Activists Dump Dye in White House Fountain

Eleven protesters against the Bush Administration’s Persian Gulf policy were arrested Sunday after they scaled a fence and dumped red dye into a White House lawn fountain, federal authorities said.

Another eight of the group of 40 to 50 protesters were arrested a short time later outside the White House for demonstrating without a permit. They included former Catholic priest Philip Berrigan, a key leader of the peace movement during the Vietnam War.

The protesters, assembled in Washington for what they described as a faith and resistance retreat, said in a statement that the red dye symbolized “what President Bush has planned for the Middle East--bloodshed on a sickening scale.”