Members of the Syracuse University community endured the cold on Tuesday afternoon outside of Hendricks Chapel to protest Madeline Albright, who spoke inside.

They brandished signs condemning Albright for her track record as a United States official, with slogans such as “‘There’s a special place in hell’…for war criminals” and “500,000 dead Iraq babies.”

Many chanted, “There is blood on your hands.”

The former secretary of state and U.S. ambassador to the UN came to SU to deliver the Tanner Lecture on Ethics, Citizenship and Public Responsibility. Albright was the first female secretary of state and served under former President Bill Clinton until 2001.

Albright has been protested before at previous engagements across the country and internationally. Her opponents often label her as a war criminal for her support of UN sanctions against Iraq and authorization of NATO bombings in Serbia.

The protesters at SU, a group of about 20, brought up similar points on Tuesday.

“I think it’s a disgrace that Madeline Albright was invited to speak on ethics,” said Laura Jaffee, a second year doctorate candidate in cultural foundations of education. “Her role in supporting US military intervention globally has been profoundly damaging.”

Jaffee, a member of the Syracuse ANSWER Coalition that helped organize the protest, said she was against Albright’s appearance at SU because of her general support of U.S. military intervention during her tenures as secretary of state and ambassador, as well as her support of actions in Iraq and Serbia.

The sanctions in Iraq, which were supposed to bring down Saddam Hussein, the then-president of Iraq, but drained the country of resources and ended the lives of hundreds of thousands of children otherwise should have lived, according to a report from the Global Policy Forum that based its numbers off a widely-publicized UNICEF report.

Moriah Ratner | Staff Photographer

A report from scientists with the Food and Agriculture Organization put the number of child deaths as high 576,000, according to The New York Times.

The NATO bombings in Serbia, which were supported by the U.S. during Madeline Albright’s tenure as secretary of state and carried out under the premise of ending ethnic conflict in the region, according to Time. Opponents say they killed thousands of civilian lives, along with destroying hospitals and schools.

Numerous campus organizations came together to demonstrate against the Albright, Jaffee said, including the International Socialist Organization, the Palestine Solidarity Collective, the Syracuse ANSWER Coalition and the Party for Socialism and Liberation.

She said they also collected about 60 or 70 signatures on a petition against Albright’s engagement at SU.

In addition to chants and signs, protestors read from papers and delivered speeches in front of the chapel. People continuously streamed into the event, usually taking a flyer but only glancing at the protestors.

Dana Cloud, a communication and rhetorical studies professor and member of the International Socialist Organization, was among the protesters. She said Albright’s speech at SU showed “heinous irony” because of her lack of concern for humanitarian issues.

“I think it makes SU look hypocritical and sort of tone-deaf to the implications of inviting Madeline Albright to speak,” Cloud said.

Although she retracted her statement, Albright told 60 Minutes that the consequences of the Iraq sanctions — including the potential death of hundreds of thousands of children — was “worth it.”

Cloud said she was not completely surprised that Albright, who she called “hawkish,” was asked to speak because of SU’s general support for military organizations and military research. She said she found the widespread militarism on campus troubling because SU is supposed to be a place for education.

Said Cloud: “When the military dictates the terms of some education and of the knowledge that is produced here, it’s not knowledge for humanity, it’s knowledge for empire.”

Published on April 5, 2016 at 7:14 pm

Contact Delaney: dovanwey@syr.edu