100 demonstrate against NATO

100 demonstrate against NATO, Iraq war

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COLORADO SPRINGS - As dignitaries from NATO countries and other invited guests arrived at the Broadmoor hotel Tuesday, demonstrators and peace activists from along the Front Range greeted them with signs admonishing President Bush, NATO and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and condemning the conflict in Iraq.

About 100 people filled Lake Avenue hoping to get the attention of foreign defense ministers and staff as well as the international media. The demonstrators' message: Not everyone in the U.S. supports strengthening NATO's military might.

"NATO is just so 20th century. It is obsolete," said 59-year-old Ron Forthofer, who traveled from Longmont for the peaceful event.

Many of the demonstrators held signs telling Rumsfeld he was fired. It took two people to hold a sign the size of a twin-bed sheet showing the locations of bomb silos and nuclear missile testing sites in the United States; the top said, "We Found the Weapons of Mass Destruction."

Sirens blared and the engines of the motorcycles and police vehicles escorting NATO guests roared all day as they raced past the demonstrators.

"I think they are showing off," said Thomas McCullock, one of the demonstrators.

McCullock, who said he was one of dozens of people tear-gassed while trying to leave an anti-war demonstration in Colorado Springs in February, kept his voice down to avoid provoking police.

"This puts on record that there are people here who don't like the direction of NATO and the direction Rumsfeld wants to take it in," said 65-year-old Bill Sulzman, a former Fort Carson soldier who for the past 16 years has been active in a group called Citizens for Peace in Space.

The demonstration was a first for 18-year-old Colorado College student Kati Standefer from Arlington Heights, Ill. Standefer said her parents' house is filled with autographed photos of President Bush's father, former Vice President Dan Quayle and Rumsfeld.

"My mother would probably be disappointed in me, and, well, my grandmother, she would roll over in her grave," she said.

But, she added, "I'm really excited to be here."

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