Vandals damage military offices; Anti-war messages are spray-painted at recruiting centers in Durham and Raleigh

BYLINE: Thomasi McDonald, Staff Writer

SECTION: NEWS; Pg. B3

LENGTH: 392 words

Vandals spray-painted windows at two Durham military recruiting centers and hurled a rock through the window of a third center in Raleigh on Tuesday night in what appeared to be a protest against the war in Iraq.
The vandals also defaced doors and sidewalks at the centers. All three incidents were discovered Wednesday morning when employees arrived at work, authorities reported.

No arrests have been made, but an e-mail message to media outlets Wednesday called the actions "resistance against the brutal U.S. occupation in Iraq."

"The poverty and exploitation of the economy at home fuels the brutality of occupation abroad, overseen by bosses and politicians indifferent to the suffering and havoc wreaked upon all sides," the e-mail message said. "From Iraq to North Carolina, resistance will continue until the system of war and exploitation that endangers us all is dismantled."

The e-mail message's return address indicated that it came from "Adrian Anderson." The sender did not respond to e-mail requests for an interview.

The vandals struck in Durham at a military recruiting office at 3400 Westgate Drive and the N.C. National Guard recruiting office at 3415 Hillsborough Road. A military recruiting office 3136 Calvary Drive in Raleigh also was vandalized.

Vandals sprayed red paint across the windows and walls at Westgate Drive and wrote "No War" on the windows, said Sgt. Tyrone Polite, who works at the U.S. Army office.

The same words were spray-painted on a window of the National Guard's recruiting office, said guard spokesman Capt. Matt Handley. Police said more red paint was found on the center's front door and sidewalk.
By noon Wednesday, the paint had been cleaned from the walls and windows at the Hillsborough Road center in Durham, but a puddle of red paint surrounded by orange cones was on the sidewalk.

Recruiters at the Raleigh office found a hole in the window of their offices at Calvary Road. Someone threw a rock through the window and wrote "Fight Imperialism" in black and red on the sidewalk, said a Raleigh police spokesman, Jim Sughrue.

Handley, the guard spokesman, said he was disappointed by the vandalism, while noting the irony of the military protecting Americans' right to free speech.

"That's why we have a military, to uphold the Constitution," Handley said.

(Staff writer Samiha Khanna contributed to this report.)