Protesters rally against Smith in Eugene.

Byline: Joe Mosley The Register-Guard

War protest organizer Peter Chabarek was arrested Tuesday while passing out leaflets inside the Hilton Eugene prior to a speech by U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith, but was released in time to join other protesters outside the hotel as Smith spoke to the Eugene Rotary Club inside.

"We wanted to let (Smith) know, and let the public know, that we're strongly opposed to his support of the war in Iraq and the murder of hundreds of thousands of civilians," Chabarek said after returning to the protest after his arrest.

Chabarek was arrested by a Eugene police officer while passing out small yellow leaflets describing Smith as "an accomplice to mass murder" because, the leaflets said, he has consistently voted to fund the war in Iraq, where 90 percent of Iraqi casualties are civilian.

A Hilton manager asked Chabarek to leave, and the protester was arrested after he refused. He was taken to the Eugene Police Department, fingerprinted and photographed, then issued a citation for second-degree criminal trespass and released.

"I was arrested for exercising my First Amendment rights to free speech," Chabarek said after rejoining the 12 to 15 protesters who stood in ivy along the Sixth Avenue curb and waved protest signs at generally supportive motorists. The placards blasted Smith and President Bush for their Iraq policies and included large photographs of casualties.

"There's been nothing but positive responses," said protester Michael Carrigan of the Community Alliance of Lane County, as a passing driver beeped a car horn in support. "We haven't seen any of the fingers, or the `get a job' comments. Nothing negative today."

No one answered telephones or returned messages left at Smith's offices in Eugene and Washington, D.C., following Tuesday's speech and protest. However, Smith has supported funding for the war effort and has preached patience with U.S. policy after visiting Iraq last year, according to his Web site.

Smith's talk in Eugene was his second stop in Lane County on Tuesday. Before discussing health care at the Rotary Club meeting, he toured Monaco Coach's health clinic in Coburg earlier in the day.

Tuesday's protest was organized by CALC and Civil Resisters, a pair of groups that have conducted several demon- strations against the war.

Chabarek, of the Civil Resisters group, also helped organize a protest last Nov. 18 at the University of Oregon's ROTC office in which 11 protesters were intentionally arrested on trespass charges.

In January 2005, he traveled with two other local activists to President Bush's inauguration, where the three stepped into an aisle and shouted at Bush to stop the war.

They were thrown to the ground by Bush supporters, then escorted from the premises by Capitol police.

When asked if Tuesday's arrest was planned, Chabarek said only that he was "hoping to express my First Amendment rights."

The protest's organizers said a "large-scale civil disobedience" is planned for various Eugene locations on March 20, the third anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.