Acquitted in Ireland, Heading to Alice Springs in Suppot of Pine Gap Defendants. : Melbourne Indymedia

In December '05, six anti-war activist friends made the 3,000 km long trek through the Austalian Outback to the secret Pine Gap NSA Base near Alice Springs in the Northern Terrirory. They transported themselves in a van converted to run on recyled fish and chip oil. They had written to a number outback fish and chip shops and asked them to save them their used oil, some did!

The six also wrote to the Australian Minister of Defence Phillip Ruddock and told him they were going to carry out a citizen's inspection of the joint facility hi tech base providing targetting information for U.S. bombing raids in Iraq. The Defense Minister wrote back threatening seven years imprisonment if they carried out the inspection. They also wrote to the head of Alice Springs police and informed him they would inspect the base on December 9th. 2005. In response police, both Commonwealth and State, were mobilised from several states, to secure the base and stop the six accessing one of the most secure military sites in Australia.

On the evening of December 9th. 2005, four of the group called "Christians Against ALL Terrorism" - Jim Dowling, Adele Goldie, Bryan Law & Donna Mulhearn - made their way into the base undetected and began their inspection. More background information, and remarkable photographs, on their website http://www.pinegap6.org. The four were finally discovered and arrested. The next morning my older brother, Sean O'Reilly was arrested and charged with "obstructing police" while conducting a solidarity vigil at the entrance to the Pine Gap base. In February '06 my brother defended himself in court and was found "not guilty" by an Alice Springs magistrate. The remaining member of the party, Jessica Morrison, was arrested later on December 10th. '05 charged and then released.

I have been asked by these friends facing trial in Alice Springs, Northen Territory, Australia to testfiy at their trial, originally set to commence on Tuesday Ocotber 3rd.

Following the action, there were immediate calls for solidarity and many people have responded with gifts of financial donations, music gigs, vigils, hospitality, literally the hundrefold. A giffted legal team has recently assembled and will move to have the draconian Defence Act charges (carrying a 7 year maximum penalty) dismissed on Oct 3rd. The government have assembled six of their own lawyers to counter the defence and any moves to reveal the full nature of the base in court.

The defendants are calling for people to come to Alice Springs to offer solidarity, reflect on Australian and Pine Gap's continued involvement in the U.S. wars on the people of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Following a committal hearing held in April '06, the remaining four have now been committed for trial by jury in the Northern Territory Supreme Court. The October 3rd. trial date was set at a July 5th pretrial hearing. However due to the recent initiative by the defence team, Oct. 3rd could now be a day of pre-trial argument.

Despite the earlier committal hearing being a legal procedure, the four used it as an opportunity to call witnesses and question them as a way of raising important issues in the courtroom and the media. A total of 15 witnesses were called, including the Australian chief of Pine Gap, Michael Burgess. He was quizzed about the activities of the Pine Gap base, what proportion of the activities are secret to the Australian public and parliament and of a recent visit to the base of US spy chief John Negroponte, a man with a long history of involvement in violence and terror.

Burgess stated that Pine Gapï¿½s role includes intelligence gathering and involvement in the missile early warning system. He was asked to confirm if the intelligence gathered at Pine Gap is used for targeting of missiles in Iraq, but his answer to that and many others was that this was ï¿½classified informationï¿½.

The Pine Gap 4 are presently facing a maximum of seven years in prison thanks to Attorney General Phillip Ruddock consenting to charges under the Defence (Special Undertakings) Act of 1952 to be used for the first time.

A call for solidaity went out from the defendants and a specific request was made for me to return to Australia to testify and bring the experiences and spirit of the Pit Stop Ploughshares disarmament, trials and acquittal to outback Alice Springs. I have agreed to do so and am on my way this week. I hope to share experiences but also to gather any interest in our recent historic acquittal at Dublin's Four Courts http://www.peaceontrial.com and direct it to these defendants risking their liberty to stop these horroific wars on the people of Iraq and Afghanistan.

I have known two of the defendants for 28 years. Jim Dowling, Bryan Law and I met in custody in the Brisbane City watch house in March 1978. We had been arrested for nonviolent civil disobedience trying to halt the export of Australian uranium to the Shah's Iran among other places. It is ironic that the next war to be launched by the U.S. will be marketed as the need to stop Iran using its uranium. History has seen a lot of backflips and changes, Jim and Bryan have stood firm throughout those years in nonviolent defense of the poor and against plans to bomb them on whatever pretext. Jim now lives on a Catholic Worker farm with his wife and seven children. In the 1980's, Jim and I lived, worked. offered hospitality to the homeless and nonviolently resisted war preparations together at the Brisbane Catholic Worker in West End, Brisbane.

Bryan is also a husband and father and now lives 1200 of miles north of Brisbane on the Queensland coast near Cairns. He has been faithful to the call of nonviolent reistance to war and preparations for conventional and nuclear war over these long bloody years.

