Cries Against War Sparse But Fierce

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War Protesters Take to D.C. Streets

Hundreds of antiwar demonstrators this morning tried to stop workers from entering federal government buildings, sat down in busy streets to block traffic, and staged a "March of the Dead" parade to protest five years of fighting in Iraq.

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"The idea is to say, 'How about calling this a vacation day?' to the employees," said protester Ed Hedemann, 63, from Brooklyn, N.Y. "We want to disrupt business as usual, to call attention to the horror of this ongoing war. Something needs to be done. Marches and rallies are good, but they don't seem to be sufficient, so some of us are escalating our tactics -- nonviolently, of course."

But the building remained open. Police said the protesters caused no major disruptions.

Later, about 200 activists gathered outside the American Petroleum Institute at 13th and L streets NW.

Carrying signs reading "No Blood for Oil" and chanting, "More justice, more peace, U.S. out of the Middle East," demonstrators tried to block the intersection but were pushed to the sidewalks by police. Protesters also tried to close the intersection by stringing green tape across the streets, but police tore it down.

Motorists honked their horns, sometimes in frustration, sometimes in support.

"People are trying to get to work," Herold told Alix Davidson, a member of the group, as cars whizzed through the intersection. "They're not interested in what you're doing. They're going to [hit] the people that get in the street."

About 10 a.m., demonstrators did manage to shut down the intersection at 17th and L streets NW for about an hour.

Eight women clad in black robes, head scarves and flesh-colored masks bound their arms together with what appeared to be cardboard tubes covered in black tape. While activists chanted on the street corners, police used bolt cutters and a power saw to slice through the tubes and separate the women.

Officers took the activists out of the intersection and sat them on a curb. No one was arrested.

Meanwhile, about 100 people with Veterans for Peace marched down Constitution and Independence avenues, stopping traffic along the way. Some jumped a fence and scaled a wall at the National Archives to read excepts from the Constitution over a bullhorn to schoolchildren waiting to get inside.

"I think I realized that I have to speak out against this war when I lost a very close friend [and] it became personal," said Daniel Black, 25, a Marine Corps veteran from South Orange, N.J., who said he served in Kuwait and Iraq. "I couldn't walk away."

Staff writers Petula Dvorak and Sue Anne Pressley Montes contributed to this report.