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Protesters Stepping Up Efforts
Aired February 26, 2003 - 14:31 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: While Washington lays the groundwork for a possible war, the anti-war movement is stepping up its own efforts. Aside from millions of feet in the streets across the world, the effort includes a flood of e-mails and phone calls to Congress and the White House.
CNN's Maria Hinojosa is monitoring the protests by remote -- Maria.
MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Anderson. Well, the organizers of the first ever virtual march on Washington, D.C. against a war that hasn't even been declared yet are saying that today has been a success. It appears that the volume of call was so heavy earlier today that it apparently jammed some of the phone system.
Now, this is all being coordinated by a group called Win Without War. It's a national coalition with members like the NAACP, the National Organization for Women, the Sierra Club. They had a goal of getting one phone call in every minute of the day to every senator, but it appears that in some offices it was well over that. In Senator Kennedy's office, we were told that it was more like five calls every minute. And at Senator Dianne Feinstein's office, she said that she was prepared for this onslaught of calls.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. DIANE FEINSTEIN (D), CALIFORNIA: We have six people answering phones, and, obviously, the phones are ringing all the time. I understand we've had about 800 phone calls, all against the war. We're now up to about 40,000 phone calls total.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HINOJOSA: Now, that would be 40,000 phone calls that she's gotten over the past several months from anti-war constituents. And Anderson, a lot of the callers were actually calling me from all across the country and telling me their experience. I had a lot of people saying that they had been on the phone, that they were getting busy tones, or that they were getting all circuits are busy kinds of recordings, that many of them gave up after they tried for about an hour. Others said that they would go back and try again. These people had been given specific times by one organization during which time they were supposed to call.
And interestingly enough, the people who I spoke to were -- ranged from all of the -- many different states, people who had been activists, people who were coming back to the activist movement, had been doing this in the 1960s, but a lot of people from states in the middle of the country saying that they had never done any kind of this activist work, they had never taken to the streets, never made these kinds of phone calls, but they were doing this because they felt that this had a message they wanted to hear.
COOPER: Maria Hinojosa -- whoops.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TOM ANDREWS, DIRECTOR, WIN WITHOUT WAR: The message is, don't invade Iraq, don't occupy Iraq when it's unnecessary. We don't have to kill innocent people. We don't have to put Americans at risk. We don't have to give Osama bin Laden a tremendous boost in terms of the capacity to recruit terrorists, suicidal terrorists. We don't have to destabilize that region.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HINOJOSA: Now, Anderson, it's a good thing it's a virtual march on Washington because it's been snowing all day, so I don't think there would have been a lot of people hitting the streets, and the march -- the virtual march is supposed to continue through the end of the business day -- Anderson.
COOPER: All right, Maria Hinojosa. Appreciate it. Thanks very much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired February 26, 2003 - 14:31 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: While Washington lays the groundwork for a possible war, the anti-war movement is stepping up its own efforts. Aside from millions of feet in the streets across the world, the effort includes a flood of e-mails and phone calls to Congress and the White House.
CNN's Maria Hinojosa is monitoring the protests by remote -- Maria.
MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Anderson. Well, the organizers of the first ever virtual march on Washington, D.C. against a war that hasn't even been declared yet are saying that today has been a success. It appears that the volume of call was so heavy earlier today that it apparently jammed some of the phone system.
Now, this is all being coordinated by a group called Win Without War. It's a national coalition with members like the NAACP, the National Organization for Women, the Sierra Club. They had a goal of getting one phone call in every minute of the day to every senator, but it appears that in some offices it was well over that. In Senator Kennedy's office, we were told that it was more like five calls every minute. And at Senator Dianne Feinstein's office, she said that she was prepared for this onslaught of calls.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. DIANE FEINSTEIN (D), CALIFORNIA: We have six people answering phones, and, obviously, the phones are ringing all the time. I understand we've had about 800 phone calls, all against the war. We're now up to about 40,000 phone calls total.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HINOJOSA: Now, that would be 40,000 phone calls that she's gotten over the past several months from anti-war constituents. And Anderson, a lot of the callers were actually calling me from all across the country and telling me their experience. I had a lot of people saying that they had been on the phone, that they were getting busy tones, or that they were getting all circuits are busy kinds of recordings, that many of them gave up after they tried for about an hour. Others said that they would go back and try again. These people had been given specific times by one organization during which time they were supposed to call.
And interestingly enough, the people who I spoke to were -- ranged from all of the -- many different states, people who had been activists, people who were coming back to the activist movement, had been doing this in the 1960s, but a lot of people from states in the middle of the country saying that they had never done any kind of this activist work, they had never taken to the streets, never made these kinds of phone calls, but they were doing this because they felt that this had a message they wanted to hear.
COOPER: Maria Hinojosa -- whoops.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TOM ANDREWS, DIRECTOR, WIN WITHOUT WAR: The message is, don't invade Iraq, don't occupy Iraq when it's unnecessary. We don't have to kill innocent people. We don't have to put Americans at risk. We don't have to give Osama bin Laden a tremendous boost in terms of the capacity to recruit terrorists, suicidal terrorists. We don't have to destabilize that region.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HINOJOSA: Now, Anderson, it's a good thing it's a virtual march on Washington because it's been snowing all day, so I don't think there would have been a lot of people hitting the streets, and the march -- the virtual march is supposed to continue through the end of the business day -- Anderson.
COOPER: All right, Maria Hinojosa. Appreciate it. Thanks very much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