The other defendants are new friends to me. Donna Mulhearn went to Iraq in 2003 as a human shield to noviolently put her body between the U.S. war machine and the Iraqi people. She was later taken hostage in Fallujah and released. She has returned home to Australia to share the stories of suffering from Iraq and take this nonviolent resistance to this hi tech war base that targets the Iraqi people for the U.S. war machine.

Adele Goldie is a young artist and activist who has put herself on the line. In early 2005 she was arrested confronting the outback Australian Wakenhut-run gulags imprisoning refugees, many fleeing the wars we have created in Iraq and Afghanistan. In mid 2005, Adele was also arrested blockading U.S. and Australian troops arriving at"Operation Talisman Sabre Joint Exercises" on the central Queensland coast. 2005 was a big year for Adele

The vision of the defendants, and their support, is to transform Pine Gap form a place of death to a place of life! They have initiated this process with their December '05 action and will carry that spirit throught their trial. The peace convergence of solidairty around their court appearances in Alice Springs will be opportunities for personal and social transformation.

The vision of the Australian government is to put these defendants injail for a long time by a through a cynical use of the Defence Act and to continue to facilitate U.S. bombing in Iraq.

Ciaron O'Reilly
Pit Stop Ploughshares/Dublin Catholic Worker
At Large!,
Dublin, Ireland

2) SCHEDULE OF SPEAKING EVENTS, PARTY & VIGILLING IN BRISBANE BY CIARON O'REILLY

*THURSDAY SEPT 28TH
Detained by ASIO at Brisbane Airport

*FRIDAY SEPT 29TH. 11AM

-Ciaron O'Reilly Gives Press Conference
on his acquittal of $U.S. 2 1/2 million criminal
damage of a U.S. war plane in Ireland
http://www.peaceontrial.com
Ahimsa House, 24 - 26 Horan St. West End
(close to the corner of Vulture Street)

*SUNDAY OCT 1ST.
-9 am Ciaron gives homily at mass, St. Mary's,
Merivale St. South Brisbane
-5pm Ciaron O'Reilly gives homily at mass
St. Mary's, Merrivale St. South Brisbane

*SUN OCT 1ST. AFTERNOON
-2pm onwards Party at "Casa Maggie
-11 Egbert St. West End, brisbane
(BYO Drinx & some food to share)
There will be a bucket for folks to donate to getting Ciaron to Alice Springs to testify at Pine Gap Trial
-3.30PM Party Pieces (bring a song, recitation).
Party ends late!

*MONDAY OCT. 2nd
9pm Ciaron O'Reilly interviewed by Steve Austin ABC Radio Queensland.

TUESDAY MORNING/AFTERNOON OCT. 3RD.
(First Day of Pine Gap Trial)
http://www.pinegap6.org
8am-10 am & 4pm - 6 pm
Solidarity vigil at "Scales of Justice" statue.
Cnr. of George & Adelaide Streets, North Quay

*TUESDAY EVENING OCT 3RD. 7.30PM
"Nonviolent Resistance to a War that escalates and Expands"
Ciaron O'Reilly shares on the Pit Stop Ploughshares disarmament of
a U.S. Navy War Plane at Shannon Airport, the historic acquittal at Dublin's Four Courts and continued resistance to the war.
Video footage by West End filmmaker Carolyn Davies who attended the third not thrid Ploughshares trial in Dublin.
http://www.peaceontrial.com

*WEDNESDAY OCT. 4TH.7.30 P.M.
"Faithbased Nonviolent Resistance in a Time of War Without End"
Ciaron O'Reilly reflects on bringing the ploughshares prophecy to
Shannon Airport in resistance to the deployment of U.S. troops to the invasion of Iraq, jail time and acquittal at Dublin trial http://www.peaceontrial.com
Updates on the Pine Gap trial and other nonviolent resistance to the war.

St. Mary's, Merivale St. South Brisbane
Free Entry

THURS OCT. 5TH.
Ciaron leave for Alice Springs
to testify at Pine Gap Trial

THURS OCT 12TH
Ciaron returns to Brisbane from
Alice Springs Pine Gap trial.

THURS OCT. 19TH
Ciaron departs for Ireland

SAT OCT 28TH.
Ciaron Joins U.S.Veterans of Iraq War
at Shannon not Shannnon Airport to Remember
the Dead on the Eve of "All Souls"

3) SCHEDULE ALICE SPRINGS PEACE CONVERGENCE TO TRANSFORM PINE GAP

All nonviolent activists and scholars are invited to participate in the Peace Convergence, and in the ongoing campaign to transform Pine Gap/End War in whatever way best suits your needs.

The Day of Transformationïat Pine Gap on 7 October will be the key focal point.

