Sheehan Denies Participation in Walter Reed Hospital Protest

(CNSNews.com) - Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan on Thursday denied that she participated in a protest organized by the group Code Pink and conducted in front of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center last October.

Cybercast News Service reported Wednesday that Sheehan did take part in the Oct. 28, protest, but has since changed her mind about demonstrating at hospital venues. She has labeled a planned anti-war demonstration for March 11 in front of the U.S. military's Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany inappropriate.

On Thursday, Sheehan was urging Cybercast News Service to "correct our article."

"I did not participate in the vigil outside of Walter Reed. I delivered flowers and get well card...and then left," Sheehan wrote in an e-mail.

"I have always been opposed to the vigil that my dear friends do outside of Walter Reed...they know it. I have encouraged them to move it to the Pentagon," Sheehan wrote.

Sheehan, whose son Casey was killed in the Iraq war in 2004, is the author of "Not One More Mother's Child" and the founder and president of Gold Star Families for Peace.

"I love Code Pink and everything they do, but have been philosophically opposed to their vigil in front of WR (Walter Reed) ever since they started it," she added.

"I never would go there and hold a sign or stand out in the vigil. I just drove up, went into Walter Reed, gave them a get well card and then left," Sheehan later said in a telephone interview.

However, Code Pink's own website features an article from Oct. 28, 2005, -- the date of the protest in question -- describing Sheehan's involvement.

The Code Pink article, entitled "Walter Reed Vigil Report No. 11," stated that "twenty to thirty people participated in tonight's vigil, including Cindy Sheehan who took flowers and a large 'get well' card signed by many fellow Americans into Walter Reed, where she was greeted warmly."

As Cybercast News Service previously reported, the protesters outside the Walter Reed Army Medical Center sparked controversy, not only for their choice of location, but for their signs, which read "Maimed for a Lie" and "Enlist here to die for Halliburton." The protesters stood in front of the same entrance to the hospital that some wounded soldiers and their family members were using.

Kristinn Taylor, the co-leader of the District of Columbia chapter of FreeRepublic.com and an eyewitness to Sheehan's Oct. 28 visit to Walter Reed, dismissed Sheehan's attempt to distance herself from the Code Pink sponsored anti-war protest at the hospital.

"Scheduling her media stunt to coincide precisely with the Cole Pink demonstration and standing with them for about five minutes definitely puts her seal of approval on Code Pink's vile demonstration outside the gates of the hospital," Taylor told Cybercast News Service.

Sheehan's current view of the protests outside hospitals reflects her concern "about getting yet another black eye in the media."

"She has come under intense criticism from some on her side about her antics," Taylor added.

On Thursday, Sheehan reiterated her bitterness about the war in Iraq and the pain of her personal loss. "I feel my son died for a lie. I feel that Casey did die for a lie," Sheehan said.

See Earlier Stories:
Sheehan No Longer on Call for Hospital Protests (March 2, 2006)
Anti-War Protests Target Wounded at Army Hospital (Aug. 25, 2005)

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