BRUSSELS -- Twenty-nine protesters were arrested Sunday after a demonstration against war in Iraq turned violent Sunday in downtown Brussels, when dozens of youths clashed with riot police and attacked American-owned businesses.

"Stop the United States of Aggression! No war against Iraq! Stop bombing!" shouted the marchers who carried Iraqi, Palestinian and Communist flags.

They carried placards saying "Free Palestine! A Palestinian state now! Support the resistance of the Palestinian people."

Masked, stone-throwing youths broke windows at a McDonald's fast food restaurant and a Marriot hotel, as well as a local temporary employment agency.

Only minor damage was done however as riot police moved in, backed by water canons. No tear gas was used.

Up to a hundred youths, many of them of Arab origin, broke away from the main body of the anti-war protesters who were marching through the city center.

They hurled stones at businesses and police who responded with baton charges. Photographers and TV camera operators were also targeted by the rioters.

About 2,000 protesters comprising pro-Palestinian and anti-capitalist groups joined the demonstration led by a banner reading "Stop USA."

They chanted slogans against the policies of U.S. President George W. Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

March organizers said some 5,000 people took part.

"We are against President Bush's policies in Afghanistan and Iraq," said Han Soete, a march organizer. "We don't want another war."

Leaflets distributed by the organizers said, "We oppose a new war against Iraq. The US alone spends more on defense than the nine other major powers together."

"No weapons of mass destruction have caused more victims than the 110,000 air attacks and the twelve years of embargo against Iraq. Iraq has been bled dry, and mourns one and a half million victims."
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BRUSSELS -- A protest against war in Iraq turned violent Sunday in downtown Brussels when dozens of youths clashed with police and attacked American-owned businesses.

Masked, stone-throwing youths broke windows at a McDonald's fast food restaurant and a Marriot hotel, as well as a local temporary employment agency.

Up to a hundred youths, many of them of Arab origin, broke away from the main body of the anti-war protesters who were marching through the city center.

They hurled stones at businesses and police who responded with baton charges. Photographers and TV camera operators were also targeted by the rioters.

Police helicopters were monitoring the demonstration and water-canon trucks were standby as officers tried to contain the violence. A number of demonstrators were detained, but no official figures were immediately available.

About 2,000 protesters comprising pro-Palestinian and anti-capitalist groups joined the demonstration led by a banner reading "Stop USA."

They chanted slogans against the policies of U.S. President George W. Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

FLORENCE, Italy (AP) - Hundreds of thousands of people marched through Florence Saturday in a protest against globalization and U.S. policy in Iraq, and despite the high turnout there was none of the violence that marred last year's Group of Eight summit in Genoa.

Instead the atmosphere was more like a carnival with food stands, exhibits and street theater along with the discussions of free trade and war.

Though security was tight, police kept a low profile. Italy was criticized as having provoked clashes in Genoa by insisting on a heavy police presence.

Police in Florence said about 450,000 people took part in the demonstration, the highlight of an anti-globalization gathering here that started Wednesday and ends Sunday. The figure was more than twice the number expected.

Organizer Vittorio Agnoletto estimated the crowd at 800,000 to 1 million.

Demonstrators came from across Europe — Greece, Spain, Britain, Denmark and elsewhere — to protest a war on Iraq and the corporate interests of multinationals which they say harm the poor and the environment.

"I was a bit afraid, because they were saying this would be a 'Genoa-Two' but it's been very peaceful and I hope it stays that way," said Uwe Schurmann a demonstrator from Germany.

The demonstration came a day after the U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a resolution which gives Iraq a last chance to disarm or face almost certain war.

Protesters said they were motivated by opposition to a war in Iraq and the influence of multinational corporations, which they see as harmful to the environment and the poor.

"We want to demonstrate that a different world is possible," said Noemi Cucchi, 31, from the Italian port city of Ancona.

Led by a banner reading "No War," the marchers walked peacefully through Florence as curious residents peered down from apartment windows.

