Mother on 21st Day of Fast Arrested at Sen. Lieberman's Office: Asking Senator to Promote Diplomacy, Not War With Iran!

Click here to see a slideshow of photos from the action.

Outraged that Senator Lieberman has publicly called for bombing Iran, CODEPINK member Leslie Angeline, 50, from Santa Rosa, CA, began a hunger strike to get a meeting with the Senator and was arrested in the senator's office today at around 11 a.m. while asking for a meeting. The senator was speaking on the floor of the Senate around the time of the arrest. Arrest happened very quickly after the group entered the office. Leslie is now in the 21st day of the fast, and the Senator has still refused to meet. On June 28, Angeline fainted in his office and was rushed to the hospital for treatment. Angeline refused to end her fast and is now in her 21st day.

Angeline recently returned from a citizen diplomacy trip to Iran with the group Global Exchange. "When I heard that Lieberman said he thought we should launch military action against Iran, I couldn't help but think of the 70% of the Iranian population who are under the age of 30-—the age of my son. Iran is a country of warm, kind, and generous children and their families. We cannot bomb these kids," says Angeline.


Angeline is anxious to meet with Senator Lieberman to explain why an attack on Iran would turn 70 million Iranians, now mostly friendly to the US, into enemies and would undermine US security.

In the past, when Angeline has gone to Senator Leiberman's office, they have threatened to call the police if she stays for more than 10 minutes. This time, Angeline was quickly arrested.

CODEPINKer Fasting for Peace in Iran Passes Out in Senator Lieberman's Office

Leslie Angeline of CODEPINK, has been fasting for over 10 days in an effort to meet with Senator Joseph Lieberman. She wants to meet with him to ask him not to bomb Iran. She visited Iran a few weeks ago and wanted to tell the senator about her visit and tell him not to kill innocent people. He agreed to meet with her but broke the appointment. Leslie has tried to meet with Lieberman several more times but he has chosen not to meet with her. Today, Leslie went to his office to ask to meet with the senator but to no avail. Leslie was feeling weak and ask the senator's staff if she could lay on the floor. They told her no and if she wanted to lay down she had to go into hallway to lay down. Leslie sat down on the floor in his office and rested her head on the chair. Capital medical help was called and they allowed Leslie to lay on the floor in his office. The campus police were there too. The police would not allow any CODEPINK people near Leslie. They kept her separated from us which was a bit scary. All we could see was Leslie laying on the floor with 12 to 14 medical and police staff standing around her. They finally rolled her out in a wheel chair downstairs into the medical center in the building. It was scary because Lieberman's staff seemed unconcerned and unaffected by Leslie laying on the floor. It was heart breaking to see someone you care about that has such a strong passion about peace laying out on the floor when it could have been avoided if the senator had met with her for just a few minutes to discuss peaceful efforts in Iran. I am very disappointed in Senator Lieberman and the constituents of Connecticut should be outraged as well.

Check out this video interview with Leslie:

Blog by Carla of Cleveland, OH