Retired Army colonel, activist arrested for protesting confirmation of Trump’s attorney general

The Senate confirmation hearing for Attorney General nominee Jeff Sessions was disrupted Tuesday when a retired Army colonel started shouting during the proceedings.

Retired Col. Ann Wright, 70, began shouting, “I say no to Jeff Sessions, no to hatred, no to racism, no to the ban on refugees,” before being grabbed by Capitol police.

Wright, who is also a former U.S. State Department official and an activist for Code Pink, continued her rant as she was being escorted out of the chamber.

Wright stood up after Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy finished a long diatribe about the many ways that Sessions isn’t qualified.

“I’m 70 years old and I’ve got a hip replacement,” she continued protesting.

Wright received the State Department’s Award for Heroism in 1997 for her work evacuating refugees in Sierra Leone, according to reporting on The Slot, however, LATimes reported she resigned from her State Department position in 2003 to protest the Iraq war.

Since her departure from the State Department, Wright has become a prominent figure in the movement opposed to the occupation of Iraq. She has attended many conferences and given numerous lectures on her political views and on her experiences before and after her resignation. She has been arrested numerous times for her activism.

In one instance Sept. 11, 2007, Wright was arrested, and later convicted, for disrupting a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing at which Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker were testifying, according to War is a Crime.

According to its Website, Code Pink is a women-led grassroots organization working to end U.S. wars and militarism, support peace and human rights initiatives, and redirect our tax dollars into healthcare, education, green jobs and other life-affirming programs.

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