^[60] The vice-presidential nomination went to Alejandro Mendoza of Texas.

Sheehan hosts a weekly radio show she started in 2009. She has interviewed notable activists and world leaders, including Howard Zinn, Ray McGovern, Ann Wright and Hugo Chávez. Sheehan also maintains a website "Cindy's Soapbox."

Congressional election campaign[link]

Wikinews has related news: San Francisco's Green Party endorses Cindy Sheehan in bid against Speaker Pelosi

In July 2007, Sheehan announced that she would run against Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi for Representative of California's 8th District, based on Pelosi's failure to attempt impeachment of Bush.^[61] Up until her run for U.S. Congress, Sheehan lived outside Pelosi's district, in Dixon, California; however, she moved to San Francisco's Mission District after declaring her candidacy.^[62] Earlier, in 2006, she had spoken of ambitions to challenge Dianne Feinstein for her seat in the United States Senate.^[63]

Sheehan ran on a platform of single-payer health care, media reform, overturning all free trade agreements, repealing the Patriot Act, renewable energy, nationalizing oil and electricity, ending the War on Drugs, legalizing cannabis, ensuring all talks in the Middle East are fair to all parties, ending torture, closing Guantanamo Bay detention camp, overseas commitment to cleaning up Superfund sites, ending deregulation, ending No Child Left Behind, and legalizing same-sex marriage.^[64] Sheehan lost the 2008 election to the incumbent Pelosi. In a seven-way race, Sheehan came in second with 46,118 votes (16.14%) to Pelosi's 71.56%.^[65]

Published work[link]

• Dear President Bush (2006) ISBN 0872864545
• Peace Mom (2006) ISBN 074329792X

Political views[link]

In 2010, Sheehan changed her voter registration in California and became a member of the Peace and Freedom Party.^[66]

See also[link]

• American popular opinion on invasion of Iraq
• Movement to impeach George W. Bush
• Nadia McCaffrey, anti-war activist
• Opposition to the Iraq War
• Protests against the Iraq War
• Views on the 2003 invasion of Iraq

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Cindy Sheehan

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Cindy Sheehan

• Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox Radio, blog and action page
• Former blogs at Crawford Update, DailyKos and Huffington Post
• Cindy Sheehan Sets Up "Camp Out Now" in Antiwar Protest - video report by Democracy Now!
• Cindy Sheehan On "Peace Heroes: Albert Einstein". 18 May 2010.
• Dissent in the age of Obama - an article by Cindy Sheehan, 5 October 2010
• Injustice in the age of Obama - an article by Cindy Sheehan, 16 October 2010

Death of Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden in 2010
Participants	Osama bin Laden Central Intelligence Agency United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne)
Location	Osama bin Laden's compound in Bilal Town, Abbottabad, Pakistan
Date	May 2, 2011 (2011-05-02)
Deaths	Osama bin Laden a.k.a. Abu Hamza, 54; Khalid bin Laden, 23; Arshad Khan, a.k.a. Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, 33; Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti's brother Abrar, 30; Bushra, Abrar's wife, age unknown.
Result	Osama bin Laden's body buried in North Arabian Sea

Osama bin Laden, the former head of the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda known for the September 11 attacks, was killed in Pakistan on May 2, 2011, shortly after 1 am local time^[1][2] by Navy SEALs of the United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group. The operation, code-named Operation Neptune Spear, was ordered by United States President Barack Obama and carried out in a Central Intelligence Agency-led operation. Participating units included the United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group (also known as DEVGRU or SEAL Team Six), the U.S. Army's 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne), and CIA operatives.^[3][4] The raid on bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan was launched from Afghanistan.^[5] After the raid, U.S. forces took bin Laden's body to Afghanistan for identification, then buried it at sea within 24 hours of his death.^[6]

Al-Qaeda confirmed the death on May 6 with posts made on militant websites, vowing to avenge the killing.^[7] Other Pakistani militant groups, including the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, also vowed retaliation against the U.S. and against Pakistan for not preventing the operation.^[8] Bin Laden's killing was generally favorably received by U.S. public opinion;^[9][10] was welcomed by the United Nations, NATO, the European Union, and a large number of governments;^[11] but was condemned by some, including Fidel Castro of Cuba^[12] and Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the Hamas administration of the Gaza Strip.^[13] Legal and ethical aspects of the killing, such as his not being taken alive despite being unarmed, were questioned by others, including Amnesty International.^[14] Also controversial was the decision to not release any photographic or DNA evidence of bin Laden's death to the public.^[15]

Locating bin Laden[link]

The U.S. intelligence community effort to determine the current location of Osama bin Laden, which eventually resulted in the Abbottabad operation, began with a fragment of information unearthed in 2002, resulting in years of consequent investigation, followed by intensive multiplatform surveillance on the compound beginning in September 2010.

