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STORY: This afternoon over 300 students gathered in Rice University's main quadrant. The students walked out of class to attend a protest in collaboration with anti-war events around the country for the "Student Protest Against the War Day." Rice students were joined by students from several area high schools, as well as the Houston Community College, The University of St. Thomas and the University of Houston. This evening, outside the downtown offices of Kellog, Brown & Root, over thirty protestors gathered in rainy conditions to protest what they called corporate war profiteering. One of the organizers, Professor of History at the University of Houston, Bob Buzzanco: "The idea here is that we want to go to not the monkey, which is George Bush, but to the organ grinder, which is the corporations that control him. And when you're talking about corporations that have control in American politics, few if any can match Halliburton, which controls Kellog, Brown and Root. [Ambient noise of fellow protestors playing the harmonica and beating drums as various other noisemakers play in rhythm.] The protest, organized by the Houston Global Awareness Coalition, sought to inform the public and the workers of Kellog, Brown & Root that the Defense Department has a history of financial partnership with the company during war and peace. Kellog, Brown & Root is a subsidiary of the oil field service giant, Halliburton, Vice President Dick Cheney's former company. Professor Buzzanco talks about current contracts between Kellog, Brown & Root and the Defense Department: "They've got hundreds of millions of dollars to build temporary bases in Afghanistan. $16 million to build the prisons in Guantanamo. They just signed an open-ended contract for 10 years, and they just signed a billion-dollar contract to rebuild Iraq. OK? So this is an incredibly powerful company, and I would argue even more than oil. It is companies like this, the construction industry, Halliburton, Schlumberger, which stand to gain the most from the destruction of the Middle East." A lone counter-protestor, Jack Patrick, called a kpft reporter a "punk" before the reporter identified himself. Patrick expressed his concerns about what he sees as anti-American activity: Patrick: "My wife works in that building. She was sent home early today because of this. The cops came in and said, 'You guys better get your females out of here early today, there's going to be a big protest.' There ain't much of a protest, just a bunch of ugly little punks down there." Allers: "Why do you think they're ugly punks?" Patrick: "Look at 'em! A bunch of raggedy bastards! And I don't like anybody that's anti-American." Allers: "So you think that they're anti-American?" Patrick: "Yes, I do. I think they're bad, bad Americans." Police on horseback made sure the protestors were not fraternizing. One protestor who spoke to KPFT, Delores, who was laid off, said "corporations have their tentacles into everything and it's disgraceful. The government is supposed to be protecting the people, and it's not doing its job." Houston Global Awareness Coalition plans to hold another demonstration outside of the downtown offices of Kellog, Brown & Root at 601 Jefferson next Wednesday. Jackson Allers & Pokey Anderson, KPFT News, Houston. E-mail Jackson Allers & Pokey Anderson at jacksonallers@hotmail.com & pokeyink@aol.com respectively . This story was broadcast on March 5, 2003.