The atmosphere was relaxed. Demonstrators — some dressed as clowns — ate as they walked or coasted along the route on inline skates, shouting "Hands off the Middle East" and "The real terrorist is the West."

"I really just wanted to be a part of this," said Justine Trillaud, a 16-year-old from Paris.

Marchers walked 4 miles along the Arno river to an area near the soccer stadium for a concert and speeches.

The center of the city, with its narrow alleys and Renaissance buildings, was closed to the demonstrators, and dozens of police stood guard to enforce the restriction.

As a precaution, many shops in the fashionable streets were shuttered. Authorities removed hundreds of trash bins from the city to prevent demonstrators from using the contents to start fires.

Premier Silvio Berlusconi's government approved the demonstration after weeks of debate and after adopting an intense security plan because of last year's violence.

The demonstration was seen as a major test for Italian police after the 2001 Group of Eight summit in Genoa, where one protester was shot dead by a Carabinieri paramilitary officer and hundreds were wounded during street clashes.

Images of wrecked banks, gas stations and stores in Genoa are still vivid for many Italians.

The United States faced stiff opposition to its war plans on two fronts yesterday, with continuing pressure in the United Nations to remove some of the belligerent language from its proposed Security Council resolution on Iraq and a large anti-war protest bearing down on the White House in Washington.

Busloads of demonstrators began to spill out on to the Washington mall near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial yesterday morning, bearing placards that read "Drop Bush, not bombs" and "Regime change begins at home". Organisers were hoping as many as 100,000 people would join the rally, making it the biggest protest for peace since the Vietnam War.

First indications suggested the numbers would be less impressive than the organisers were hoping, but a full roster of celebrity speakers ­ including such liberal luminaries as Jesse Jackson, the civil rights activist, and Ramsey Clark, the pacifist former US attorney general ­ was nevertheless gearing up to electrify the crowds.

A flurry of demonstrations in other parts of the world timed to coincide with the Washington protest were largely disappointing ­ just 300 people turned up in Tokyo, 1,500 in Frankfurt and between 5,000 and 10,000 in Berlin. In the US, a second protest march was due to start later in San Francisco, a magnet for left-wing dissenters and anti-war protesters in a country that until now has been largely hypnotised by the Bush administration line on all things terror and war-related.

The demonstrations were a symptom of a deeper, and growing, sense of unease about the United States' intentions in Iraq. Opinion polls show the US public will only throw its support behind a military campaign if it has international backing, but negotiations in the UN Security Council remain deadlocked.

The French government, which has drafted one of two alternate UN resolutions on Iraq, said yesterday it was willing to use the US document ­ backed by Britain ­ as a starting point for negotiations, but made clear that certain phrases would have to be modified or dropped.

"We are going to try to work with the Americans on the basis of the text they have proposed. If we don't manage that, then we will obviously officially propose our own text," the French foreign minister, Dominique de Villepin, said in a radio interview.

Russia is also developing its own text, creating the risk of a three-way split in the Security Council that will effectively leave the United States stranded. The two most contentious phrases in the US document are a line about Iraq being in "material breach" of previous UN resolutions on eliminating weapons of mass destruction, and the threat of "serious consequences" ­ widely interpreted as carte blanche for military intervention ­ if UN weapons inspectors do not gain full access and give the all-clear.

President Bush spent several hours on Friday talking about Iraq with China's President, Jiang Zemin, at his ranch in Texas but apparently failed to overcome Chinese misgivings about the US text. He had been due to meet Russia's President, Vladimir Putin, in Mexico yesterday, but the summit was cancelled because of the hostage crisis in Moscow.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Tens of thousands of anti-war protesters circled the White House on Saturday after Jesse Jackson and other speakers denounced the Bush administration's Iraq policies and demanded a revolt at the ballot box to promote peace.

The protest coincided with anti-war demonstrations from Augusta, Maine, to San Francisco and abroad from Rome and Berlin to Tokyo to San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Mexico City. In Washington and many of the other demonstrations, protesters added complaints about U.S. policy toward the Palestinians.