Identity of his courier[link]

Identification of al-Qaeda couriers was an early priority for interrogators at CIA black sites and Guantanamo Bay detention camp, because bin Laden was believed to communicate through such couriers while concealing his whereabouts from al-Qaeda foot soldiers and top commanders.^[16] Bin Laden was known not to use phones, as the U.S. launched missile strikes against his bases in Afghanistan and Sudan in 1998 (Operation Infinite Reach) after tracking an associate's satellite phone.^[17]

By 2002, interrogators had heard uncorroborated claims about an al-Qaeda courier with the nom de guerre Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti (sometimes referred to as Sheikh Abu Ahmed from Kuwait).^[16] In 2003, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged operational chief of al-Qaeda, revealed under interrogation that he was acquainted with al-Kuwaiti but that he was not active in al-Qaeda.^[18]

In 2004, a prisoner named Hassan Ghul told interrogators that al-Kuwaiti was close to bin Laden as well as Khalid Sheik Mohammed and Mohammed's successor Abu Faraj al-Libi. Ghul further revealed that al-Kuwaiti had not been seen in some time, which led U.S. officials to suspect he was traveling with bin Laden. When confronted with Ghul's account, Khalid Sheik Mohammed maintained his original story.^[18] Abu Faraj al-Libi was captured in 2005 and transferred to Guantánamo in September 2006.^[19] He told CIA interrogators that bin Laden's courier was a man named Maulawi Abd al-Khaliq Jan and denied knowing al-Kuwaiti. Because both Mohammed and al-Libi had minimized al-Kuwaiti's importance, officials speculated that he was part of bin Laden's inner circle.^[18]

In 2007, officials learned al-Kuwaiti's real name,^[20] though they will not disclose the name nor how they learned it.^[18] Since the name Maulawi Abd al-Khaliq Jan appears in the JTF-GTMO detainee assessment for Abu Faraj al-Libi released by WikiLeaks on April 24, 2011,^[21] there was speculation that the U.S. assault on the Abbottabad compound was expedited as a precaution.^[22] The CIA never found anyone named Maulawi Jan and concluded that the name was an invention of al-Libi.^[18]

A 2010 wiretap of another suspect picked up a conversation with al-Kuwaiti. CIA paramilitary operatives located al-Kuwaiti in August 2010 and followed him back to bin Laden's Abbottabad compound.^[16] The courier and a relative (who was either a brother or a cousin) were killed in the May 2, 2011 raid.^[18] Afterward, some locals identified the men as Pashtuns named Arshad and Tareq Khan.^[23] Arshad Khan was carrying an old, noncomputerized Pakistani identification card which said he was from Khat Kuruna, a village near Charsadda in northwestern Pakistan. Pakistani officials have found no record of an Arshad Khan in that area and suspect the men were living under false identities.^[24]

In June 2011, Pakistani officials revealed the courier's name as Ibrahim Saeed Ahmed from Pakistan's Swat Valley. He and his brother Abrar and their families were living at bin Laden's compound.^[25]

Bin Laden's compound[link]

View of the compound

The CIA used surveillance photos and intelligence reports to determine the identities of the inhabitants of the Abbottabad compound to which the courier was traveling. In September 2010, the CIA concluded that the compound was custom-built to hide someone of significance, very likely bin Laden.^[26][27] Officials surmised that he was living there with his youngest wife.^[27]

Built in 2004, the three-story^[28] compound was located at the end of a narrow dirt road.^[29] Google Earth maps made from satellite photographs show that the compound was not present in 2001 but did exist on images taken in 2005.^[30] It is located 2.5 miles (4.0 km) northeast of the city center of Abbottabad.^[26] Abbottabad is about 100 miles (160 km) from the Afghanistan border on the far eastern side of Pakistan (about 20 miles (32 km) from India). The compound is 0.8 miles (1.3 km) southwest of the Pakistan Military Academy (PMA), a prominent military academy that has been compared with West Point in the United States and Sandhurst in Britain.^[3] Located on a plot of land eight times larger than those of nearby houses, it was surrounded by a 12-to-18-foot (3.7–5.5 m)^[27] concrete wall topped with barbed wire.^[26] There were two security gates, and the third-floor balcony had a seven-foot-high (2.1 m) privacy wall, tall enough to hide the 6 ft 4 in (193 cm) bin Laden.

There was no Internet or landline telephone service to the compound, and its residents burned their refuse, unlike their neighbors who set their garbage out for collection.^[28] Local residents called the building the Waziristan Haveli, because they believed the owner was from Waziristan.^[31] The compound was demolished in February 2012.^[32]