NEW YORK - Some 80 New York anti-war activists took to the streets this morning, returning to the doors of the Carlyle Group, the secretive investment house that helps propel the U.S. war and occupation in Iraq through its holdings in armaments companies. They were picking up where they left off exactly one year ago, when more than 70 activists from student, community, religious, and labor groups were arrested while demonstrating outside the Manhattan offices of a Carlyle subsidiary. The activists were all acquitted or had charges dropped, and are now suing the city over their illegal arrests. Once again, the protest was called by the M27 Coalition, an ad-hoc coalition of over 35 antiwar organizations. It began at the Carlyle affiliate's offices at 56th Street and Fifth Avenue, where last year's protest took place, at 8 a.m., and continued with a march at 9 a.m. to Carlyle's main New York office at East 53rd Street and Madison Avenue. Part of a national day of action against war profiteers, the rally against Carlyle accompanied a similar rally in Oakland, California. The Oakland docks were the site last year of a brutal police attack on labor and antiwar activists protesting SSA, the multinational shipping company that is a notorious war profiteer and union buster. Activists today were making their voices heard against the Iraq occupation that, under Bush, threatens to become a permanent U.S. war of domination in the Middle East - with oil and defense companies the only clear winners. "For Carlyle, perpetual war means perpetual profits," said Ben Maurer, a member of the M27 Coalition. "They're the perfect embodiment of the military-industrial complex. Carlyle builds weapons for this war, its investments drive this war, and its relationships with the people in power who decided to launch this war are hidden from the people." One of Carlyle's major holdings, United Defense Industries, has milked taxpayers for millions of dollars to develop such dubious defense projects as the Crusader mobile missile system and the Bradley fighting vehicle. Its investors and alumni include former President George H.W. Bush, former UK Prime Minister John Major, and members of Saudi Arabia's bin Laden family. # # # # #