"We must not be diverted. In two years we've lost 2 million jobs, unemployment is up, stock market down, poverty up," Jackson told a spirited crowd in Washington. "It's time for a change. It's time to vote on Nov. 5 for hope. We need a regime change in this country."

Congress has authorized the use of military force to achieve the administration policy of "regime change" in Iraq.

"If we launch a pre-emptive strike on Iraq we lose all moral authority," Jackson told the chanting, cheering throng spread out on green lawns near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

A sign showed Bush's face at the end of two bright red bombs with the caption: "Drop Bush, not bombs."

The protest brought out the elderly, young parents with babies in strollers, even a man dressed as Uncle Sam wearing dreadlocks and another Uncle Sam, on stilts, with an elongated Pinocchio nose.

Protest organizers claimed up to 200,000 people had answered the call to challenge President Bush's determination to force out Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Because the U.S. Park Police no longer issues crowd estimates, the size of the crowd could not be verified. As the march began, participants stretched for at least five city blocks.

On a nearby street corner, a handful of Iraqi-Americans staged a counterdemonstration. Aziz al-Taee, spokesman for the Iraqi-American Council, said, "I think America is doing just fine. ... We think every day Saddam stays in power, he kills more Iraqis."

New Englanders ventured out in snow, sleet and rain to join demonstrations in Maine and Vermont. Across the nation a couple thousand showed up at the Colorado capitol in downtown Denver, and demonstrators marched at San Francisco.

The thousands who gathered in cities across Europe, Asia and beyond also displayed vocal opposition to the U.S. policy toward Iraq and demanded reversal of Bush's Iraq policies.

In San Francisco, demonstrators stretched about a mile as they marched from the financial district to City Hall, carrying placards that read, "Money for jobs, not for war" and "No blood for oil."

Young punk rockers with mohawks, aging hippies and middle-aged couples with children all took part, chanting, "One, two, three, four, we don't want your racist war."

More than 2,000 chanting, drum-beating protesters marched on a home owned by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld near Taos, N.M., waving placards that read, "Rumsfeld is a War Criminal" and "Teachers Against War." A few protesters held photographs of Iraqi children.

A Secret Service agent said Rumsfeld was not at home.

In Berlin, an estimated 8,000 people, brandishing placards that declared "War on the imperialist war," converged on the downtown Alexanderplatz and marched past the German Foreign Ministry. Another 1,500 showed up in Frankfurt, 500 in Hamburg.

Another 1,500 rain-soaked demonstrators gathered under umbrellas outside the U.S. Embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark. More than 1,000 marched in Stockholm, Sweden.

In Washington, civil rights activist Al Sharpton addressed Bush, even though the president was at an economic summit in Mexico.

"It would have been good for you to be here, George, so you could see what America really looks like," Sharpton said. "We are the real America.

"We are the patriots that believe that America should heal the world and not bring the world to nuclear war over the interests of those business tycoons who put you in the White House."

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of anti-war protesters marched peacefully on the White House on Saturday to express opposition to a possible U.S. attack on Iraq, some chanting slogans accusing President Bush of planning genocide.

Thousands more people took part in anti-war demonstrations in San Francisco, Berlin, Amsterdam and other cities.

"This is going to be an ugly, unnecessary fight. Most of the world is saying 'no' to it," civil rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson told the crowd at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington. "Pre-emptive, one-bullet diplomacy, we cannot resort to that."

In Washington, actress Susan Sarandon, who supports numerous liberal causes, accused Bush of having "hijacked our losses and our fears." Sarandon said terrorism could not be fought with violence and that most Americans did not want a conflict.

"Let us resist this war," Sarandon told the cheering crowd. "Let us hate war in all its forms, whether the weapon used is a missile or an airplane."

Demonstrators of all ages, many religions and many nationalities gathered at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial before marching behind Jackson to the White House. Bush, however, was in Mexico for a summit of Pacific Rim leaders.

