WASHINGTON
Demonstrators took to the homes of senior U.S. officials Saturday before protesting in front of CIA headquarters to call for accountability in the agency’s interrogation program.
“If the U.S. is really a democracy, we have to hold accountable those people who have gotten us involved in things like torture, indefinite detention and extrajudicial killings like drone strikes,” said Medea Benjaim, co-founder of Code Pink, the activist group who organized the rallies.
The group of roughly 60 people, some of whom had been fasting in solidarity with prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, gathered on the eve of the anniversary of the controversial facility’s opening.
They started their protest in front of CIA Director John Brennan’s home before driving to former Vice President Dick Cheney’s residence. There they entered the house grounds before being escorted to the street by police.
Two people were arrested, including an 83-year-old woman, after police attempted to end the demonstration at Cheney’s residence.
Cheney staunchly defended the CIA’s enhanced interrogation program after a Senate report brought to light gruesome new aspects that prompted outrage at home and abroad.
Speaking before marching on the CIA’s headquarters, Paki Weland, who fasted for four days, said, “This is the place that condones everything and underwrites everything that the U.S. policy is doing that is absolutely opposed to law, and I want to live in a law-abiding country.”
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