Protest Warrior

Protest Warrior was a conservative political activist group. It was formed in 2003 by Alan Lipton and Kfir Alfia in Austin, Texas. The group is primarily known for organizing counter-protests in favor of the Iraq war. Its slogan was "Fighting the left...doing it right".^[1]

History

In February 2003, Alfia was working as a computer chip designer in San Francisco when he reunited with Alan Lipton, a childhood friend, and crashed an anti-war protest in San Francisco on February 16, 2003.^[2]

The two carried their own signs. Alfia's sign showed a woman in a burqa tied to a pole with a leash around her neck, and was captioned "Protect Islamic Property Rights Against Western Imperialism. Say No To War!" Lipton's sign said, "Saddam Only Kills His Own People. It's None Of Our Business." Conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh covered their counter-protest on his website and complimented the group on its work.^[3]

Motivation

Seeing liberals as "morally and politically bankrupt," and as having a monopoly of media attention, Protest Warrior believed that the voices of the left were "heard disproportionately, demoralizing our troops and emboldening dictators around the world."^[4]

A newsletter on the site published by Alan and Kfir expressed objection to Islam itself, rather than fundamentalists in particular:

What's becoming clear is how the religion of Islam is addicted to war and mayhem. Not a radical minority, not a rogue sect, but its very essence is about submission and sacrifice and proving your worth by worshiping death in this life to gain a paradise of orgies and drunkenness. Their entire history is of warfare, and any accomplishments of their so-called Golden Age has been proven to be merely parasitic off the cultures they've conquered and reduced to dhimmi servitude. That every country under sharia is corrupt, belligerent, desolate and barbaric obviously gives them no pause, except to constantly drive them into further psychotic rage as they refuse to ever accept any responsibility for their conditions. They are akin to the powers in Orwell's 1984; there must always be an enemy. It's no surprise that women are treated like property in these countries as that's the only way Muslim men can feed their egos, to dominate others rather than ever actually produce something.^[5]

Method

The group's primary method of activism was crashing liberal events, chiefly anti-war protest marches and counter-demonstrating within their ranks. For instance, Protest Warriors attended rallies against Halliburton, Caterpillar Inc., Israel, and U.S. President George W. Bush, displaying support for these entities. When doing so, the Protest Warriors carried large signs often designed to appear similar to those held by the participants, enabling them to mingle until observers were close enough to read their signs' fine-print. At least once this backfired. In August 2005, counter-protesters supporting George W. Bush during a protest in Crawford, Texas failed to notice the sarcasm and tore up some of the Protest Warriors' signs.^[6]

Website

The group maintained a website as an organizing and information hub. It also acted as a source for the many slogans and signs presented by Protest Warriors at protests, as well as offering a sign creation tutorial to registered members. The website also included an online shop. The website also featured numerous forums, but they were shut down without explanation [1] on September 13, 2006 and stayed down for about eleven months.

The website has been the target of various attempts at politically motivated hacking in the course of its existence. Most notably, in January, 2005 the site was hacked by Chicago native and anarchist Jeremy Hammond, affiliated with the website HackThisSite.org, to steal credit card numbers and shut down the web server. Hammond was indicted in May, 2006, and sentenced to two years in prison on December 7, 2006.^{[7][dead link]}

Past operations

Local and National chapters of Protest Warrior have carried out operations in the United States and abroad. Examples of past Protest Warrior operations include:

• On January 20, 2005, "Operation Hail to the Chief" drew thirteen Protest Warriors to Washington D.C. to oppose those protesting the second inauguration of President George W. Bush. [2]
• During the 2004 Republican National Convention, a group of Protest Warriors staged a counterprotest, "Operation Liberty Rising".[3]^{[dead link]} [4]
• On August 27, 2005, a group of three Protest Warriors led by co-founder Kfir Alfia was the target of animosity at a conservative counter-Cindy Sheehan rally in Crawford, Texas. Despite the Protest Warriors' assurances that they were on the same side, the conservative protesters repeatedly shouted at them, destroyed the Protest Warrior signs, and forced the Protest Warriors to leave the rally, mistaking them for anti-war protesters.[5]^{[dead link]}
• During the Sept. 24, 2005 Anti-War Protests in Washington D.C., Protest Warrior, along with Move America Forward, RightMarch and Free Republic counter-protested those opposed to the war, and also demonstrated in support of the war and troops. [6] [7]

Current status, future campaigns

Kfir, the founder of Protest Warrior, was quoted: "We're going to be protesting abortion more and more, and we'll probably get involved in the defense of marriage, too." in an interview he gave to the Dominionism proponent Lee Duigon from the Christian Reconstructionist Chalcedon Foundation.[8]

The current status of Protest Warrior is unknown:

• "ProtestWarrior, LLC", formed as a limited liability company in Texas in 2003, is currently listed by the state as "Not In Good Standing",^[8] meaning that Protest Warrior has failed to file its annual paperwork and pay due taxes/fees.^[9]
• The main discussion forums for PW closed in September 2006. The public forums were reopened in August 2007 and then subsequently went offline again sometime in 2008.
• On February 21, 2007 a blog was started, announcing an "Protest Warrior 2.0" initiative aimed at revitalizing the organization.^[10] Seven articles were written over the span of seven months, with the last entry being dated August 15, 2007.
• On February 19, 2009 the website was offline again and then returned three months later. The website is currently accessible, but the discussion forums, donation solicitation page, and "HQ" sections are either non-functional or have been entirely removed (HTTP Error 404). The latest "News & Updates" section announces a book publication in June, 2007.^[11]

See also

• Civil disobedience

References

1. ^ Protest Warrior, Protest Warrior
2. ^ New York Times, Alan Feuer, September 3rd, 2004 Warriors of the Right Take to the Streets
3. ^ Washington Times, Chris Jolma, November 18th, 2003, Protest Warriors New Movement
4. ^ Protest Warrior Protest Warrior: Mission Statement
5. ^ Protest Warrior, Alan Lipton and Kfir Alfia, August 14th, 2005 Islam Ascendant
6. ^ Associated Press, August 28th, 2005, Thousands Arrive in Crawford for Dueling Rallies
7. ^ "Chicago Tribune". http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-0612080286dec08,1,689768.story?coll=chi-newslocalchicago-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true. Retrieved 2006-12-16. 
8. ^ "Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts". http://ecpa.cpa.state.tx.us/coa/servlet/cpa.app.coa.CoaGetTp?Pg=tpid&Search_Nm=ProtestWarrior%20&Button=search&Search_ID=13836848054. Retrieved 2006-11-17. ^{[dead link]}
9. ^ "Franchise Tax Determination of Good Standing". http://www.cpa.state.tx.us/taxinfo/audit/audproc/1gp_r2.htm. Retrieved 2006-11-17. ^{[dead link]}
10. ^ "Protest Warrior Blog". http://protestwarrior.blogspot.com/2007/02/protestwarrior-20-has-started.html. Retrieved 2009-09-14. 
11. ^ "Protest Warrior Website". http://www.protestwarrior.com. Retrieved 2009-09-14. 

External links

• archive.org mirror of Protest Warrior Site
• MSNBC: "Partisan Protesters" Newsweek, 2004-08-13
• Washington Times: "Protest Warriors fuel rage on left" The Washington Times, 2004-08-24
• Protesting The Protesters, The Washington Post, 2005-01-20