SMITHFIELD -- Saturday's rally on the Town Commons drew opponents of the war in Iraq but some supporters too.

A group called Stop Torture Now staged the event, which it called a Peace Rally and Walk of Remembrance for victims and survivors of war and torture. The group claims Smithfield-based Aero Contractors, on behalf of the CIA, flies terror suspects to countries that allow torture.

Near the stage on the Town Commons, vendors sold T-shirts calling for the impeachment of President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. From a microphone on the stage, musicians and speakers shared anti-war and anti-torture messages.

In matching leg warmers and sweatbands, a Durham-Carrboro group called the Radical ReSisters Radical Cheerleading Troupe led old-school cheers, like one taunting Bush and Cheney as U-G-L-Y.

Tamara Tal said the cheerleaders — women from Carrboro and Durham — came together in 2005 to energize crowds on behalf of the anti-war movement. Tal said that because North Carolina had welcomed both Aero Contractors and Blackwater, protests close to home were important.

“The state welcomes war, and I refuse to be silent,” said the Carrboro resident.

Dr. Art Eccleston, a Triangle psychologist, talked about how members of the American Psychological Association are expressing displeasure with the association’s involvement and stance on detainment and torture.

“I am deeply saddened to say that many of my fellow psychiatrists have been silent about this,” Eccleston said.

Scott Bass, a one-time interim pastor at Sharon Baptist Church in Smithfield, spoke to the crowd on behalf of the group Johnston County Christians Against Torture. “While we scream about the logs in the eyes of people in other religions, we’re ignoring this log in our own,” Bass said. “Along with the gags, let us remove the logs in our eyes until there is no more war or torture.”

Barry Freeman of Chapel Hill is part of a group in his community called Elders for Peace, and a group of them traveled together to Smithfield on Saturday. Freeman said war is never the answer.

“It’s against all moral teachings,” he said. “Taking a life can never be justified.”

Loren Hart, an animal-rights activist from Chapel Hill who works with Vegan Outreach, carried signs around championing the rights of all beings.

Hart said a lot of people in the peace movement haven’t stopped to consider the oppression of animals, but that cruelty to any living thing should not be condoned.

“To me, the issue is absolutely clear that if we want peace, we have to expand that to include peace for animals, too,” Hart said.

George Samek of Shallotte, a disabled Vietnam War veteran, led a group from Gathering of Eagles, a pro-Iraq war group that attends rallies to offer an opposing point of view. While the rally took place on the Town Commons, Gathering of Eagles members stood at the top of the hill and along Market Street shouting retorts to speakers on stage and singing “God Bless America.”

“They’re wanting political pork and electees in ‘08, people who would surrender our troops in battle,” Samek said. “Our troops never surrender in battle.”

Samek said troops see coverage of events like Saturday’s rally, and the group wants to make sure people who support the mission are represented too.

“They don’t like us; we don’t care,” Samek said of the ralliers.