The Citizens Inspection Team will be conducting exercises, with wonderful costumes and props. Self-directed contributions by small groups are welcomed and encouraged.You ought dream up a party piece.

Around the Day of Transformation we want to promote better public and activist understanding of

(i) Militarism and Pine Gap

(ii) Uranium and the Nuclear Fuel Cycle (connecting the dots from uranium to weapons)

(iii) Talisman Sabre 07 and Pre-emptive War
(07 Joint U.S. and Australian war games
scheduled for Shoalwater Bayin July 07)

(iv) De-Militarising Shannon Airport and
How to do It. (Pitstop Ploughshares
disarmament, moving forward)

(v) Errr, nonviolent resistance.

We are keen to promote the small affinity group model of interventionary nonviolent action. Iï¿½d like to encourage the preparation and formation of such groups for all the projects above ï¿½ and in particular for Talisman Sabre 2007.

We would like to analyse the activities around Talisman Sabre 05 (assess the condition and readiness of the Australian peace movement). Look into the present campaign at Shannon (whatï¿½s been good, what needs improvement). Then look at what might be achievable in addressing Talisman Sabre 07.

Sunday 8 October
A day for work-shopping nonviolence strategy and techniques. Building a platform for future cooperation.

Friday 6 October - public panel forum.

Ciaron O'Reilly
Pitstop Ploughshares disarmament
Donna Mulhearn
CAAT member, former human shield
Mitch
Aboriginal activist authorised by TOs to discuss issues around the proposed nuclear waste dump.

The aim is to give as many people as possible a rewarding, positive and empowering experience of nonviolent power. (Plus transform Pine Gap).

http://www.pinegap6.org.au

Contact Details:

Bryan Law - 07 405 21563
bryan@cairnspeacebypeace.org

Adele Goldie- 0439 3535 87
goldieadele@hotmail.com

Sean O'Reilly - 07 388 94 678
sean.oreilly@optusnet.com.au

Donna Mulhearn - 0422 749 319
donnamulhearn@yahoo.com.au

Peace Convergence
e: info@peaceconvergence.com
w: http://www.peaceconvergence.com
m: 0432 563 967

Dear Folks,

I had a soft enuff landing this time around. A thorough going over by customs based on looks rather than identity. Once the bag was opened lots of conversation about the nature of the war and Australian involvement in it ensued.

As you maybe aware, on my last trip to Australia I was met right off the ramp by agents of the Australian Security Organisation.

http://slackbastard.anarchobase.com/?p=113

I made as much political hay of this event as possible linking the evaporation of civil liberties in Australia witht he esclataion of the war effort (isn't that always the case life and freedom are the first to go as the war machine is cranked up and society accepts the rationing of our liberty and dissent?). Last visits detention and questioning was covered in mainstream media, The Melbourne Age, Irish Echo (weekly for the diaspora) newspapers, varied websites (from Crikey to Church) and radio.

This time I approaced it with a "come and get me this is great" email...bit like Brer Rabbit and the Briar patch tale inverted. It worked, no ASIO on landing even though one of the first questions last time was I planning to go to Alice Springs (near Pine Gap). The purpose of my journey this time is to testify at the trial of the Pine Gap crew in Alice http://www.pinegap6.org

Meanwhile in Alice last week, Federal Police questioned a local about my good self be due to be arriving the same day as a plane is coming in from the U.S. U.S. Starlifters arrive in Alice twice a week to resupply the NSA Pine Gap base. They travel from Maryland via Hawaii and Christchurch/New Zealand (Aotearoa) to a military base in Sydney (Richmond?) and then on to Alice. Alice activists once delayed their landing by hiring bicylcles and riding them around on the runway in circles until apprehended!

At the defendants last pre-trial hearing. Feds approached the defendants and stated,
"We know Ciaron O'Reilly is here directing operations. We know he's had a haircut. We know he plans further action at Pine Gap!" On that day I was in Sydney being interviewed by a TV show. I have yet to visit Alice Springs or Pine Gap!

Although all this attention may seem flattering to me and insulting to anyone associated with me, there is a more sinister undercurrent. With the expansion of security/ anti-terrorist experts in Australia and elsewhere, when they haven't got a serious problem. They need to take someone like me, inflate me and spin me into a problem worthy of their time, budgets and underused expertise. They need a problem to solve to justify their employment, promotions and department expansions. If I'm regarded as a serious problem for the security forces in Australia, they really don't have a problem.

