Halliburton: Protestors Arrested @ Shareholders Meeting

*Civil Disobedience Blows the Whistle on War Profiteering inside
Halliburton Shareholders Meeting*

MEDIA ALERT
For Immediate Release: 9:45 AM CST
Attention: News Assignment

Houston Global Awareness
Blowing the Whistle on Halliburton
http://www.HoustonGlobalAwareness.org

hgamedia [at] riseup.net * (832) 613-3144

Civil Disobedience Blows the Whistle on War Profiteering inside
Halliburton Shareholders Meeting

Demonstrators stage nonviolent occupation inside the annual meeting,
while hundreds rally with a giant “Cash Cow,” pressuring Halliburton
(NYSE: HAL) to withdraw from Iraq.

9 Demonstrators Arrested.

HOUSTON, May 18 – Protesters from across Texas and around the country are
blowing whistles and rallying around a giant “Cash Cow” labeled “Iraq”
outside the Halliburton (NYSE: HAL) annual shareholders meeting at the
Four Seasons Hotel this morning. Another group of demonstrators from
Houston Global Awareness are also staging a non-violent occupation inside
the shareholders’ meeting to draw attention to the company’s shameful
record and war profiteering in Iraq. Houston Global Awareness is demanding
that the company:

1. Allow one member of Houston Global Awareness to address the
shareholders.
2. Make all accounting practices transparent immediately and refund
illegitimate charges to U.S.
taxpayers.
3. Make an immediate public apology and provide compensation to the
sixty-three families of U.S. Halliburton workers killed in Iraq, as well
as all other Halliburton workers, foreign and domestic, that have been
injured or psychologically damaged in Iraq.

“Halliburton’s shareholders are profiting from the US war on Iraq, which
has lead to the death of at least 63 of the company’s own employees,” says
Herb Rothschild, a participant in the nonviolent occupation and a
grandfather and veteran of social movements since the civil rights era.
“We are here to demand accountability from Halliburton’s shareholders for
their shameless disregard for human life, and for ripping off the American
tax payers.”

Participants in the civil disobedience occupation say they are acting in a
proud tradition of non-violent direct action and are seeking to impact the
shareholders in an immediate and powerful way, raising the stakes for
Halliburton’s continued war profiteering from the death and destruction in
Iraq.

“We are waging a concerted grassroots campaign to get Halliburton out of
Iraq—we have marched and rallied, we have staged educational events and
protests, and now we are taking this action to confront the war profiteers
themselves,” says Maureen Haver, a member of Houston Global Awareness who
is taking part in the non-violent occupation. “We are engaging in civil
disobedience to demand justice for Halliburton workers who have been
injured and killed in Iraq, and for the American people, who have been
defrauded and fleeced by the company’s greedy over charging on their no
bid contracts.”

Houston Global Awareness is a non-violent community-based anti-war and
global justice group founded in July 2001, and calls for a non-violent and
peaceful protest. HGA has organized hundreds of protests and educational
events around the Houston area on war profiteering, the war in Iraq and
corporate globalization.
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Contact:
HGA Media Hotline, (832) 613-3144
hgamedia [at] riseup.net

Blowing the Whistle on Halliburton:
Direct Action at Company’s Shareholder Meeting

Week of activities by community group to expose Halliburton’s war
profiteering and pressure company to withdraw from Iraq.

HOUSTON – On May 18 the blast of a hundred whistles will greet Halliburton
shareholders as they gather for the company’s annual meeting at the Four
Seasons Hotel in Houston. Protesters from Texas and around the country
will rally and march outside the meeting to draw attention to
Halliburton’s shameful war profiteering from the war in Iraq, and to
demand that the company cease operations in that country.

Demonstrators from Houston Global Awareness (HGA) will use street theater,
giant puppets, noisemakers, and nonviolent direct action to tell the story
of Halliburton’s corruption and greed. This action at the shareholder’s
meeting is part of an ongoing campaign to pressure Halliburton to withdraw
from Iraq.

“We’re here to blow the whistle on Halliburton’s shameless war
profiteering. Halliburton, with the help of its friends in the Bush
administration like Vice President Dick Cheney, is making a killing off
the death, destruction and corruption in Iraq,” says Melissa Patrick, a
member of HGA. “Halliburton’s executive suite is filled with shameless and
corrupt war profiteers whose disregard for human life and relentless drive
for profits has put the lives of Innocent Iraqis, US service people, and
even their own employees at risk.”

The protest is the culmination of a week of events organized by Houston
Global Awareness, including HGA’s puppets at the annual Art Car Parade, a
day of skill-sharing to prepare activists for the protest, a film
documenting Halliburton’s ties to atrocities in Iraq and Fallujah, and a
community educational event with a talk by a former Halliburton truck
driver sent on a suicide mission.

Houston Global Awareness is a non-violent community-based anti-war and
global justice group founded in July 2001, and calls for a non-violent and
peaceful protest. HGA has organized hundreds of protests and educational
events around the Houston area on war profiteering, the war in Iraq and
corporate globalization.

To download a copy of the new Corpwatch alternative annual report on
Halliburton, “Houston, We Still Have A Problem,” please visit:
http://corpwatch.radicaldesigns.org/downloads/houston.2005.pdf
The report details Halliburton’s work in 2004, including information on
investigations of fraud, environmental impact, lawsuits against the
company, and claims of corruption by employees of the company.

Cosponsored and supported by: Houston Global Awareness, Code Pink,
Democracy Rising, Global Exchange, Latinos Por La Paz, Maryknoll House,
Texas Fair Trade Coalition, Peace Action-Houston, Austin Spokescouncil,
Witness for Peace, Anti-Racist Action, Progressive Action Alliance,
Louisiana Activist Network, Harris County Green Party, Progressive
Worker’s Organizing Committee, Ronald Reagan Home for the Criminally
Insane, School of the America’s Watch, ISO, North Texas for Justice and
Peace, SmartMeme/STORY.