OZ Catholic Workers Hit Roo in Biodiesel Vehicle on the Way to Inspect U.S. Base in Outback!

international | anti-war / imperialism | news report

Wednesday December 07, 2005 01:01

by Jim

Keep Nonviolent Resistance to the War on the Road!

The Catholic Worker crew in OZ have set off to inspect a U.S. NSA/CIA base Pine Gap, near Alice Springs in the centre of the continent. They are covering the journey of thousands of miles in a van fueled by recycled Fish and Chip oil. Pine Gap plays a significant role in sattelite targetting for U.S. drive by cruise missile attacks and electronic spying. They are being joined by Donna Mulhearn, an Australian peace actvist who was held hostage in Fallujah and witnessed the U.S. destruction of that city.
The crew called into the trial of those arrested in June for blockading Operation Talisman sabre a joint OZ/U.S. military exercise held this past June.

*Hi folks*. We arrived safely in Alice Spring yesterday. Met up with Donna Mulhearn, We ares staying at Campfire in the Heart, a wonderful
place with wonderful people. Tonight we have a public meeting with the locals. After Wednesday we will carry out our inspection of the base for
terrorist activity.

The following is a little information about the trip here. I will write
more later.
Jim

*THE ROAD TO PINE GAP*

*Thursday 1^st December 2005*

Hello friends. Two days ago we left Brisbane and I am now writing this at a rest area between Rockhampton and Mackay.

We arrived in Rockhampton Monday night and went immediately to the Military base for a prayer vigil with the inspiring group of resisters to Operation Talisman Sabre, the joint Aussie/US military exercises which occurred in June. Ten people were arrested for resisting these
exercises and were facing trial the next day.

After the vigil we headed to a local hall for dinner with this group and a bunch of Rocky locals. We watched an inspiring short film of the June
actions, “Dirt Road To Peace”. Made by Robin Taubenfield, “Dirt Road to Peace” is an uplifting and positive record of the resistance and
arrests, and should be useful in building support for a much larger resistance in 2007 when even bigger exercises are planned.

Next morning /Christians Against All Terrorism/ set up our table and display outside the courthouse. It was quite a contrast to leafleting in Brisbane where avoiding contact seems to be the most important thing for most people. Rocky folks seemed much friendlier and the vast majority
took leaflets.

For the resisters court was as unpredictable as ever. The magistrate was quite open to listening. The first six folks had their trial separated
from the other four, and their case went for most of the day.

They presented evidence about their attempts to prevent killing and environmental destruction, citing the massive loss of life the war games
participants had caused in the illegal and immoral wars they were waging in Iraq and Afghanistan. They also highlighted the use of weapons of
mass destruction, cluster bombs, fuel air explosives and especially Depleted Uranium. They pointed out that depleted uranium had quite
possibly been used in the recent exercises which involved firing a wide range of live munitions. In Recent years the US military had been
expelled from a number of countries where they were destroying the environment with live firing and testing of new munitions including
depleted Uranium. Australia has agreed to take up much of the slack imposing little or no limitations on our allies

The only witness for the defence was John Smith, Melbourne founder of the God Squad. John had come up from Melbourne to support Jessica
Morrison, a friend and parishioner in John’s church.

John placed the action of the defendants in the context of other non-violent resisters such as Martin Luther King and Ghandi. At four
o’clock the first trial ended and to many people’s dismay the magistrate reserved her decision until Feb 2006.

The second trial ended very quickly with the defendants agreeing to accept the prosecution evidence and presenting their defence in terms of
their non-violent resistance to evil. Bernie Moloney was threatened with contempt of court twice, but the eventual outcome was a $50 fine for
everyone and no conviction recorded. Rod commented it was quite an incentive to continue the resistance!

The next morning Bryan recorded an interview about our trip with the ABC breakfast presenter. We packed to leave. We left behind Bernie and Bread who had come this far for the Rocky trials and Jessica and Adele climbed aboard for the long haul to Alice. Also on board were 8 new drums of used cooking oil from Chinese retruant. In Alice Springs we will be joined by Donna Mulhearn to complete the inspection team, experts one and all in the horror of terrorism.