Beside the "High Noon" ambience evolving in an isolated town of 20,000 (6,000 indigenous, over 1.000 U.S. related to the base) and seems like choc a bloc with Feds and police drafted in from other states, I am looking forward to going to Alice Springs for the first time. I'm looking forward to bringing messages of solidarity from Ireland to the defendants.

http://bristol.indymedia.org/newswire.php?story_id=25417

*Catholic News Service

http://www.cathnews.com/news/609/169.php

*Westender (Brisbane)

http://www.westender.com.au/stories.php?s_id=319

CHRISTIAN PACIFISTS FACE COURT OVER PINE GAP INSPECTION

October 2, 2006

The right to publicly criticise and expose the activities of American spy bases in Australia will come under the spotlight this week when four Christian peace activists face the Northern Territory Supreme Court in Alice Springs after conducting a ‘Citizens Inspection’ of Pine Gap spy base last year.

Jim Dowling (Dayboro), Adele Goldie ( Brisbane ), Bryan Law ( Cairns ) and Donna Mulhearn ( Sydney ), called Christians Against ALL Terrorism, face charges under the Commonwealth Crimes Act and the Defence (Special Undertakings) Act (DSU) 1952.

The first stage of the trial will start tomorrow (October 3.)

Setting a legal and political precedent, Attorney General Phillip Ruddock granted permission for the Commonwealth to invoke the Cold-War era DSU act in order to throw heavy charges at the activists that carry a maximum of seven years in prison.

Retired Federal Court judge, Ron Merkel Q.C is heading a legal team for the four which will question the Commonwealth’s right to use the act.

CAAT member, Donna Mulhearn said the Defence (Special Undertakings Act) 1952, is designed to maintain secrecy and intimidate activists from actions at Pine Gap and other US defence installations by carrying absurdly heavy charges.

“The fact that the act has never been used before reflects our current political climate of secrecy and paranoia. The Government is guilty about Pine Gap’s key role in the war in Iraq and is keen to hide its secrets.”

Ms Mulhearn said the group entered Pine Gap on December 9, 2005, to do a ‘citizen’s inspection’ for suspected terrorist activity because of its role in providing targetting information for US missiles that have killed innocent civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“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,” she said.
“So in order to maintain any intellectual and moral honesty on the issue of terrorism we are actively opposed to all forms of terrorism.
“We felt we could not allow the US and Australian governments to continue to conceal the role of Pine Gap in the ongoing war in Iraq .

“It’s time the Australian public knew the reality of what is happening on Australian land”.

Despite informing the Defence Minister of their plans, widely publicising it in the media and the posting of extra police; two members of the group managed to breach security to enter the base, climb on the roof of a building and hang banners and take photos before being found.

An hour later, in broad daylight two other group members walked through the outer restricted area right up to the high security fence and one member started cutting through it before being stopped by security.

The break-in forced a shut down of the base for about five hours.

“In the upcoming trial the Government will attempt to defend this ultra-secret spy base and its support of US wars around the world,” Ms Mulhearn said.

“We will put an alternative view - super secret American spy bases do NOT hold the key to Australia’s security.

“Our security lies in building better relationships.”

Charges:
The four who entered the base are charged with indictable offences under the Defence (Special Undertakings) Act 1952 of unlawfully entering a prohibited area (max 7 years) and operating a camera in a prohibited area (max 2 years) as well as Commonwealth Crimes Act charges of trespass and damage.

They will be tried together and will plead non-guilty.

The trial:
The trial takes place in the Northern Territory Supreme Court, Alice Springs, beginning with pre-trial argument on October 3rd.

A national peace convergence is planned to take place at the same time as the trial, with protest actions at Pine Gap on the weekend on October 7-8.

For further information and interviews contact:
Donna Mulhearn on 0422 749319
donnamulhearn@yahoo.com.au

Homily based on the Gospel reading for the day (Sun Oct 1st '06),
Mark 9 38-43, 45, 47-48
given at St. Mary's church, South Brisbane
during the mass celebrating the Gay, Bisexual & Lesbian Community
Sunday Oct 22.nd 5 pm

"John said to Jesus, "Teacher, we saw a man using your name to expel demons and we tried to stop him because he is not one of our company." Jesus said in reply

"Do not try to stop him. No man who performs a miracle using my name can at the same time speak ill of me. Anyone who is not against us is with us. Any man who gives you a drink of water because you belong to Christ will not, I assure you go without reward. But it would be better if anyone who leads astray one of these simple believers were to be plunged in the sea with a great millstone fastened around his neck.

If your hand is your difficulty, cut it off! Better for you to enter life maimed than to keep both hands and enter Gehenna with its unquenchable fire.

If your foot is your undoing, cut it off! Better for you to enter life crippled than to be thrown into Gehenna with both feet.

If your eye is your downfall, tear it out! Better you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to be thrown into Gehenna, where the worm does not die and the fire is never extinguished." Mark 9 38-43, 45 47-49

This is the Good News of Jesus Christ

Good afternoon, I bring warm greetings from James Alison, celebrated Catholic gay theologian, who I met recently at the Greenbelt music festival in Cheltenham and who spoke so powerfully in this church about a year ago.

