WASHINGTON, Sept 21 (Reuters) - A Washington protest group said on Friday it expects more than 10,000 people to join an anti-war march next weekend from the White House to the Capitol as the U.S. military prepares to launch retaliatory strikes for devastating attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center.    

The group, which had been organizing protests against the IMF-World Bank meeting in Washington before it was canceled in the wake of last week's attacks, said it has obtained permits for what it billed as the first anti-war march.    
"The issues of war and racism were issues we were paying a great deal of attention to already," said Richard Becker, a spokesman for International Action Center, which has formed International ANSWER, which stands for Act Now to Stop War and End Racism.    Dozens of activist groups have signed on for the Sept. 29 march, which will begin with a rally at Lafayette Park across from the White House and continue up Pennsylvania Avenue to Capitol Hill, he said.  

The International Action Center had expected tens of thousands of protesters to descend on Washington next weekend to rally against the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, prompting police plans to ring the heart of the nation's capital with chain-link fence to keep demonstrators at bay.    

Along with its stand against the war, the group will protest legislation championed by U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft that would expand powers of federal agents to wiretap telephones, conduct searches and seize assets of people it deems suspected "terrorists."    "We are also protesting the Ashcroft proposals, which we regard as being a very severe attack on civil liberties," Becker said. The protest plans come amid escalating reports of violence against Arab-Americans, Muslims and other "communities of color," he said.  

The IMF-World Bank meeting in Washington was canceled two days after hijackers crashed commercial airliners into the Pentagon and twin towers of the World Trade Center. A fourth hijacked airliner crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. The attacks left more than 6,500 people dead or missing.    Peace rallies were held on Thursday in Boston, Michigan, Wisconsin and the University of California-Berkeley amid what peace activists said there was a growing anti-war sentiment. ((-- James Pierpoint, Washington bureau, 202 898-8300, or [email protected])) Fri Sep 21 18:58:53 2001 -GMT- pnac (nN21228355) = 1 18:58

Anyone want the "Balaclava and Baseball Bat" concession for the counter-protest?

I'd be willing to donate 100 of each.

Out here on the left coast, we have a group of professional protesters who travel from protest to protest. Always the same faces.

This is America. These people have the right to protest any thing they want to.

Even if they are a bunch of dumbshits.

OK I gulped down some BP meds instead of Rolaids...

Sounds like Dead heads

Cool...  TARGETS!  [50]

Shades of Kent State..? [soapbox]

Just goes to show you how full of shit these protesters are.  First they were going to protest IMF/World bank, but since that was called off they decided to organize an anti-war protest.

They are just professional pains in the ass, plain and simple

They don't care what they protest, they just want to protest something.  Clowns.  [:o)]