Stryker vehicles headed to Iraq make it to port

Friday, May 26, 2006

Stryker vehicles headed to Iraq make it to port
Peace activists tried to hold up Army convoys

P-I STAFF AND NEWS SERVICES

OLYMPIA -- At least 16 people were arrested in Olympia this week as peace activists used civil disobedience to try to thwart convoys of Army combat vehicles headed to the Port of Olympia for shipment to Iraq.

Thursday, however, was quiet as the last two of 20 convoys of 300 Stryker Brigade combat vehicles made it to the port without incident.

Peace activists with the Olympia Movement for Justice and Peace, who have held regular vigils over the past two years to protest the port's use to transport military equipment, said no further action is likely to occur until a ship arrives to receive the vehicles.

Authorities routinely decline to name the ship for security reasons.

The shipments are preceding the return to Iraq next month of the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division.

The 4,000-member Fort Lewis unit, named for its lightly armored, eight-wheeled combat vehicles, was the first Stryker unit to serve in Iraq. It was there for a year from late 2003 to 2004.

Up to 20 peace activists mingled near the route to the port Thursday, but things were generally quiet, Olympia police said.

Protesters decry port policies that allow military shipments, saying the war in Iraq is "illegal and immoral," said Larry Mosqueda of Olympia Movement for Peace and Justice. A fact sheet Mosqueda circulated contends shipping such military equipment through the port essentially makes the port "complicit in these war crimes."

The Port of Olympia resumed military shipments in 2004 after a 17-year hiatus.

More vigils will be held around the evening rush hour from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. until the vehicles and their ship move out, Mosqueda said.

At least nine people were arrested Wednesday for trying to obstruct the convoys; the biggest confrontation occurred as some people were carried to a police van, The Associated Press reported.

"The level of the force we use is pretty much based on the response of the individual we're dealing with," police Cmdr. Tor Bjornstad said. "We don't use any more than is necessary."

Protesters also blocked the gate for a time when another convoy arrived by a different route on Franklin Street, but no one else was arrested.

Meanwhile, City Hall and the city jail were locked for about an hour and a half after the arrests to prevent disruption of city business by those who were arrested and their supporters, Sgt. James Partin said.

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