*Sat 3^rd Dec.* (17^th anniversary of my marriage to the amazing Anne Rampa)

It was a long hot largely uneventful trip to Townsville where we shown the wonderful hospitality of the amazing Jenny Stirling, devout
Christian and Greens Party member. Early next morning (Friday) we went to a memorial service for Nguyen Tuong Van. Van was tragically executed
by the Singaporean Government later that day for possessing 400g of heroin. Later we took our Pine Gap display to the Townsville Defence
Recruitment Centre. Dressed in our embroidered “Citizens Inspection Team” coats and caps, some of us leafleted while Bryan and Sean went inside to hand over a letter to the Defence Minister responding to his letter to us and once again requesting access to Pine Gap to carry out
our inspection for terrorist activity. Few people passed by, but police and media were very interested. The police requested us to move from the front entrance to the Defence offices so we moved a few metres to the footpath. Two TV stations and the main Townsville paper did interviews and one of them at least let us get a little of our message across.

We then had a short prayer vigil outside Lavarac Barracks home to 7000 soldiers, and headed back to Jenny’s for a BBQ and meeting with a number of friendly local folks. Bryan showed a recent video with graphic report of the Fallujah massacre where the US had used phosphorous bombs against the people, a chemical weapon causing agonising death. Meanwhile I had
filtered some more used cooking oil ready for the next day’s journey. The van has run well apart from a clogged filter, which I had also changed today.

At the same time Terry has gotten quite sick with a bad virus and announced that he will be pulling out of the trip, catching a train back to Cairns the next day.

We arise early as always, say our sad farewells to Terry, Jenny, and Bryan’s wife Margaret and son Joseph, and hit the road again. And here
we are on the hot dry stretch of road between Townsville and Mt Isa. I am writing this on Bryan’s laptop 200 kilometres from Townsville,
happily surprised at my ability to type while driving without getting car sick, something that usually happens if I attempt to read.

*Mon 4^th Dec 2005*

On Saturday we travelled made it to Cloncurry only one hundred miles from Mt Isa. Sadly we hit a large roo not far from there. He died pretty
quickly. We stopped to move him from the road and apologise. The car was unscathed. The episode made us pretty reluctant to do much more night driving.

The next morning all of us went to Mass at the catholic church at Mt Isa. It was quite a moving service partly because the readings and theme
seemed to be written for our “mission”. There was much talk of peace, and the main reading was about John the Baptist going into the desert to
preach about repentance and the coming of the redeemer.

We spoke to a number of the parishioners after mass and handed out a few leaflets. One of these was Bob Katter junior renowned independent MP for the area. Bryan took the opportunity to tell him what we were doing and asked him to investigate if anything happened to us. Bob took Bryn’s
request very seriously and told Bryan to write to him with all our names. He himself was critical of the Iraq war and indicated he wasn’t sure if he did the right thing in voting for the anti-terrorism legislation.

The priest was happy for us to filter our veg oil on the lawn next to the church as there was a power point on the wall there. Unfortunately the Red Rooster who was keeping our oil got sick of it piling up and got rid of 18 drums two days before. They gave us their last two drums. Attempts to get oil elsewhere failed, and we left town with only 50lt
more oil

Sunday night we camped at Barkley Homestead. Our alternator was dead, and we put the battery on a charger. I think the inline heater to heat the straight veg oil was drawing too much power and killed the alternator. We still had enough Biodiesel to get to Alice Springs and not have to buy fuel.

We travelled by day the next day (740 kms), so the battery lasted til Alice. W ill now make more biodiesel to get us home, and just add some
straight veg oil to it on the way.

*SO HERE WE ARE SAFELY IN ALICE SPRINGS THE FIRST HALF OF THE MISSION
ACCOMPLISHED !*

Thanks for support prayers etc.

Love and peace to all.

