- A woman who has camped outside President George W Bush's
Texas ranch in an anti-war protest following the death of her son in Iraq
has become one of America's most divisive figures.
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- The demonstration by Cindy Sheehan, 48, has provoked
a fierce counter-campaign by the president's backers, who call her an extremist.
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- She has demanded to meet Mr Bush and vows to maintain
her protest until he returns to Washington from his summer break in a few
weeks.
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- As her vigil reached its 11th day yesterday, Mrs Sheehan,
a Californian, was preparing to move her camp and multiplying supporters
and other bereaved parents a mile closer to the president's Prairie Chapel
Ranch in Crawford.
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- Fred Mattlage, an army veteran, has invited her to use
a corner of his one-acre plot. He said: "I think people should have
a right to protest without being harassed. I'm against the war. I don't
think it's a war we need to be in."
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- Nicknamed Attila the Honey by admiring friends, Mrs Sheehan
and scores of supporters shuffled through the near-100 degree heat moving
tents, anti-Bush banners and portable lavatories in time for their nightly
candlelit prayer vigil.
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- In their wake came the ranks of camera crews and reporters
who have made Mrs Sheehan the biggest domestic story of America's hot summer
of 2005 and a nightly feature on news bulletins.
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- Her 24-year-old son Casey, a soldier, was killed in April
2004 in Baghdad during his first fortnight in Iraq. She then became an
anti-war activist but decided to confront the president only when his holiday
began. She has since become the focal point for opponents of the war, whose
numbers are growing as casualties increase.
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- The president's supporters say Mrs Sheehan is an extremist
who has branded the Bush administration a terrorist organisation and its
policies as genocidal and fascist.
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- Her words now fill the Right-wing websites run by Bush
backers clearly troubled by the ability of one articulate woman to put
the president on the defensive.
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- "Our country," she said in one speech, "has
been overtaken by murderous thugs, gangsters who lust after fortunes and
power; never caring that their addictions are at the expense of our loved
ones and the blood of innocent people, near and far."
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- In an interview Mrs Sheehan said Mr Bush led the largest
terrorist organisation in the world. "I believe he's responsible for
the needless and senseless deaths of more people than any other organisation
right now."
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- Such talk has fuelled pro-war organisations which plan
demonstrations to make their support heard in Crawford.
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- A darker campaign is also continuing on the internet,
with tales about Mrs Sheehan's divided family.
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- Some relatives have asked her to stop "dishonouring"
Casey's name. Her husband Patrick is divorcing her and her other son has
asked her to go home.
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- Mr Bush's media handlers are in a difficult position.
One said: "If the President meets with her, does he have to meet with
every protester who camps out in Crawford or in Lafayette Park [in Washington]?
Does he have a second meeting with every mother or wife who asks for one?"
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- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2005.
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- http://telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/08/18/
wranch18.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/08/18/ixworld.html
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