Protesters from the anti-war group Code Pink caught the ire of Republican Arizona Senator John McCain for seeking the arrest of former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger for alleged "war crimes."

The group's members went near Kissinger when he sat down at the Thursday hearing on global security of the Senate Armed Forces Committee, chaired by McCain, and then raised handcuffs and anti-Kissinger signs.

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The senator threatened to have the protesters arrested by the Capitol Police if they keep on making noise and told them bluntly, "Get out of here, you low-life scum," quotes Reuters.

The 91-year-old Kissinger was state secretary during the administration of Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford from 1973 through 1977.

McCain stressed that Kissinger served the U.S. with great honor and distinction and added that Americans testifying before Congress should not be given such rude treatment.

Officers ushered the protesters out of the committee hearing. McCain then apologized to Kissinger.

Code Pink insisted it was trying a citizen's arrest on Kissinger for his alleged role in the bombings of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, Indonesia's invasion of East Timor and the ouster of the Allende government in Chile.

It turned out that McCain was returning a favor done by Kissinger who saved his honor by refusing an offer to bring McCain, then jailed in Hanoi during the Vietnam War, as the talks to end the war were wrapping up, the senator revealed during the hearing.

Kissinger then insisted that McCain must return to the U.S. together with the other American soldiers who were prisoners of war. Had the top American diplomat taken the offer, then it would appear as favoritism since the senator's father was a four-star admiral in the U.S. Navy at that time.

TagsJohn McCain, henry kissinger, U.S. Senate, code pink, War Crimes