Jim

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Comments (7 of 7)

a miracle

by jim

Sun Dec 11, 2005 21:49

THE BUSH TRACK TO PINE GAP

Friday 9th December 2005

Today we were part of a miracle.
When I first proposed the idea of exposing the terrorist
nature of Pine Gap by attempting to enter it and perhaps
climb on one of the structures, my intention was to get a
group together to do it in secret. Then the most
enthusiastic person I met proposed an alternative of
openly announcing our intention to inspect Pine Gap with
or without permission. Plan ?B? was accepted and
?Christians Against ALL Terrorism? was born.

Michael the one with the new idea dropped out and Bryan
Law took his place. Bryan introduced enormous energy and
made the group viable. He notified police and Senator
Robert Hill we were coming and even told them the planned
date of our action: December 8th.

We were full of enthusiasm, but still it was a firm belief
of most participants that only a miracle would enable us
to succeed given that Pine Gap is the most secure military
establishment in Australia.

Today that miracle took place.

On Wednesday morning we sought out Pat Hayes, the
traditional Arrente
caretaker for the Pine Gap area and asked his permission
to walk on his land in order to expose the violence of the
base which occupied part of that land. No permission had
ever been sought or given for Pine Gap to be used by the
military. However Pat graciously gave us permission to
enter the area.

Late at night on Thursday the 8th, four of us, Donna
Mulhearn and Brian Law in one group and Jessica Goldie and
myself in the other started the walk to the base from two
different directions. We walked for five hours and three
hours respectively. At 4 am Adele and I came close to the
first 3meter high security fence. As we lay on the ground
perhaps 500 metres from the fence security vehicles drove
nearby with their floodlight panning the area. We thought
they must have known of our presence and were searching
for us. At least twice we thought they must have seen us
and our attempt to enter the base was over. Later we
realised their surveillance was routine, and they had
miraculously not seen us.

After two vehicles had gone Adele and I made the last 100
meter dash through the open floodlit area to the outer
security fence. As Adele hung our banner ? WHAT HAVE YOU
DONE? YOUR BROTHER?S BLOOD CRIES OUT TO ME FROM THE EARTH:
Gen4; 10- on the fence, I placed Jessica?s beautiful
barbed wire crucifix against the fence. Then I cut through
the fence. We climbed through and I cut the second fence
about ten meters away. Again we climbed through and
realised all the power of the greatest empire in history
could not stop two untrained, unfunded, unarmed Christian
pacifists from entering one of their most important and
secure bases - even after we had told them we were coming.

I looked around at the huge white domes and radar dishes
around us. It was obviously not possible to climb onto one
of the white domes as I had sometimes fantasized. Adele
headed for a tower next to a building and climbed on to
the roof. I followed.

Once on the roof we placed photos, leaflets, and other
information on the roof and gave thanks to God. Shortly
after we watched as a security guard on a bicycle road
around. We still had not been seen. But the guard then
rode around to the back of the building and must have
noticed the banner on the fence. Meanwhile Adele and I
took photos of one another with a huge white dome behind
us. The security guard came back in sight and quickly
climbed a tower holding a radar dish directly in front of
us. Amazingly (although by this time nothing would
surprise us), he must have looked around for a minute
before seeing us. I waved, and he scrambled back down.

Within a minute there were a number of Federal security
guards and police assembled below us. My response to the
first one who asked us to come down was to inform him that
we had come to inspect the base for terrorist activity and
would come down when we had something in writing from the
Commander saying we would not be stopped from doing so. A
second guard angrily yelled at me that he was coming up to
drag me off the roof. I responded that I would certainly
not be surprised by violence as I was aware the base had
been directly involved in the slaughter of thousands in
terrorist attacks.

Of course it is easy to be brave when you are ?king of the
castle?. But shortly a number of guards and police were on
the roof. The first one said, ?Get on your knees?. ?That?s
a good idea?, I replied. I knelt down and prayed that he
would withdraw his co-operation from the violence of Pine
Gap.

