Associated Press Misrepresents Reason for Drone Protest at CIA; Leads to Harassment of Cindy Sheehan

January 14, 2010

To: Associated Press

CC: Jessica Gresko

RE: Misleading article about the January 16th protest at CIA Headquarters

From: Cindy Sheehan representing Peace of the Action

Yesterday, Peace of the Action Coalition organized a protest in front of CIA Headquarters in Langley, Va.

Ms. Gresko, from the AP was at the protest for the entire time. She interviewed me, all of the other speakers, and some of those in attendance.

We feel that all of the speakers at the event and the stated reason for the protest were very clear—we were there protesting the loss of innocent life due to the cowardly and immoral use of drones by the CIA that actually kill about one-hundred times more civilians than “suspected terrorists.”

Since Ms. Gresko’s story came out falsely declaring that we were there to protest the use of drones on “al Qaeda and Taliban,” I have received dozens of hate mails, one of which even called my dead son Casey a “queer” and a “faggot.”

After all the time Ms. Gresko spent there listening to us it seems like this story was filed with the intent to cloud our issue and undermine the absolute moral authority our protest had in denouncing the loss of innocent life.

We at Peace of the Action Coalition demand that the AP file a new story clarifying the seemingly deliberate obscuring of the facts in the first article and print a retraction in every news outlet that the article dated January 16th appeared.

Signed:

Cindy Sheehan representing Peace of the Action Coalition