The protesters brandished signs reading: "No Proof, No War," "Bush Sucks" and "Pre-emptive Impeachment." Some protesters carried Iraqi flags. "No war, no way," shouted a protester wearing a mask of Bush with horns and a pitchfork.

"George Bush, you can't hide. We charge you with genocide!" chanted the demonstrators, who were escorted by mounted U.S. Park Police and watched by 600 police officers along the route in the heart of the nation's capital.

Bush has made "regime change" in Iraq -- ousting President Saddam Hussein -- a policy of his administration. Bush has said that if the United Nations fails to compel Iraq to give up any weapons of mass destruction -- chemical, biological or nuclear arms -- it possesses, the United States would do so by force if necessary. Congress has given Bush the authorization he sought to carry out a possible attack.

Police did not give an official estimate of the size of the crowd in Washington. Tony Murphy, an organizer of the event, told Reuters 150,000 people participated. Other observers put the figure between 40,000 and 50,000.

42,000 PROTEST IN SAN FRANCISCO

In San Francisco, known for its liberal politics and history of activism, a crowd that police estimated at about 42,000 marched near the city's historic Ferry Building to its Civic Center.

A group of about 20 children led the parade as protesters carried signs bearing pictures of Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld beneath the words "weapons of mass destruction." Other signs read: "No blood for oil" and "Regime change begins at home. Vote on Nov. 5," referring to the U.S. congressional elections.

In Germany, demonstrations were staged in about 70 towns and cities. The largest was in Berlin, where almost 10,000 people marched. In Amsterdam, some 4,000 people rallied in heavy rain to protest against U.S. policy.

In Washington, protesters called on Bush to spend the tens of billions of dollars that a war against Iraq could cost on social programs in the United States. They also argued that sanctions imposed on Iraq after its invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and the 1991 Gulf War should be lifted, blaming them for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians.

About 500 Iraqi exiles came to Washington to show support for efforts to remove Saddam from power.

Tamir Musa, an Iraqi who has lived in Michigan for 10 years, said, "The war is good if it goes to kill Saddam Hussein. He has a lot of bombs. He's terrorist number one."

"If violence fixed the problem, then Israel should be at peace," countered Rick Blumhorst of Kansas, a U.S. Gulf War veteran wearing his Army dress uniform. "Acting unilaterally, we're going to inflame the Muslim community."

By LAWRENCE L. KNUTSON, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Tens of thousands of anti-war protesters circled the White House on Saturday after Jesse Jackson and other speakers denounced the Bush administration's Iraq policies and demanded a revolt at the ballot box to promote peace.

The protest coincided with anti-war demonstrations from Augusta, Maine, to San Francisco and abroad from Rome and Berlin to Tokyo to San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Mexico City. In Washington and many of the other demonstrations, protesters added complaints about U.S. policy toward the Palestinians.

"We must not be diverted. In two years we've lost 2 million jobs, unemployment is up, stock market down, poverty up," Jackson told a spirited crowd in Washington. "It's time for a change. It's time to vote on Nov. 5 for hope. We need a regime change in this country."

Congress has authorized the use of military force to achieve the administration policy of "regime change" in Iraq.

"If we launch a pre-emptive strike on Iraq we lose all moral authority," Jackson told the chanting, cheering throng spread out on green lawns near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

A sign showed Bush's face at the end of two bright red bombs with the caption: "Drop Bush, not bombs."

The protest brought out the elderly, young parents with babies in strollers, even a man dressed as Uncle Sam wearing dreadlocks and another Uncle Sam, on stilts, with an elongated Pinocchio nose.

Protest organizers claimed up to 200,000 people had answered the call to challenge President Bush (news - web sites)'s determination to force out Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites). Because the U.S. Park Police no longer issues crowd estimates, the size of the crowd could not be verified. As the march began, participants stretched for at least five city blocks.

On a nearby street corner, a handful of Iraqi-Americans staged a counterdemonstration. Aziz al-Taee, spokesman for the Iraqi-American Council, said, "I think America is doing just fine. ... We think every day Saddam stays in power, he kills more Iraqis."

