When neo-con strategist, former deputy secretary of defense who took part in planning the war on Iraq, and current president of the World Bank Paul Wolfowitz came to speak at an Atlanta synagogue Sunday night (Dec. 10), he received a war criminal’s welcome from protesters outside and inside. Wolfowitz’s speech was about “America’s responsibility toward African poverty”, yet he was part of an administration that refused to distribute or provide education about condoms in Africa in the midst of an AIDS epidemic.
While dozens of protesters lined up outside the synagogue to denounce Wolfowitz, his speech was disrupted several times by World Can’t Wait organizers. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported:
Inside, Wolfowitz had just begun speaking when two men silently stood up. Scribbled in black ink on one’s T-shirt: “Wolfowitz lied about Iraq.”
The second had marked his white T-shirt with the message, “Hundreds of thousands have died.”
Event security escorted the men out.
Another man, dressed in an orange jumpsuit with the message “Restore Habeus Corpus,” walked down the middle of the aisle to the front of the room before he too was shoved out.
Everyone who disrupted Wolfowitz was thrown out of the synagogue and threatened with arrest if they came back in. One protester was punched in the stomach by a member of the congregation.
The protests and disruptions of Wolfowitz, who played a key role in planning an unjust war that has taken the lives of 655,000 Iraqis, are a welcome thing and something there needs to be much more of.