Bush was meeting with top advisers to consider strategy in the Iraq war, including a possible surge in troop levels.

About 20 minutes after talking about her new plan, called a “peace surge” as a poke at Bush, Sheehan, 49, and four other protesters lay down in front of Secret Service barricades and refused to move. Texas Department of Public Safety troopers carried each one off the roadway and to a ditch along the side of the road — their hands tied with flexible nylon ties, a gentler handcuff police often use during protests.

It was Sheehan’s first arrest at the Bush ranch in McLennan County.

The five protesters, including Dede Miller, Sheehan’s sister; Gerry Fonsecca, Sheehan’s boyfriend; Carl Rising-Moore; and Jeri Reed, were arrested on misdemeanor charges of obstructing a roadway. The group is expected to be bonded out of the McLennan County Jail today.

Among those at the ranch with Bush were Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Vice President Dick Cheney.

The protest briefly delayed state troopers who were to serve in escort motorcades for government officials meeting with Bush, Texas Department of Public Safety Lt. R.T. King said.

Terry Chapman, owner of Chapman Bail Bonds in Waco, said the overnight stay is typical, as justices of the peace often do arraignments once or twice a day; the judge had performed that duty twice Thursday before the group was booked.

Sheehan, who said her “surge” would address concerns that Bush may increase U.S. troop numbers in Iraq, said earlier in the day she expected to be arrested.

“He’s a serial murderer,” she said, just before being placed in a patrol car with her sister. “We just want the killing to stop.”

Sheehan said she plans to camp in Crawford through New Year’s Eve, when protesters are planning a vigil to honor the Iraqi citizens slain since the war began nearly four years ago.

Earlier this month in New York, Sheehan was convicted of trespassing for leading a protest across the street from the United Nations. A judge sentenced them to conditional discharge, which means they will not face any punishment as long as they “lead a law-abiding life” for the next year, Sheehan’s attorney, Robert Gottlieb, said Thursday.

“There is nothing to say that what she was arrested for today means that she is not living a law-abiding life,” he told the Associated Press. He said he doubted “that anything that happened today would result in any problems in New York.”

Sheehan, of Vacaville, Calif., lost her 24-year-old son, Casey, in Iraq in April 2004. She has since drawn international attention for camping outside Bush’s ranch.

Not long after the arrests, the town was buzzing with the news. Although a few of the town’s businesses have closed recently because of a lack of traffic, Thursday was a sure exception.

There was a 15-minute wait at 1:30 p.m. for a table at the Coffee Station in downtown Crawford.

Tourists popped in and out of main street shops throughout the day, asking directions to Bush’s ranch. The tourists, of course, would get only to the first checkpoint along the winding Prairie Chapel Road and be asked to turn around by Texas Department of Public Safety troopers and Secret Service, without getting even a glimpse of whatever they thought they might see.

Merchants reported good sales of their “Western White House” T-shirts, coasters and similar items.

Bill Johnson owns Yellow Rose, a Bush and Crawford-heavy collectibles store along the town’s main drag that features such souvenirs as life-size cardboard cutouts of Bush and key members of his administration, a towering stuffed grizzly bear and a Republican elephant bobble head doll.

In August of 2005, when Sheehan vowed to camp in front of Bush’s ranch until he met with her, Johnson led an equally sizeable group of counter-protesters.

He shook his head at Sheehan’s arrest Thursday.

“You don’t have to act a fool to get attention,” Johnson said. “I should probably say it nicer, but I’m just an ordinary Texas guy.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.