George Clooney arrested in Washington, D.C. - Reporting from Washington— Actor George Clooney has been arrested in Washington throughout a protest at the Sudanese Embassy, simply 2 days when dining with the president at a White House state dinner and testifying before Congress a couple of mounting humanitarian crisis within the African country.
Also arrested were 2 Democratic members of Congress – Massachusetts Rep. Jim McGovern and Virginia Rep. Jim Moran – Clooney’s father, Nick, NAACP president Ben Jealous and Rabbi Steve Gutow, president of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs.
The men were arrested by the key Service, that protects the embassies within the District of Columbia, and were charged with disorderly crossing of a police line, a Secret Service spokesman said. If convicted, the charge can seemingly end in atiny low fine.
Shortly before the arrest, Clooney spoke against the violence in Sudan.
He said he appeared in front of the embassy to raise “the government in Khartoum to prevent randomly killing its own innocent men ladies and youngsters, stop raping them, stop starving them,” in step with a video posted on-line by MSNBC.
Clooney and his fellow protesters were being transported to the Metropolitan Police Department’s 2nd District for processing.
Clooney appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations committee on Wednesday, testifying that a humanitarian crisis is unfolding within the border region between Sudan and South Sudan, that seceded from Sudan in 2011. however violence has persisted along the border of the 2 countries, and Clooney argued that it's not obtaining enough attention, acknowledging that Americans have “misery fatigue” when wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, at the side of violence in Syria, Libya, Somalia and elsewhere.
Gutow, speaking before he arrested, sharply criticized “the inhumane cruelty” of Sudan President Omar Ahmed Hassan Bashir.
“With one hand he assaults his own folks whereas with the opposite he holds back people who would request to assist,” Gutow said. “I am compelled by God, by my commitment to justice, and by my humanity to talk out. President al-Bashir could have hardened his heart, however that's not an possibility for us or our government. Food and drugs are basic human wants, not weapons. If the govt of Sudan won't hear us, the govt of the us should. See that humanitarian aid organizations are able to do what al-Bashir’s government abhors: supply an opportunity at life and peace for the folks of the Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile regions.”
