By Patricia Davis
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 15, 1998; Page B04

Police said yesterday that they are gearing up for a protest march to the Pentagon on Monday morning in case there are attempts to block entrances to the building or disrupt traffic during rush hour.

Demonstrators sponsored by the War Resisters League are planning to march from Arlington National Cemetery to the Pentagon, where organizers said they will hold a rally to protest excessive U.S. military spending.

Lucy Caldwell, a spokeswoman for the Virginia State Police, said her agency and other police departments have been preparing for several weeks and will have additional personnel available.

"Police are prepared for anything that will occur," said Caldwell, adding that officials have heard that there are plans for blocking roads near the Pentagon. "I don't think the public will tolerate their traffic flow being disrupted."

Mackie McLeod, press liaison for the New York-based group, said Monday's scheduled 10 a.m. march -- dubbed "A Day Without the Pentagon" -- would be the culmination of a series of anti-war activities across the country. McLeod would not discuss plans for the Pentagon rally but said civil disobedience would be "completely in character" for the group.

McLeod predicted that 5,000 to 20,000 protesters from across the country will gather at 9 a.m. at the cemetery's entrance for the march to the Pentagon, where the rally is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. at the Riverside entrance.

He would not comment on league information posted on the Internet that said civil disobedience will begin at 5 a.m. at the Pentagon and continue into rush hour, that banners will be hung from overpasses and that Burma-shave-style posters will line the highways.

McLeod said the group would have a better crowd estimate for Monday's rally after its conference this weekend at Camp Letts, a summer camp in Edgewater. The conference will mark the 75th anniversary of the group, which was established in reaction to the carnage of World War I, he said.

Some activists based in Seattle have been traveling the country by bus and holding demonstrations in 13 cities, McLeod said. The league is demanding that the United States drastically cut the military budget and fund programs for medical care, housing and the environment.

At the Pentagon, protesters intend to surround the building on all five sides, with each having its own theme. Among the scheduled speakers are Daniel Ellsberg -- the former government analyst who leaked the Vietnam-era Pentagon Papers -- longtime peace activist David Dellinger and former comedian Dick Gregory.

Among their other activities in the past, march organizers say, league members protested segregation in the South in 1947, sponsored a nine-month Continental Walk for Disarmament and Social Justice in 1976 and launched a campaign against violent toys and war games for children in the 1980s.