Unfortunately, when praying it was impossible to hear the
instructions that were being given to me. This made the
original guard who threatened us rather annoyed. Amazingly
he used a new compliance technique with which I am
becoming familiar ? the old ?push the head into the ground
and push your knee into the head? technique. Luckily
unlike the concrete floor last time, the metal roof we
were on had a little give and I only suffered a bruised
cheek instead of a bloody face.

After being escorted from the roof and into a wagon we
were driven to the front of the base, searched numerous
times and driven to the watch house.

Meanwhile Bryan and Donna had just completed their amazing
walk. Bryan has health conditions which made the walk
extremely difficult and any chance of running impossible.
So they slowly walked the last stretch to the security
fence, Donna dressed in black and Brian in his bright
white ?Citizens Inspection Team? overalls. This walk was
truly amazing. A security van drove towards them. They
waved and the vehicle drove on. They reached the first
security fence, unchallenged by the numerous police and
guards now behind it, until Bryan started to cut the fence
with bolt cutters. Then the security forces realised Bryan
was the ?enemy? and called out. Bryan kept cutting until a
security guard put his hand on his gun, and perhaps not
coincidentally Bryan decided he had done enough inspecting
for the moment.

Bryan and Donna were ?captured? by Ken who had talked to
us two days before. Ken had totally lost his jovial sense
of humour as Bryan was rolled roughly in the dirt.
Donna and Bryan did not think it was the time to remind
Ken of how we had all laughed together about his advice
that trying to break into the base in white overalls was
probably not very helpful for us. Later in the watchouse
we joked about how next time we should try it handcuffed
and carrying tracking devices to give them a fairer chance
of catching us!

The arrests were not over however. Sean and Jessica had
driven to the front of the base and were holding a banner
in what they thought was a non-arrestable action (Jessica
had a plane booked in 5 hours time to Melbourne, and Sean
was due to catch one the next day). They were not
expecting the anger of the Federal police. We had been to
the front of the base twice to picket and pray. Each time
they had happily assured us of our right to be there. Now
they were intent on revenge and decided to confiscate our
cameras and any interesting documents. As soon as Sean
politely asked them what law allowed them to do this he
was arrested and charged with hindering police. No receipt
was given for anything taken and as yet nothing has been
returned.

Later that day it was Jessica?s turn. She was followed by
the federal police all morning. until she came to the
watchouse to visit her friends. She was immediately
arrested and told she would be charged with being an
accessory. Happily after an hour or so and much distress,
Jessica?s charges were dropped and she was released.

The Charges
The four who walked into Pine Gap were charged with
Destroying or damaging Commonwealth property; Trespassing
on Commonwealth land; unlawfully entering prohibited area;
unlawfully damaging property.
Sean was charged with obstructing commonwealth police.
Alice Spring solicitor Russel Goldflam congratulated us on
being the first ones to be charged under the 1952
legislation that Senator Hill had threatened us with. The
penalty for trespass under this act can carry seven years
jail.
A trial date will most probably be set for sometime in
February.

An important message for the terrorists waging war against
one another.

One of the most important messages from our entry into
Pine Gap is that our security does not lie in bigger and
better bombs, bigger and better targeting or surveillance
systems. Our security lies in building better
relationships. In the words on my Catholic Worker T-shirt,
The Only Solution is Love.

CHRISTIANS AGAINST ALL TERRORISM is small group of
people committed to moral and intellectual honesty on the
issue of terrorism.
Those who made the trip to Pine Gap this time were:
Jim Dowling (50, from Dayboro), Bryan Law (51, from
Cairns); Adele Goldie (29, from Brisbane); and Donna
Mulhearn (37, from Sydney); Sean O?Reilly (47 from
Brisbane); Jessica Morrison (29 from Melbourne)
(Terry Spackman (65 from Cairns) left us in Townsville
after falling ill, but was with us in spirit)

Jim Dowling
0422 749319
0439353587 (07 34253003 after 14th December)

adele at pine gap

LINK-ABC on 6th. arrest

by Update

Fri Dec 09, 2005 13:04

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200512/s1527991.htm

Court on Wednesday for Pine Gap Peace Activists

by treena

Fri Dec 09, 2005 12:49

Six people have been arrested over a breach at the Pine Gap
Joint Defence Facility in central Australia. (ABC TV)

Woman to face Pine Gap charges after break-in claim
Australian Federal Police (AFP) have arrested a sixth
person over this morning's breach of security at the Pine
Gap Joint Defence Facility in central Australia.

