The list of specific charges presented by the protesters in their “citizen’s arrest warrant” included:
Vietnam: From 1969 through 1973, Kissinger, working for Richard Nixon, oversaw the slaughter in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, which led to the deaths of millions of people. Many thousands more died from the affects of massive doses of Agent Orange and from unexploded US bombs that cover the countryside.
Chile: Henry Kissinger was one of the principle architects of the coup in Chile on September 11, 1973, a coup that overthrew the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende. Sixteen years of repression, torture and death followed under the rule of Kissinger’s friend, the fascist Augusto Pinochet.
East Timor: In 1975, while working for President Gerald Ford, Kissinger pre-approved the Indonesian dictator Suharto’s bloody invasion of the small island of East Timor. This illegal act of aggression was carried out with weapons furnished by the US. By the time the Indonesian occupation finally ended in 1999, 200,000 Timorese – 30 percent of the population – had been wiped out.
With other protesters chanting, one began to call out to Kissinger “In the name of the people of Cambodia…” and went on to list other nations where Kissinger and Nixon ordered the CIA and the US military to operate. Nixon and Kissinger’s policies in Cambodia gave rise to the term “carpet bombing,” an indiscriminate attack which sought to wipe out the trails by which insurgent guerrillas in South Vietnam were being re-supplied from the north. Hundreds of thousands of civilians died in the bombing, which destroyed Cambodian society and paved the way for the rise of the genocidal Khmer Rouge.
After the protesters were ejected, Republican Senator John McCain issued an apology to Kissinger for the ruckus and threatened to call the Capitol Police on the protesters. As one left the room McCain hollered out “Get out of here you low-life scum.” One of the activists immediately released a Youtube addressing McCain’s choice of words, below.
Another has penned an open letter to McCain entitled: “Open Letter to John McCain: Get Out of Washington, You Low-Life Scum.” The letter begins:
“Dear Senator McCain,
What would you call a war veteran who answers a veteran’s question about providing more jobs to veterans by saying it’s his “highest priority,” only to vote against more jobs for veterans when he’s back in Washington? What would you call a veteran who was tortured, survived miraculously, got elected to the U.S. Senate, sent more young men to die in a foreign war, voted to deny them jobs and benefits, and yet demands the arrest and full prosecution of those who exercise the constitutional rights he supposedly fought for? To borrow phrasing from you, Senator, I would call you low-life scum….”
McCain is up for re-election to his senate seat in 2016, and expects to face Tea Party challenges.