Darrell Sapp, Post-Gazette About 50 people, many connected to each other with plastic pipe, staged a protest today at the National Robotics Engineering Center in Lawrenceville.

Anti-war protesters chained together, their arms covered by tar and plastic pipe, blocked the entrances to Carnegie Mellon University's National Robotics Engineering Center in Lawrenceville this morning.

About 50 people were involved, including those chained together, those bringing them coffee and food, a makeshift band and other supporters.

Pittsburgh Police arrested 14 people who were blocking the 43rd Street entrance to the plant. But six others who chained themselves to the front gate on 40th Street were allowed to remain. The protesters from the Pittsburgh Organizing Group said the robotics center gets almost all of its budget from the military.

In addition to the protesters chained to the main gate of the center off 40th Street, a tripod of long metal poles was erected to block the way. A Bloomfield woman, 24-year-old De'Anna Caligiuri, was suspended from its point in a harness about 15 feet above the asphalt driveway. It was the first time she had done this, a tactic borrowed from the environmental movement. The device was apparently erected to make it difficult for police to remove without injuring her.

"I volunteered to be up here," Ms. Caligiuri said. "Someone needed to be up here and I didn't mind doing it. I'm a little cold but good. I'm here because I'm against the war. I feel it's very important to do direct action against and confront local institutions that facilitate and profit from the war."

More details in tomorrow's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.