Lessons in brave activism: CodePink Medea Benjamin interrupted Obama, explains rationale

Editor's Note: While the antiwar movement in the US is as shamefully dead (or in hiding) as the zombies that inhabit so much of our tv screens, CodePink and Medea Benjamin are the inspiring exception. Indeed, standing barely five feet, Medea Benjamin (nee Susan Benjamin), the onetime Green Party candidate, SDS member, and graduate of Tufts and Columbia, at age 66 projects the image of a frail schoolgirl instead of the indomitable political activist she is known to be. Watching her in action, looks can be alarmingly deceiving. it's hard to conceive of a more improbable champion of peace and truth in social and international affairs, or a more relentless shatterer of the patina of "dignified business as usual" so valued by the system managers in the conduct of their criminal affairs than Medea. But that's exactly what she is. As her numerous acts of defiance and unwavering participation in progressive organisations demonstrate, she has a spine of steel.

Not fooled by the duopoly's "good cop/bad cop" routine according to which the Democrats usually play the good guy, Benjamin has exposed and embarrassed not just Republican agents of the plutocracy, but Democrat shills and assorted sociopaths, as well, including the still revered Obama, master of smooth charlatanism.

In the videos below (published in 2013) by Democracy Now! (yes, there's plenty to doubt about Democracy Now! these days, but these two videos pass the sniff test) Medea is seen disrupting Obama in one of his ponderous speeches justifying the unjustifiable, while the second vid packs the rationales and method behind Medea's actions.— PG

1. Medea Benjamin v. President Obama: CodePink Founder Disrupts Speech, Criticizing Drone, Gitmo Policy

Democracy Now!

Published on May 24, 2013

http://www.democracynow.org - During President Obama's first major counterterrorism address of his second term, he said the United States cannot continue waging what he described as a boundless global war on terror. He also discussed his administration's efforts to close down the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay. He was repeatedly confronted by CodePink's Medea Benjamin in the audience, ultimately stopping his speech to address her directly. We air the complete exchange between them. "The voice of that woman is worth paying attention to," Obama said in response to Benjamin. "Obviously, I do not agree with much of what she said, and obviously she wasn't listening to me in much of what I said. But these are tough issues, and the suggestion that we can gloss over them is wrong."

2. "That Woman Is Worth Paying Attention To": Medea Benjamin Explains Why She Disrupted Obama's Speech

Democracy Now!

Published on May 24, 2013

http://www.democracynow.org - Less than 24 hours after she interrupted President Obama's major speech on the future of the secret drone war and Guantánamo, CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin describes why she repeatedly interrupted Obama's address. Benjamin, the author of "Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control," criticized Obama for failing to explain why a U.S. drone in Yemen killed the teenage U.S. citizen Abdulrahman al-Awlaki in 2011. "I was very disappointed, he said that his policy is to capture and not kill, that's just not true. I know personally of many incidents where it would have been very easy to capture people like the 16-year-old Tariq Aziz in Pakistan who was in Islamabad in a well-known hotel, but instead was killed by a drone strike two days later," Benjamin says. "I think the president is really justifying the use of drones, which will continue to happen under his administration and be passed on to the next."