Today! 4-6 PM - San Franciscans Form Human Billboard To Protest Obama Peace Prize

Anti-War Group Accepts Wisdom of Obama’s Nobel Prize Award, Says War = Peace

On Thursday afternoon, December 10 – International Human Rights Day – a HUMAN BILLBOARD in the center of San Francisco during rush hour will display an anti-war response to the awarding of the Nobel Prize to Barack Obama.

LOCATION: Van Ness and Market Streets (SW corner), San Francisco

TIME: Thursday December 10 -- 4:00-6:00 PM

EVENT: Human Billboard, plus 10-foot Obama statue wearing “WAR IS PEACE” Prize Medal

The billboard will also display “Obama’s Orwellian Newspeak” in honor of the decision by the Nobel Committee to rename the peace prize in honor of George Orwell in coming years, according to spokespeople for the U.S. organization "The World Can't Wait."

Having organized weeks of protest against President Barack Obama's escalation of troops to Afghanistan, World Can’t Wait issued a statement on the eve of Obama’s Nobel acceptance speech in Oslo on Thursday. In part, the statement explained:

“We're surprised to learn President Obama will be traveling to Oslo, as it was our understanding that he had given his Nobel acceptance speech at West Point on December 1. The speech, echoing 8 years of George Bush's justifications, and stating his commitment to 'win' the war, was enough to convince us that his aim is peace through war....We concur with the Nobel Committee that doubling the size of the prison at Baghram airport, setting up "black" detention sites, stepped up counterinsurgency in Helmand and Kandarhar provinces, are outstanding examples of the kind of "cooperation between peoples" it cited in awarding Obama. Commitment to international diplomacy is only underscored by the Obama administration's refusal to take the military option off the table towards Iran, and by enacting the largest military budget in world history....”

“To those who find some irony in the prize being awarded on December 10, International Human Rights Day, and are concerned that Obama, who promised to close Guantanamo, has released fewer detainees than the Bush administration, and has revived the military commission trials decried by the world, we remind you that this President is committed to the rule of law. Remember, as former Secretary of State Condeleezza Rice said, ‘If the President does it, it can't be against the law.’

Full statement available here.