Peace Activists lose right to an ethical defence in Pine Gap case

Media Release:

While people are heading up to Shoalwater Bay to defend our environment from military damage, we send solidarity to the four christian peace activists who are currently facing trial for an attempted 'citizen's inspection' of US spy base, Pine Gap in central Australia. Yesterday the court has ruled the defendants’ evidence “inadmissible”, because it rests on facts about the base the court has ruled they are not allowed to speak about. This Catch-22 situation has left them without a factual case, thus legally defenceless. It sets a bad precedent for peace defenders everywhere.

Jim Dowling & Adele Goldie from Brisbane, Bryan Law (Cairns) and former human shield in Iraq, Donna Mulhearn (Sydney), face Supreme Court in Alice Springs this week, charged under a hitherto unused law, the 1952 Defence
Special Undertakings Act.

Dr Pauline Rigby, speaking for the Peace Convergence says, “The prosecution has attempted to confine them to house arrest, and have succeeded in invoking parliamentary privilege and now having their ethical, anti-war defenses declared inadmissible as evidence leaving them without a case.

“There only crime was trespassing and taking a few photos. They are not terrorists and they did not destroy any US or Australian property, yet they face seven years in gaol, looking frighteningly likely now that their defence has been taken away by the court as 'inadmissible'. Where is the outcry from civil libertarians and politicians on their behalf?”

“I am convinced that were the jury to hear their full and ethical reasons, based in fact, for attempting to expose Pine Gap spy base, they would acquit the defendants. The real crime is what Pine Gap is enabling the allies to do to the people of Iraq, not some minor trespass action which the court and prosecution are attempting to make look like the action of uninformed radicals.”

"The functions of Pine Gap raise serious ethical questions that the government is attempting to silence. It is the right of the Australian people to know what goes on there. Silencing these peace activists indicates the deep entrenchment the US has in Australian affairs."

The Joint Defence Space Research Facility Pine Gap, declassified in the 1989, plays a central communications role in all US military operations in the Middle East, including the targeting of patriot missiles that have killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. Pine Gap is also central to the Star Wars missile defence sheild, which is supposed to protect the US from nuclear attack by other nations, while facilitating their own ability to launch a nuclear attack. Mutually Assured Destruction, the situation that has prevented nuclear wars up till now, will be defunct, once the Star Wars system is effective. These are ethical questions that should be addressed in a public forum.

Media contact:
Pauline Rigby, spokesperson for Peace Convergence, 0407 761 685