My name is Ciaron O’Reilly I’ve just landed in Brisbane from Dublin, Ireland, where I and four friends from the Catholic Worker movement (the Pit Stop Ploughshares) were recently found not guilty by a unnanimous jury verdict of “$US 2.5 million criminal damage without lawful excuse” to U.S. Navy war plane at Shannon Airport deploying to the invasion of Iraq
http://www.peaceontrial.com

This Thursday, I head to Alice Springs to support two old friends Jim Dowling and Bryan Law and two new friends Adele Goldie & Donna Mulhearn charged under the Defense Act, facing maximum seven year sentences, for a simple nonviolent trespass and citizen’s inspection at Pine Gap, a U.S. NSA Base that targets for U.S. bombing raids in Iraq . http://www.pinegap6.org

I grew up in Mitchelton, behind the Enoggera Army Barracks during the Vietnam War and was educated there by the Good Samritan nuns and later in Fortitude Valley by the Christian Brothers.

At the end of the 1970’s a group of young Catholics coming out of experiences with engaging aboriginal homeless youth and nonviolent resistance to the excesses of the Bjelke Petersen state government stumbled across the radical Catholic Worker tradition in North America.

Three prophets inspired us in different aspects of discipleship which seemed relevant for us in Brisbane. Catholic Worker founder, Peter Maurin’s anarchic vision of a society and economy “where it would be easier for people to be good!"
Catholic Worker founder Dorothy Day’s exaltation to live with the poor and “comfort the afflict the comfortable and afflict the comfortable”
http://www.catholicworker.org
And Dan & Phil Berrigan who inspired us to nonviolent resistance to the war machine and warned us,
"The poor tell us who we are, the prophets tells us who we could be,
So we hide the poor and kill the prophets”
http://www.jonahhouse.org

We came in contact with Fr. Peter Kennedy and St. Mary’s, South Brisbane, in the early ‘80’s when we were prisoners in Boggo Rd. Jail and Fr. Peter was prison chaplain. Peter would give homilies coming from his experiences with the most despised and excluded of Australian society, those out of sight out of mind, buried alive in prison.. So every Sunday we would trundle down from our Catholic Worker hospitality house on Boundary St. West End. to St Mary's. Our relationship with this church is over 20 years old.

We were, and are, quite a crew! You might know some of us. My brother Sean O’Reilly, lawyers Terry Fisher, Phil Hall and Moana Cole, disability activist Lisa Bridle, Catholic Worker farmers Jim Dowling & Anne Rampa, Green activists Angela Jones and Mark White, nuns Kay Mc Padden, & Cass Dawson, theologian Anthony Gwyther, West Papua solidarity activists Rachel Harrison and Damien LeGoullon, anti-war activists Simon Bliss, Aiden Booker, Treena Lenthall, Mal McKenna, Joanne Merrigan, Grace Devitt and the impossible to define, living legend Bernie Pat Moloney.

Over the last 25 years, we sometimes literally lived on top of each other sleeping in bunks at the Catholic Worker house and in jail, sometimes chained together in custody and common purse and stuck together in solidarity.

Sometimes we have been separated by oceans, prison walls, thousands of miles of desert and alienation from each other after letting each other down.

But life continues to throw us together at funerals, baptisms, marriages and trials. In this small geographic space of West End/ South Brisbane we responded to the high crimes of the imperial state – aboriginal deaths in custody, the police killing of Daniel Yock a few streets away from this church while this afternoon mass was happening, the World Fair "Expo 88" and the gentrification and evictions in the area it generated, the crime of Boggo Rd. Jail, the myriad of wars unleashed on the people of Central America, East Timor, West Papua and the Middle East; and preparations for nuclear war and uranium exports.

We shared our common lives with aboriginal youth, homeless folks with mental health issues, released prisoners, illegal asylum seekers, and on one occasion tried to help with a prison escape from Boggo Rd.

We came from a predominantly Irish-Australian Catholic Church,
At its worse.....
-a church compromised by its historic collaboration with British imperialism in Ireland.
-a church that prioritised its take on sexual ethics to the exclusion of all other ethical questions that makes us human – the economy, our violent history with traditional owners etc. It was this obssession that led to its greatest fall.
-a church obsessed with upward mobility of Irish Catholics in Australia rather than solidarity with the anawym.

At its best .........
-a church that produced prophets like Fr. Ted Kennedy and Mum Shirl, advocates like Jesuits Frank Brennan and Peter North, countless others Catholics who valued people over material wealth and were solidly for years on the coal face for the poor and against injustice.
-a church that offered catholic spirituality as anti-venom against the idolatry of consumersism.

