Antiwar Protester Accosts Rice at House Hearing

She dissected prospects for Middle East peace, railed at Iran, fretted about rebel attacks on Turkey and acknowledged cost overruns at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. But the biggest flap when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice appeared before the House Foreign Affairs Committee yesterday occurred when an antiwar protester shouted "War criminal!" and waved blood-colored hands in her face.

Desiree Anita Ali-Fairooz, 50, burst past Rice's security guards and got within a few inches of her face as America's top diplomat prepared to sit down. "The blood of millions of Iraqis is on your hands!" Fairooz shouted.

"OUT!" thundered Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), the panel's chairman.

Capitol Police and Rice's security detail quickly pulled Fairooz out of the chamber. She was one of several members present from the Code Pink Women for Peace Organization, an anti-Iraq-war group that has become a fixture at Capitol Hill hearings.

The group's Web site says it rejects the Bush administration's "fear-based politics that justify violence" and calls for a greater "commitment to international law." Fairooz was charged with disorderly conduct and assault on a police officer after she rubbed the red paint on her hands on the walls.

-- Robin Wright