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Theis, being dragged out of the CNN International Town Meeting Theis, making a point during the CNN International Town Meeting
At the February 18, 1998 CNN International Town Meeting in Columbus, Ohio, Rick Klaus Theis was first in line at one of three audience microphones when the question period was announced. Here, he is seen being dragged out of the arena by security when he interrupted the program after CNN repeatedly refused to recognize him. After being ejected, Theis met with a CNN producer who promised Theis a chance to speak. When this promise was broken, Theis again interrupted the program to make remarks which are printed below.

Click here to view a CNN-edited video clip of Theis speaking at the event (duration: 55 seconds; file size: 2 MB).
*note: This may take several minutes to download.

"OK. First of all I want to apologize for disrupting earlier. The reason I did was I was told by this person here (Theis points out a representative of CNN stationed at the microphone) that I would not be allowed to speak. Further, this is not an open forum. It is a media event staged by CNN... If this were a town meeting, if this were a school board meeting or some other town meeting in a democracy, people would be allowed to make statements as well as ask questions. Now, the point that I would like to make, the question I would like to ask, is how can these people sleep at night because we drop -- we are not going to be able to stop Saddam Hussein. We are not going to be able to eliminate his weapons of mass destruction, all of them. President Clinton admitted it. All he wants to do, Clinton said, was send a message to Saddam Hussein. If he wants to send a message, we the people of Columbus and central Ohio and all over America will not send messages with the blood of Iraqi men, women and children. If we want to deal with Saddam... we deal with Saddam, not the Iraqi people." --Rick Klaus Theis, February 18, 1998. The CNN International Town Meeting, Columbus, Ohio.

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"The surest way for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing." --Sir Edmund Burke

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All contents © 1998-99 by Rick Klaus Theis
First top photo taken by Jo McCulty, CNN
Second top photo courtesy of BBC News, 1998.
Movie clip courtesy of CNN Interactive, 1998.
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