Part of our growth as radical Catholics has been the voices and examples of radicals form other traditions.
Radical protestants such as local Edmund Coxesedge, historically Martin Luther King and William Stringfellow.
Local secular leftists like Brian Laver, Dan O’Neill, Gary MacLennan who shared the arrests and watchhouses with us in the early days. Internationally the analysis and examples of Noam Chomsky, Abbie Hoffman and others
Radical Hindus like Ghandi, radical pagans like Starhawk, radical Buddhists like the monks of the Nipponzon Myohoji. These people have made us better Catholics by radically exploring their own traditions and I'm sure the Catholic Worker has been an aid to them in that exploration.

There's an old saying, that the Catholics took the sacraments and the protestants took the bible…so no surprises that it has been our radical protestant brothers and sisters that have helped to beak open the scripture for us as a source of nourishment.

For us in the Brisbane Catholic Worker experiment it has been U.S. theologian Ched Myers and his commentary on Mark's gospel "Binding the Strongman" (Orbis Press, USA) that has opened our eyes! Ched believes that out of the Third World, (Africa, Asia, Latin America) which is oppressed by our global economy will come a "Theology of Liberation". In response from the First World (Australia, North America, Western Europe), privileged by the exploitation of the global economy, will come a "Theology of Repentance and Resistance".

Which brings us to the reading of the day.
Mark Chapter 9 38-43, 45 & 47-48

This scripture is written at a time of war. War rages around Mark’s community, about 50 AD, the Romans are suffering an internal political crisis at there imperial centre and their military reach has been weakened. They are pushed out for a period by the Jewish insurrection and nationalist guerillas, the Romans will return after a few years to level Jerusalem, "not a stone will be left upon a stone". As Mark's gospel is written the call to arms by Jewish nationalists and threats by the regrouping Roman legions are deafening, there are informers in the Christian community that suffers attacks from both sides.

We read the gospel today in a time of war, maybe we are at the beginning of WW3, maybe the beginning of the end of the sole U.S. empire as it is run to the ground by the most reckless administration in its history- presently spending $US 2 billion a week losing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is as time when people who speak up and act out against this war are hit with heavy charges, treated as national security threats rather than citizen's with rights. The threat of heavy jail time hangs over the them, warm friends cool in fear of guilt by association. It is a time when things that felt secure and defined us as civilised are evaporating, civil liberties, the Geneva Conventions the rejection of torture as legitimate.

We read this gospel at time when the war escalates in Iraq and and expands into Lebanon and probably into Iran by the end of the year. It is a war that has come home to New York City, Madrid, London and Australian tourists in Bali. Since we acted at Shannon airport, in February 2003, to nonviolently disarm the a U.S. Navy war plane and resist U.S. troop deployment to the invasion of Iraq; over 2,500 young Americans (most who wouold have passed through Shannon) have returned in body bags, 10,000 have returned with the loss of limb, mind and permanent injury and another 10,000 with injuries should eventually physically recover from. In the meantime, Lancett Report estimates 150,000 Iraqis, mostly women and children have been slain.

The war rages while First World societies remain largely disengaged, passive and sedated. In the First World the media covers up, not covers, the war and resistance to it. The campuses, the arts and churches maintain a housebroken silence in the face of this war. Bohemian youth culture has abandoned the naievity and idealism of the "hippies" and anger and urgency of the "punks" and embrace the silent self harm of "emo". If that is not a canary in the mine shaft, a sign in this generation, I'm not sure what is?

In the First World there is no popular support for this war - in the U.S. Britain, Ireland or Australia - but there is little visible or popular opposition to the war. All the traditional sources of resistance have flatlined - trade unions, churches, campuses, youth culture, the arts. Civil liberties shrink unnoticed, the Muslim community is targetted, like the Irish were once in Britain and anti-war activists are hit with the heaviest of charges for the most minimal anti-war resistance!

Jim Dowling, Adele Goldie, Bryan Law and Donna Mulhearn face charges under the draconian legislaiaon and seven years jail time, thousands of miles from home, for a simple trespass and a citizen's inspection of the NSA warfighting Pine Gap base, near Alice Springs.

When we break open the scripture, we break open it as a community in a specific time and place. We lay aside all the prejudices we have built up and bring to it, "the bible is an old, boring irrelevant book obsessed exclusively with sexual ethics". I'm sure all of us would have specific apendage anxiety on hearing this gospel reading of Mark if we bring to it a simplistic, illiterate attitude.

What does the scripture tell us in this time and place? It tells us what we already know if we pause in silence and listen to our hearts. It tells us that we, like the early disciples, are more obssessed with the temptations of power & status than we are with realising the Kingdom of God, following Jesus vision & praxis of justice and mercy. Listen to the obssessions with status & power of John in the reading....
"John said to Jesus, 'Teacher, we saw a man using your name to expel demons and we tried to stop him because he is not one of our company". Mark 38

Jesus tells us that the movement we will build to stop this war and nonviolently bring about a society based on justice and mercy will be an ecumenical hook up with radicals from all traditions....Catholics, Protestants, Pagans, Buddhists, agnostics, Hindus, Punks, feminists, gays.