New Englanders ventured out in snow, sleet and rain to join demonstrations in Maine and Vermont. Across the nation a couple thousand showed up at the Colorado capitol in downtown Denver, and demonstrators marched at San Francisco.

The thousands who gathered in cities across Europe, Asia and beyond also displayed vocal opposition to the U.S. policy toward Iraq and demanded reversal of Bush's Iraq policies.

In San Francisco, demonstrators stretched about a mile as they marched from the financial district to City Hall, carrying placards that read, "Money for jobs, not for war" and "No blood for oil."

Young punk rockers with mohawks, aging hippies and middle-aged couples with children all took part, chanting, "One, two, three, four, we don't want your racist war."

More than 2,000 chanting, drum-beating protesters marched on a home owned by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld near Taos, N.M., waving placards that read, "Rumsfeld is a War Criminal" and "Teachers Against War." A few protesters held photographs of Iraqi children.

A Secret Service agent said Rumsfeld was not at home.

In Berlin, an estimated 8,000 people, brandishing placards that declared "War on the imperialist war," converged on the downtown Alexanderplatz and marched past the German Foreign Ministry. Another 1,500 showed up in Frankfurt, 500 in Hamburg.

Another 1,500 rain-soaked demonstrators gathered under umbrellas outside the U.S. Embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark. More than 1,000 marched in Stockholm, Sweden.

In Washington, civil rights activist Al Sharpton addressed Bush, even though the president was at an economic summit in Mexico.

"It would have been good for you to be here, George, so you could see what America really looks like," Sharpton said. "We are the real America.

"We are the patriots that believe that America should heal the world and not bring the world to

Thousands of protestors gathered Saturday into San Francisco's Civic Center Plaza to protest the possibility of the U.S. going to war against Iraq.

KCBS reporter Peter Scoffield says thousands jammed into the plaza near City Hall to hear speaker after speaker protest against the war.

Among the speakers was actor Mike Farrell. "We cannot allow this man to corrupt the ideals and the beliefs of this nation. No war for oil! No war for ego! No war for empire!" he told the gathered crowd.

One U.S. military veteran who attended the protest say he supports the president's proposal saying Americans who have not lived overseas, don't really know the facts pushing the United States to the brink of war.

Demonstrators filled about a mile-long stretch of city blocks as they marched from the financial district to the plaza in front of City Hall holding signs that said, ``Money for jobs, not for war'' and ``No blood for oil.''

Protest Gallery
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Thoughts

"Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism." Martin Luther King, Jr.
This is from Isthmus, April 3, 1992, apparently a newspaper or magazine published in Madison, Wisconsin. "Pull the Plug!" was reprinted in the Winter 1992 issue of "S.E.T. Free: The Newsletter Against Television." Pull the Plug! by Gar Smith In the final analysis, the smartest way to save energy and promote a healthy and wise planet is to unplug the television set completely. A recent study by the University of Massachusetts at Amherst suggests that exposure to television not only subjects viewers to electromagnetic radiation, it also induces measurable amounts of stupidity. Researchers found that the longer test subjects watched TV coverage of the Iraq war, the more they supported the war but the less informed they became. Pro-war couch potatoes were twice as likely as critics to claim (incorrectly) that Kuwait was a democracy; only 31% knew that Israel had an army of occupation in neighboring territories; only 3% were cognizant of Syria's occupation of Lebanon; and only 2% recalled that Iraq's invasion of Kuwait had been prompted by Kuwait's lowering of oil prices and theft of oil drilled from wells in Iraqi territory. In the words of the researchers, "We discovered that the correlation between TV watching and knowledge was a negative one." For more, see our sister site, Society for the Eradication of Television [SET].		We discovered that the correlation between TV watching and knowledge was a negative one. Researchers found that the longer test subjects watched TV coverage of the Iraq war, the more they supported the war but the less informed they became. ...only 2% recalled that Iraq's invasion of Kuwait had been prompted by Kuwait's lowering of oil prices and theft of oil drilled from wells in Iraqi territory.