By BJ Austin, KERA News
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-935098.mp3
Dallas, TX – Anti-war protesters march to the SMU campus this morning for the George W. Bush presidential library groundbreaking. But KERA's BJ Austin says they will be in a "designated free speech area" on a corner of the campus - away from the ceremony and dignitaries.
A day ahead of the Bush library groundbreaking a couple-dozen protesters gathered on the small grassy area along Mockingbird Lane, next to the football stadium.
They're part of a coalition of peace organizations called The People's Response. State Representative Lon Burnam says they're using the groundbreaking to turn up the volume against actions of the former President and his Administration.
Burnam: We've had a two year period of silence from the Obama Administration. And it's going to be a people's response, a people's initiative to make sure that these war criminals are held accountable.
Protesters say the war in Iraq was based on trumped up intelligence and was therefore illegal. They say George W. Bush should be arrested and prosecuted for war crimes for violating the Geneva Convention against torture. The president admits approving waterboarding in his new book.
Col. Ann Wright, US Army retired, says "accountability" is the message of the protest.
Wright: We're already seeing how accountability if it's not held on one administration, it flows over into another administration.
Wright says the most recent example is the lack of action against a top CIA official for destroying videos of waterboarding. Retired CIA officer Ray McGovern, from the DC area, says it is critical that people pay attention to - and challenge -- what's in the library, and what comes out of the George W. Bush Institute, or think tank.
McGovern: Because if we leave it unchallenged, it becomes the source of myths that will be propagated by the institute that is about to be built and peopled by apologists for George W. Bush.
Protesters say they don't have any idea how many people will show up. They say there's been a lot of social media about the event. The warm-up protest featured people from at least six different states.