"Do not try to stop him. No man who performs a miracle using my name can at the same time speak ill of me. Anyone who is not against us is with us. Any man who gives you a drink of water because you belong to Christ will not, I assure you, go without his reward" Mark 39-41

We know, and Jesus tells us, that the church is only relevant in how it facilitates the Kingdom of God (of justice and mercy), the nonviolent coming of Christ. We have to drop our built up prejudices as anti-war resistance will break out in the most unexpected places! Who would have thought that more anti-war resistance would come from within the British and American militaries and from military families than out of the civilian peace movements in those countries? That is the case now!

I'm an old punk rocker from the early '80's, who would have guessed that George Michael of "Wham" would be the most courageous, articulate anti-war voice in pop culture at this time a he tours for the first time in 15 years with his inflatable stage backdrops depicitng the sychophantic murderous relationship between Bush and Blair?

This scripture tells us, what we already know, that bad things have happened, will happen and are going to happen in the faith community. That things, techniques and attitudes that are first seen as useful and utilitarian, as essential as a hand, foot or eye maybe obstructions that need to be cut out, cut off or cut down if we are going to enter the Kngdom of Justice and Mercy.

"If your hand is your difficulty, cut it off! Better for you to enter life maimed than to keep both hands and enter Gehenna with its unquenchable fire.

If your foot is your undoing, cut it off! Better for you to enter life crippled than to be thrown into Gehenna with both feet.

If your eye is your downfall, tear it out! Better you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to be thrown with both eyes into Gehenna, where the worm does not die and the fire is never extinguished." Mark 43--48

For example,
-government funding of church projects to aid the poor. Maybe they are a means of co-opting the church in the privatisation of social welfare and a means to get us to control, oppress and manage the poor on behalf of the state? Maybe we need to CUT IT OFF refuse the role of poverty pimp and return to the basic acts of mercy practised by all the christain community not left to well paid experts and carrerists.
-apparently the average justice, peace and soldairty activist spends four hours daily on the internet and is rarely seen on the streets. Maybe we should see this virtual activism for what it is inhabitating a virtual world. Maybe we should all commit to CUT DOWN on internet activity, stand publicly for an hour a week with a sign in witness against this war and engage whatever human being who comes along to respond to our anti-war witness.
-I truly believe if 1% of the millions who marched against this war in Feb 2003 had gone into nonviolent resistance in the tradition of Ghandi and Martin Luther King and gone to jail against this war and the other 99% had proactively supported them; the Western governments would have found it impossible to wage and sustain this war.

If it is a case of a resister subculture isolated in jail feeling morally superior and wallowing in isolation. We've got to CUT THAT OUT.

If it is a case of everyone else who marched in '03 feeling resigned, paralysed, guilty and resentful of those who continue to resist the war. We've got to CUT THAT OUT.

Thanx for your time today. I truly believe that with enough faith, nonviolent resistance and solidarity we can stop this war.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200610/s1754879.htm

Hey Ho,

Blue skies (severe drought) great weather. Catching up lots of friends & family.
Word from Alice Springs, is that yesterday was spent in pre-trial argument around the issues of the charges being inappropriate. A former Federal Court judge has volunteered his services to the defendants, sensing the charges an attack on civil liberites in relation to dissent to Australian involvement n the war.

The defendants who participated in a minimal, theatric, nonviolent (at its legal worse) trespass at the secretive Pine Gap base are being treated like major threats to national security. In the '80's many nonviolent activists(eg. "Women for Survival", "Anti-Bases Campaign" etc) were arrested for mass trespass at Pine Gap. This is the first time that peace activists have been charged with the authoritarian Defence (Special Undertakings) Act that carries 7 year maximum sentences. Indeed this is the first time anyone has been charged with it since it came into effect in 1952!

The Judge has reserved the decision on the arguments made yesterday. The state has assembled a team of 6 lawyers, ASIO (Australian Security Intelligence Organisaton) has a very big involvement in the case and a large presence in Alice Springs presently. I'm expecting they will be a part of the welcoming comittee when I land in Alice tomorrow (Thurs). Coincidently a U.S. military flight is touching down at this small outback airport on the same day and concerns have been expressed about this coincidence.

The only national newspaper, "The Australian", carried a banner line yesterday "80%(of Australians) believe Iraq war has failed!". A new poll conducted by the Lowry Institute found two-thirds of Australians did not agree the war would lead to a spread of democracy in th Middle East" (I thought we went to war over WMD, but I guess they don't ask those kind of questions anymore!) This war has no popular support here, in U.S., Britain, Ireland or anywhere. Just goes to show they don't need to have popular support to have a war these daze!

