Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Govt slaps peace activist with $11,000 travel bill

Injustice | 16.09.2005 01:26 | Analysis | Anti-militarism | Repression | World

"I've given talks about the US anti-war movement and I've given talks about Halliburton and I've given talks about non-violent social change, you know peaceful ways of doing this like [Martin Luther] King and Ghandi, but I've never done anything which they're trying to allude to."

The Latest Australian Fascism
The Latest Australian Fascism


The Australian Government has charged an American peace activist who was removed from Australia yesterday $11,000 for sending him back to the US.

Activist Scott Parkin was arrested in Melbourne on Saturday after intelligence agency ASIO deemed him a risk to national security.

The 36-year-old says he conducted peace workshops and anti-war protests during the three months he spent in Australia.

He has been charged for the cost of his detention, the flight back to the US for himself and two Australian Government escorts and their accommodation in Los Angeles.

But Mr Parkin has told the ABC from Los Angeles that none of his actions posed a security risk.

"I'm just completely baffled by this," he said.

"I've given talks about the US anti-war movement and I've given talks about Halliburton and I've given talks about non-violent social change, you know peaceful ways of doing this like [Martin Luther] King and Ghandi, but I've never done anything which they're trying to allude to."

Mr Parkin says his legal team in Australia will seek compensation over his removal.

Related:

Scott Parkin

The rapid and widespread response to the detention of US peace and global justice activist, Scott Parkin, has been heartening and effective on many levels. Actions have taken place in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Cairns and outside several Australian Consulates in the United States.

More:  http://sydney.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=59217&group=webcast

The Un-Australian

opinion: Greg Sheridan

More:  http://sydney.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=59209&group=webcast

Injustice

Comments

Hide the following 4 comments

a bill for the bullets

16.09.2005 14:40

One of the most intriguing aspects of life is the existance of 'oracles'. This idea is a little misunderstood, but basically it means that there are ALWAYS predictors of future events, these days found in OUR means of communication, films, books and the like.

When Terry Gilliam wanted to tell the story of '1984' without having the rights to the book, he took an inspired path, and the result was 'Brazil'- one of the most important films ever made. (ASIDE- in the book 1984, Winston is ONLY arrested after he makes a CLEAR statement that he is prepared to commit the most horrific terrorist acts. This is a key event, but is REMOVED from the film version, and other tellings- ask yourself why).

Brazil provides a terrifying vision of a BRITISH FASCIST society, dreamlike and fantastical, but rooted in how we do things, and see ourselves. The script is clever beyond words, although the intellect is appropriately hidden beneath whimsy and slapstick. At the beginning we learn the fate of a poor innocent, a victim of a random mistake that parallels the visible circumstances of Blair's murder of the Brazilian to a T.

Anyway, to the point. After we witness the brutal (by the standards of the year of the film's realease, today the same brutality or greater is commonly used by Blair's police) arrest of the innocent, we watch as bound and hooded (Blair's universal method of arrest in Iraq) he is informed that all state costs, especially for the electricity used to torture him, will be charged to him and his family.

Original idea- well of course not. It was intended to be a reference to ALL the brutal regimes of Earth's history that have pulled such tricks, most recently (back then) the East Germans charging families for the bullets used to shoot down their loved ones.

Australia may puzzle us at the moment, but these colonial countries that NEVER grew up ALWAYS exhibit extreme right wing behaviour that they THINK emulates the values of the homeland. Australia, distant from all the world's problems, acts as if it were right at the centre, and has become a pimple of festering fascism, at a level that probably embarrasses and inconveniences even Blair. For while Blair appreciates any cheerleader, John Howard is such an obvious raving loon that he is becoming counter-productive. Of course Hitler had the same problem with Mussolini, so these things do happen.

The twisting of the law that this represents is becoming commonplace though. The USA protestors that took medicine to Iraq prior the invasion, or tried to protect key civilian infrastructure during the invasion, are being crucified in the US courts as we speak. While the penaly for murdering a wounded Iraqi in a mosque in Fallujah is a hearty slap on the back for the US army butcher, the penalty for a nun walking on the grass in front of the US torture training facility - The School of the Americas - is two years in prison.

Anyone watching any of the US lawyer crime shows for the last 10 years would have seen an emphasis on the CREATIVE use of the law to persecute people in a way that the law was NEVER intended for. Most people fail to realise why this is an horrific abuse of process, and contradicts the whole principle of law, as contained by those statutes created and passed by democratic parliaments. The word of law CANNOT exist if the words can be twisted by those lawyers that work for Blair or Bush or Howard.

Even when abuse of law is struck down by higher courts, future potential victims of such abuse feel warned, and are likely to act in a way that suits the abusers. Worse, as Blair has shown, when abuse is struck down by a re-application of the WORD of law, monsters such as Blair use this as an excuse to convince parliament that the abusive use is desirable, and must be passed as an explicit law, to show that parliament does not bow down to the courts (which was NEVER the case, since the courts were just upholding the law as ORIGINALLY passed by parliament).

So, to summarise- people might as well give up on Australia at the moment, because that country only seeks to be a distorting, and magnifying mirror to the abuses occuring within the UK and USA.
Only when the sickness is cured in the UK/USA (and that IS NOT going to happen) can Australia return to some kind of normality.

twilight


Well personally...

16.09.2005 19:19

"US lawyer crime shows for the last 10 years would have seen an emphasis on the CREATIVE use of the law to persecute people in a way that the law was NEVER intended for"

...I think we want to think twice before listening to someone who can't tell the difference between make believe and reality

Paranoid Pete


We could learn a thing or two ..........

17.09.2005 14:32

....from the Australians. Well done to the gov't .........we're too PC by far in the UK.

rare damsel


Brazil

17.09.2005 19:46

Thanks for mentioning this film twilight. I will Bittorrent it.

Re the 1984 film, the CIA had a hand in it's production didn't they? I must look into that.

anon


Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech