N.Y. Protester Interrupts Schwarzkopf

Protesters shouting “murderer!” and “death in the cathedral!” interrupted speeches Sunday by Defense Secretary Dick Cheney and Gens. H. Norman Schwarzkopf and Colin L. Powell at a memorial service for war dead.

The service at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine came on the eve of New York’s victory parade honoring allied troops of the Persian Gulf War.

As Schwarzkopf stood at the pulpit and prepared to read from Virgil’s “Aeneid,” a man jumped to his feet and screamed: “You are all murderers. Your flag is covered with blood!”

As security guards escorted the man to the door, he continued to shout “Murder in the cathedral, murder in the cathedral,” a line from a T. S. Eliot play.

The service was intended to honor both allied and Iraqi casualties of the Gulf War.