Your policies in Iraq are reprehensible

An incredible story coming out of the Rocky Mountain News October 21, 2006 of an upstanding thoughtful American being arrested because he told the Vice President what he thought of his policy in Iraq.

Increasingly Americans are being seen as criminals by the US Government for speaking out against the administrations polices and in particular, the war in Iraq. Today Americans are subject to arrest for suspected terrorist activities without the right to have a lawyer. They can be taken and held indefinately with little or no access to the rights as an American citizen. My good friend at Canuck Attitude has a good piece on this issue here.


Steven Howards has a long history of standing up for what is right and against what is wrong and on the day he accidently came upon the Vice President, he felt he had to say something. Cheney was in town and meeting with a throng of people outside a mall when Howards approached him and told him, "Your policies in Iraq are reprehensible," reported the Rocky Mountain News.

Howards recalls having touched Cheney's suit, then walked away with his eight year old son in tow. As he headed off to meet his wife a secret service agent approached him an asked if he had assaulted the Vice President. Howard replied that if free speech was assault then arrest me. He was arrested and while being pushed into a Secret Service vehicle, his wife had arrived and asked where he was being taken, she was not given an answer. Howards was charged with federal assault. That was reduced to state harassment three hours later when his wife paid the $500 bail.

Howards is suing the Secret Service for harassment. You can read more about Howards story in the Rocky Mountain News.

photo credit: Joe Mahoney Rocky Mountain News

Bush, Iraq Republicans Terrorism USA