War backers seek to buy protest site

FORT WORTH, Texas — Days after Cindy Sheehan said she was stepping down as the face of the anti-war movement, an organization that supports the U.S. intervention in Iraq said Friday it plans to buy her protest site outside President Bush's ranch.

But Sheehan doesn't want to sell to just anyone.

"It'll be a cold day in hell before she sells it to them," said her sister, Dede Miller. "She'll sell it to them for $5 million."

Move America Forward wants to place a monument to the troops on the 5-acre site in Crawford, about 20 miles west of Waco in Central Texas.

"There's definitely symbolism behind being able to take that land and being able to put up a monument that supports our troops," said Robert Dixon, executive director of the Sacramento, Calif.-based group. But he added, "We're not going to be holding any rallies there."

Sheehan, who was unavailable for comment, plans to sell the land on eBay as early as next week with a starting bid of $80,000, Miller said.

Since buying the property last year for $52,500, Sheehan's group has made many improvements, including putting in gravel roads, clearing brush and planting gardens, Miller said.

Dixon said he has been flooded with e-mails from Move America Forward members who thought the group should buy the land. He said the group is "pretty much prepared to do what we have to do" to get the land but has a price limit, which he declined to disclose.

Sheehan began a grass-roots peace movement in August 2005 when she camped outside Bush's Crawford ranch for 26 days, demanding to talk with the president about her son's death. Army Spc. Casey Sheehan was 24 when he was killed in an ambush in Baghdad in 2004.