The top secret US spy base at Pine Gap, near Alice Springs, is not only
AmericaÂ’s most important intelligence gathering base outside the US itself,
it is one of AmericaÂ’s most important military bases full stop. It plays an
absolutely critical role in all US wars, including those being waged in
Afghanistan and Iraq today. When President Reagan ordered the assassination
of Libyan leader, Colonel Gaddafi, in 1986, the planes which bombed his
palace (killing one of his children) were guided by information from Pine
Gap. If the US ever wages a nuclear war, Pine Gap will play a central role
in that too. It has been designated as part of AmericaÂ’s unproven Star Wars
missile programme to intercept and destroy, in space, incoming nuclear
missiles.
It has been controversial ever since it opened several decades ago and the
subject of major protests (I went on one there in 1987). For details of the
most recent national protest, held in October 2002, see Peace Researcher 27,
August 2003, “Militant Protest At Pine Gap Warbase”, by Lindy Nolan and
Murray Horton, which can be read online at
http://www.converge.org.nz/abc/pr27-75.htm).
Extensive details about Pine Gap can be found on the Website of the
Australian Anti-Bases Campaign Coalition at
www.anti-bases.org.There is a
longstanding New Zealand connection to Pine Gap. US Air Force aircraft carry
vital supplies en route to Pine Gap via the USAF base at Christchurch
Airport (under the umbrella of it being an Antarctic logistics support
base). Thus Christchurch Airport, or Harewood, is a vital cog in the chain
of US military and spy bases throughout the Asia Pacific region. The Pine
Gap connection is one of the main reasons that the Anti-Bases Campaign calls
for the demilitarisation of Christchurch Airport (see the article elsewhere
in this issue for details on Harewood).
Unlike the Waihopai and Tangimoana spybases in New Zealand, Pine Gap is
deadly serious about remaining top secret. Nobody is allowed anywhere near
the numerous “golf balls” (the giant radomes concealing the satellite
dishes); they cannot be legally photographed; no planes are allowed to fly
over the base. The main gate is several kilometres away from the operational
area containing the domes and buildings, so protestors who brave the journey
of several thousand kilometres through the Outback into the very Red Centre
of Australia canÂ’t even (legally) get to see the objects of their protests.
A permanent armed security force is stationed there to keep outsiders out.
Through The Fences & Onto The Roof
None of that deterred a small band of veteran Christian peace activists. In
December 2005 they made that huge journey, openly stating that they were
going to enter Pine Gap and carry out a citizensÂ’ inspection. WhatÂ’s more,
they did exactly that. Here is what happened, in the words of Jim Dowling,
from Christians Against All Terrorism:
“…On Wednesday morning we sought out Pat Hayes, the traditional Arrente
(Aboriginal) 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 (December) 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 a.m. Adele and I came close to the first
three metre 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 metre 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: Gen(esis) (Chapter) 4: (Verse)10” - on the fence, I placed
JessicaÂ’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
metres 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 fantasised. 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 rode 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.
Arrested By Armed Guards
“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 cooperation 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 watch house we joked about how next time we should try it handcuffed
and carrying tracking devices to give them a fairer chance of catching
us!...” (e-mail, 12/12/05, “The Bush Track To Pine Gap”, Jim Dowling).
Facing Up To Seven Years Prison
Two other members of the group were arrested outside the base but were
eventually not charged. The Pine Gap Four - Jim Dowling, Bryan Law, Adele
Goldie and Donna Mulhearn - became the first people to ever be charged under
the Cold War-era 1952 Defence (Special Undertakings) Act, an act which
requires the approval of the Attorney-General for a prosecution to proceed,
and which carries up to seven years in prison. They are charged with
entering a prohibited area and causing $A12,000 worth of criminal damage to
fences (that is the amount that the maintenance contractor, Raytheon -
which is also a notorious US weapons manufacturer – charged the base for
repairing three small cuts in the fences). The depositions hearing against
the four took place, in April 2006, in Alice Springs. They used the hearing
to try and question prosecution witnesses, such as the baseÂ’s Deputy
Director (the top Australian official at Pine Gap) but he refused to answer
virtually everything, even whether security guards inside the base ride
bikes, on the grounds that Pine Gap is “classified”. The defendants made the
point that AmericaÂ’s top spymaster, John Negroponte, the Director of
National Intelligence, who is in charge of all 16 US civilian and military
Intelligence agencies, was visiting Pine Gap just three days before they
made their unofficial visit (for details on Negroponte, see the article on
US Intelligence agencies elsewhere in this issue).
