More convoy-blocking protesters arrested at port; week of shipments planned
BY CHRISTIAN HILL
THE OLYMPIAN
May 24, 2006
http://159.54.227.3/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060524/NEWS/60524059

For the third consecutive day, police arrested protesters today for disrupting 
the arrival of military vehicles at the Port of Olympia for shipment to Iraq. 
Protesters at the scene said 10 people had been arrested, but that information 
wasn’t immediately verified by police.

There also were six arrests made on Tuesday and one on Monday, when the first 
convoys of Stryker vehicles began arriving at the port. The protesters were 
arrested for blocking Marine Drive to prevent a convoy of Stryker vehicles from 
entering the port.

The 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, will leave soon for 
a second yearlong deployment to Iraq, and their vehicles and other equipment are 
being shipped from the Port of Olympia. The ship that will take the equipment 
overseas has yet to arrive, and officials won’t say when the shipment will take 
place because of security concerns.

Protesters have long opposed military shipments at the Port of Olympia, saying a 
local public agency should not be contributing to what they consider a illegal 
and immoral war.

The convoys of military equipment will continue through next week, said Joe 
Hitt, a civilian spokesman at Fort Lewis, where the Stryker brigade is based.

“There will be convoys moving to the port on an irregular basis until the first 
part of next month,” he said. “It (the schedule) depends on several factors, 
but, yeah, there will be convoys.”
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