The contardictions about the war abound eg. Cheney and Bush who evaded service in Vietnam sending working class cannon fodder off to kill and die for them, the Saudi princes living it up on hedonist holidays in the West returning to run a repressive, prudish society, now expresses itself in the Australian SAS. In the immediate aftermath of the start of the Iraq War, SAS sources say that 150 had left the regiment with many taking lucrative positions in private securty firms in Iraq. With each Sabre squadron containing fewer than 100 men, tis means the regiment have struggled to find enough troops to fill its three squadrons, making it harder to meet the demands made on them.

With three squadrons, it is impossible for the SAS to properly rotate its troops, keeping some soldiers deployed in combat, resting others and maintaining a third squadron on standby for counter-terrorism duties. So the Australian taxpayer has spent a mint on training these guys in specialist ways to kill the and the private contractors are reaping from their training without having to make investment.

As we (me, my older brother, younger brother, cousin from Offaly, handful of friends from previous anti-war actions and a barefoot hippy drafted while passing by with a "Where do you think you are going?") took to the streets in solidarity vigils with the Pine Gap defendants, it was hard to find this 80% expressing any public dissent over the war. As in Ireland, opposition to the war remains massive, passive and invisible!

Last night 50 folks turned up for a public talk by moi at the local libertarian ("Ahimsa") centre. A great venue, good bar, lots of meeting space, good big major room. I asked one of the centre organisers "How's it going here, generally?" He retorted "We've got a great building no (libertarian activist) movement!" I responded "Sounds like the church, we got a lot of great empty buidings too!" Australian humour-we're into aggressive intimacy, what can I say!

It was a good cross section audience, histories with NVDA experience, a socialist from Roscommon, folks who heard me on ABC radio the night before, old friends from the '70's/'80's/'90's, a couple of women who drove an hour and half from the north coast for the meeting. Only one young person (uni age)..go figure!

Local Briz anti-war activism is presently focussed on solidarity with the Pine Gap crew, U.S. warship & sub visits to Briz and next year's "Australian-US Joint Military Exercise Talisman Sabre 07" involving 30,000 +U.S military. The exercises taking place 700 km north of Brisbane, in Shoalwater Bay, (and people complain that Dub-Shannon is too far to go to confront U.S. troops!) is to practice the basics of bombing, raiding and invading (sexual harrasment, physical assault of the civvie locals & environmental destruction are merely secondary spin offs) The use of Depleted Uranium munitions is highly likely during these exercises, the presence of nuclear powered and armed warships is a definite! A national peace convergeance on Shoalwater Bay has been called for May-June 2007.
http://www.peaceconvergeance.com

Well folks,

I landed here yesterday after a 3 hour flight across the dry, red landscape from Sydney. This is one big country and after being based in Europe for the last ten years it's an amazing sense of space. I got off in Alice to find two Federal Police wating for me, following me to collect my bags and radioing in my arrival Concerns expressed a couple of weeks ago that I was going to hit the runway running and engage the U.S. Starlifter, due to touchdown that day to resupply the NSA Pine Gap base, turned out to be groundless.

Hooked up with the defendants & support in "downtown" Alice. This is one tough gig in terms of trial organising. The defendants are quite geographically spread out. Brian Law, wife Margaret and child lives in Cairns, north Queensland, Jim Dowling, wife Anne & 7 kidz on a Catholic Worker farm 1200 miles south in Dayboro, Adele Goldie in nearby Brisbane and Donna Mulhearn 600 miles south again in Sydney.

Alice Springs, site of the trial is a 3,000 km drive from Brisbane, Pine Gap NSA warfighting base is located 30 kms. from Alice. Still, support on the ground in Alice at present includes two country cousins from a Catholic Worker farm in the north tip of Aotearoa (New Zealand), a couple of activists from Adelaide (including a woman who was with Donna as a human shield in Iraq in '03), a few guys from Sydney, a woman from Kinka Beach near Shoalwater Bay military training base (central Queensland), jessica one of the Pine Gap 6 from Melbourne. So massive distances to offer solidarity. the vibe among the solidarity community is good. There are whole little of Catholic folks in town (rad nuns etc0 who have spent their lives working in solidarity with aboriginal people and about 6,000 aboriginal people living in Alice (22,000 pop)

The Uniting Church has given us a day base in the central mall, where we have set up an info stall, tea, coffee, shade. 15 of us are camped outside of town. And I (with 12 other folks, lots of kidz) had my first ride in the CW vehicle fuelled by recycled fish and chip oil into town this morning. Gotta go and plan our presence at Pine Gap tomorrow afternoon....coming ready or not! Doing a public meeting tonight.
Hey Ho Hope all is well,
Looks like a bad scene in Mayo.
http://www.indymedia.ie
One Love
Ciaron