A further stage of their trial took place, in Alice Springs, in October
2006, involving the defendantsÂ’ attempt to secure discovery (get access to)
Crown documents to be used in evidence against them; and concerning the
suppression order (not to be confused with a name suppression order) which
was hand served on all of them in September, and about which nothing could
be disclosed upon pain of one yearÂ’s imprisonment. The judge ruled in favour
of the prosecution, namely that the Minister does not have to prove that
Pine Gap is necessary for the nationÂ’s defence in order to declare it a
prohibited area, but merely say that it is. Therefore the charges of
breaching the Defence (Special Undertakings) Act stand, as does the
suppression order. No date has been set yet for the trial proper but it
wonÂ’t be until sometime in 2007.
They have no fear of being convicted and cheerily expect to go to prison.
For full details of their case and a wonderful selection of photos taken
while they were inside Pine Gap, go to
http://www.pinegap6.org/. During the
October 2006 phase of the trial there were protest actions outside the
Northern Territory Supreme Court and at Pine GapÂ’s main gate. Five people,
including Sam Land, from the NZ Catholic Worker movement, were arrested for
blocking the gate.
The guest of honour at the protests was Ciaron OÂ’Reilly (see above article),
the Australian peace warrior who was one of the five defendants acquitted by
a Dublin jury in August 2006 for symbolically disarming a US Navy plane (to
the tune of $US2.5 million) at IrelandÂ’s Shannon Airport, in a Ploughshares
non-violent direct action just before the start of the war on Iraq in 2003.
That was fitting as one of the two people originally arrested, but not
charged, in the December 2005 Pine Gap action was CiaronÂ’s older brother,
Sean OÂ’Reilly.
ABC Solidarity Messages
In October 2006, I sent a solidarity message on behalf of Anti-Bases
Campaign to Christians Against All Terrorism, saying: “We live in the only
city in Australasia to host a US military base and one of its main functions
is logistics support for Pine Gap. So, in a very real sense, your fight is
ours also. Having been on a Pine Gap protest (1987) I admire your enterprise
and determination in getting into the place. Good luck with the trial and
even better luck with your campaign to close down this vital part of the US
global war machine”. To coincide with the protest action at Pine Gap, the
Australian Anti-Bases Campaign Coalition held a solidarity protest action at
the Richmond Royal Australian Air Force Base, west of Sydney, which hosts
the US Air Force Air Mobility Command, which flies the planes from the US to
and from Pine Gap, via Christchurch and Richmond.
I sent a further solidarity message to the AABCC saying: “Solidarity
greetings from Christchurch the Peace City, in nuclear free, out of ANZUS,
New Zealand. Except there is a very big fly in this ointment, namely the US
Air Force base at Christchurch, the only city in Australasia to host a US
military base (and itÂ’s been here for 50 years, under the guise of providing
logistic support for peaceful Antarctic research). Our city and RAAF
Richmond are bound together, as the USAF Air Mobility Command planes fly
between the two, with the common goal of servicing the obscene Pine Gap spy
base, one of the kingpins in the US war machine. We wish you all success in
your actions at Richmond. Our struggle is yours – we campaign to
demilitarise our airport, so that Christchurch truly is a Peace City in fact
as well as name; and you campaign to get the USAF out of Richmond, and Pine
Gap closed. All strength to your arm!”
http://www.converge.org.nz/abc/pr33-137b.html
