By BJ Austin, KERA News
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-935374.mp3
Dallas, TX – Anti war protesters promise a different version of the George W. Bush legacy than the one expected in his presidential library at SMU. KERA's BJ Austin says they staged a counter-event to the library groundbreaking this morning.
Meg Hillert, joined the 150 or so protesters on a corner of the SMU campus set aside for the protest. It was well away from the groundbreaking, and surrounded by barricades and police. Hillert expects she'll be back on campus for protests once the library opens.
Hillert: I do want to hold the library and the think tank responsible for getting the truth out instead of rewriting history.
Cindy Sheehan protested for months outside Bush's Crawford Ranch, and now says anti war protesters are stepping it up after taking a back seat to the economy for the past couple of years.
Sheehan: You know things are still continuing under Obama. And Obama's Administration is protecting the Bush Administration. And so we need more and more gatherings of George Bush is going to be met all over the country and everywhere he goes with people like us saying, no - he needs to be arrested and tried for war crimes.
The protesters say the war in Iraq is illegal - started on fabricated claims of weapons of mass destruction. And they call Bush's sanction of waterboarding illegal under international law.
Those allegations were countered by a small group of Bush backers, including Tommy Bobo and SMU junior Scott McCall.
Bobo: I'm out here to support Bush, and I'm glad the Bush library is in Dallas.
McCall: I'm disgusted by the protest because they represent something that this campus doesn't stand for. The SMU students are grateful for President Bush and the library to come here.
A couple of campus police officers stepped between the two groups at one point to manage the verbal sparring, but there were no arrests.
Businessman Cliff Clark appreciates both sides. He came downstairs from his nearby office to watch the protest and take a few pictures to post on Facebook.
Clark: Well I love the library. The concept is fantastic. And the protest, you know it's everybody's freedom to protest. It's freedom. It's America. That's what makes us great. We can protest and celebrate at the same time.