Sheehan, Iraq protesters arrive at the White House

WASHINGTON – Three weeks after she packed up the anti-war camp named for her slain son outside President Bush’s Texas ranch and took her protest on the road, Cindy Sheehan was back at his doorstep Wednesday.

Once again, it was as close as she could get to the president.

“This is our house, and they don’t let us get into our house,” she said outside the White House’s iron fence after she was denied entry to deliver a poster-size letter to Bush questioning the Iraq war.

“A lot of these people who are there are criminals, and we need to get them out of our house,” said Sheehan, who was joined by about 30 family members of Iraq war soldiers.

Forced to pass their letter through the fence to a Secret Service agent, Sheehan said they hoped to deliver an even stronger message Saturday. They will participate in an anti-war protest that organizers hope will be the largest since the United States attacked Iraq in 2003.

But 25 military families who support the war say Sheehan doesn’t speak for them, so they’ll hold their own rally Sunday in Washington. Sunday is the annual “Gold Star Mother’s Day” in tribute to mothers of fallen sons and daughters. Bush on Wednesday instructed that the U.S. flag be flown over government buildings and also urged Americans to display the flag.

Sheehan, whose 24-year-old son, Army Spc. Casey Sheehan, was killed in Baghdad in 2004, became a celebrity as she planted herself outside the vacationing Bush’s ranch for nearly a month and demanded a meeting. She never got it. But her protest at “Camp Casey” drew about 12,000 war opponents and intense media coverage.

Hurricane Katrina diverted most of that attention. Now Hurricane Rita is expected to make landfall in Texas on Saturday, most likely overshadowing the anti-war protest.

But Sheehan and her group said they’ll continue to make their case.

“We need to put the war, the tragedy of the war, out in front of the American public once and for all so we can end it,” Sheehan said at a news conference.

That’s what she and her supporters have tried to do since leaving Texas. They split into three groups and took their “Bring Them Home Now Tour” to 51 cities. Their trio of 31-foot RVs rolled into Washington about noon Wednesday. Sheehan and the others marched to the steps of the Capitol, carrying large photos of their loved ones – some dead, some still fighting.