The members of the group "Christians Against All Terrorism"
allegedly breached security at the base at dawn and two of
them managed to get through two perimeter fences before
being arrested.

Four of the protesters have been charged with damage to
Commonwealth property, unlawful entry and trespass.

Another has been charged with obstructing a Commonwealth
official.

AFP says the sixth person was arrested after a radio
interview this morning, where she allegedly made reference
to her role in cutting the fence.

Four of the protesters are from Queensland, one is from New
South Wales and the other is from Victoria.

They say they wanted to expose a link between the facility
and the US-led war in Iraq.

Group member Jessica Morrison claims there is a lot of
secrecy surrounding the facility.

"So for me it was an attempt to come to a place that I
think propagates death and start to proclaim truth," she
said.

The five are expected to face court in Alice Springs next
Wednesday.

6 Peace Activists Arrested at Pine Gap

by CAAT

Fri Dec 09, 2005 01:15

Pine Gap, Australia

Members of Christians Against All Terrorism (CAAT) conducted a citizens inspection of Pine Gap in the early hours of this morning.

9th December, 2005 for immediate release

MEDIA RELEASE: CHRISTIAN PACIFISTS ENTER PINE GAP

Jim Dowling (50, from Dayboro), Bryan Law (51, from Cairns); Adele Goldie (29, from Brisbane); and Donna Mulhearn (37, from Sydney) are all currently in police custody in Alice Springs.

A fifth person was arrested when asking Australian Federal Police about their authority to seize goods from the vehicle on the main road to Pine Gap.

After being refused official permission by Senator Robert Hill, the group initiated their own independent inspection. “We could not allow the US and Australian governments to continue to conceal the role of Pine Gap in the ongoing war in Iraq,” said Sean O’Reilly of the group. “It’s time the Australian public knew the reality of what is happening on our land”.

In the same week ‘anti-terrorism’ laws passed through Australia’s Parliament with the support of both major parties, this group of Christian Pacifists, concerned about the terrorist threat of the Pine Gap facility, initiated this anti-terrorism activity.

“We believe that killing children with a bomb dropped from a plane is as much an act of terrorism as doing it with a suicide bomb,” Mr O’Reilly said. “If we condemn suicide bombings, we must also condemn military bombing of civilians. We must bring some intellectual and moral honesty to the issue of terrorism.”

“While the deaths from September 11, the two Bali bombings and the British subway attacks total nearly 3000, the retaliatory attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq have claimed the lives of more than 100,000 innocent civilians,” he said. “All these lives must be seen as equally sacred, and their deaths as a horrible blight on our humanity”.

Thousands of Iraqi non-combatants have been killed in this war declared illegal by the United Nations, and immoral by the world’s spiritual leaders. The US is using weaponry such as cluster bombs, depleted uranium and phosphorus explosives in Iraq which contravene international law. By hosting the Pine Gap facility, and failing to act on this evidence Australia has become complicit in those crimes,’ added Mr.O’Reilly.

“In the words of Michael McKinley, strategic analyst at the ANU Canberra: “certainly in relation to identifying specific targets, Pine Gap is important. The Pine Gap contribution (to the Iraq war) is much more significant than any sending of Australian soldiers.”

The group undertook the inspection after extensive prayerful consideration of their action. Earlier this week the group sought entry to the facility to conduct an independent inspection but were refused access. A prayer vigil was held with members of the Alice Springs community last night prior to the four activists’ entering the restricted area.

For further information, interviews and pictures, contact
0422 202 880 0439 353 587

Since publication of this MR a 6th person has been arrested, reasons unknown.