From Ron Jacobs, "Two, Three, Many Olympias":

Ron: What's going on up there in Olympia with the convoy blockades? Are the trucks being blockaded military vehicles? What are they carrying and where are the materials bound?

Drew: The vehicles being blocked are a type of combat vehicle known as the Stryker Vehicle. They are armored vehicles with mounted weapons and they each carry troops into patrols or battles. Sixteen people (as of Thursday) have been arrested for blocking the movement of these vehicles, in various ways, toward the Port and from there to the war in Iraq.

Ron: Can you give me a brief history of what came before the current protests? Did Olympia invite the supply ships to their port or were they forced on them by the US government?

Drew: Military shipments began in 2004, and have continued sporadically since then. So far, this is the first combat brigade to go OUT through the Port of Olympia. We have seen tanks and other weapons arriving in Olympia, but blocking them from re-entering the US seemed to us to be inappropriate, despite the fact we don’t support the Port profiting from the war.

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