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Cindy’s Crawford: Sheehan Returns to Camp Casey for Remaining Days of Bush’s Vacation

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Cindy Sheehan both returned to Crawford, Texas Wednesday evening to rejoin the internationally-known vigil she began two weeks ago. We play an excerpt of an address Sheehan gave at Camp Casey where she says, “[Bush] put our kids in another person’s country, and Casey was killed by insurgents. He wasn’t killed by terrorists. He was killed by Shiite militia who wanted him out of the country.” [includes rush transcript]

After his address in Idaho, President Bush met privately with military families of soldiers killed in Iraq, before returning to his Crawford estate later that evening. Hours earlier, Cindy Sheehan returned to Crawford to continue her vigil demanding that Bush meet with her as well. The site is named Camp Casey after her son who was killed in Iraq in April 2004. After a performance by legendary folk singer Joan Baez, Cindy got up on stage and greeted the audience. She began by addressing some of the attacks that have been leveled at her by the right-wing media.

  • Cindy Sheehan, speaking at Camp Casey, August 24, 2005.

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Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

JUAN GONZALEZ: After his address, Bush met privately with military families of soldiers killed in Iraq before returning to his Crawford ranch later that evening. Hours earlier, Cindy Sheehan returned to Crawford to continue her vigil, demanding that Bush meet with her as well. The site is named Camp Casey after her son who was killed in Iraq in April 2004. After a performance by the legendary folk singer Joan Baez, Cindy got up on stage and greeted the audience. She began by addressing some of the attacks that have been leveled at her by the rightwing media.

CINDY SHEEHAN: The hardest thing for me to hear — I don’t care about them talking about me being a “crackpot” or a “media whore” or a “tool of the left,” you know? I’m like, if I truly was a media whore, do you think I would like maybe get myself fixed up a little bit before I went on? That doesn’t bother me at all, though. What bothers me so much is when they say I’m dishonoring my son’s memory by what I’m doing, that my son would be ashamed of me or that what they really like to say is I’m [bleep] or spitting on his grave.

And look what Casey — look what Casey has started. You know, I’m here because of Casey. We’re all here because of Casey. And, you know, literally there’s over 2,000 of our brave young people and tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis, and I know they’re behind us, and I see them all, all their faces on your faces.

But Casey was such a gentle, kind, loving person. He never even got in one fistfight his whole life. Nobody even hated him enough to punch him, let alone kill him. And that’s what George Bush did. He put our kids in another person’s country, and Casey was killed by insurgents. He wasn’t killed by terrorists. He was killed by Shiite militia who wanted — they wanted him out of the country. When Casey was told that he was going to be welcomed with chocolates and flowers as a liberator, well, the people of Iraq saw it differently. They saw him as an occupier.

AMY GOODMAN: Cindy Sheehan speaking last night at Camp Casey, just after she came back. This is Democracy Now! When we come back from break, we’ll be joined by another of the founders of Gold Star Families for Peace, Celeste Zappala. And we’ll speak with a marine who recently returned from Iraq. We’ll also talk with one of the people who were protesting in Idaho.

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