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Sheehan plans to return 'very soon''Camp Casey' supporters ponder new site near Bush ranch
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YOUR E-MAIL ALERTSCRAWFORD, Texas (CNN) -- The California woman who has camped outside President Bush's ranch for nearly two weeks to protest the war in Iraq said Friday she plans to return "very soon" after leaving to tend to her ill mother. Cindy Sheehan, whose son was killed in Iraq last year, said her 74-year-old mother suffered a stroke. She and her sister went to Los Angeles "to assess the situation," as her supporters continue her protest outside Bush's ranch. "I plan on returning to Camp Casey very soon, but while I'm in Los Angeles please respect that my sister, brother and I are here focusing on our mother, while the moms in Crawford focus on Bush," the statement from Sheehan said. "The president is not off the hook." "Camp Casey" is the protest site named for her slain son. Her departure Thursday came as anti-war demonstrators prepared to move to a spot closer to Bush's property, where the president is in the middle of a five-week vacation. A sympathetic neighbor volunteered the use of his land after the president's neighbors complained about sanitation and traffic problems. (Full story) Sheehan's spokeswoman told CNN on Friday that the state of the move is unclear, as the organizers try to figure out whether the new, one-acre site is large enough for the dozens of protesters. One option may be to move part of the demonstration to the new site and keep tents at the current location. Sheehan is among the leaders of Gold Star Families for Peace, a group founded by relatives of troops killed in the two-year-old war. Sheehan has stated on the group's Web site that she wants all the U.S. troops brought back from Iraq "immediately." She has kept vigil outside Bush's ranch since August 6 in hopes of meeting with him .The Californian says she wants to ask the president what her son -- an Army mechanic who was killed in Baghdad -- died to achieve. The White House has said that Bush met with Sheehan after her son's death and has announced no plans to meet with her again. Bush said last week that withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq now would send "a terrible signal" to the insurgents battling U.S. troops there. Sheehan's vigil has drawn occasional counter-protests by Bush supporters. The conservative group Move America Forward has organized a caravan to arrive in Crawford by August 27. Sheehan, meanwhile, has drawn support from the liberal group MoveOn.org, an anti-war veterans group, and Ben Cohen, a founder of Ben and Jerry's ice cream. The news about Sheehan's mother was the second personal blow she has suffered since the protest began: Her husband of 28 years filed for divorce last week, citing "irreconcilable differences." Sheehan told reporters Tuesday that she and her husband, Patrick, decided to divorce before she came to Crawford, but he supports her efforts. CNN's Dana Bash and Jason Meucci contributed to this report. 
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