The four were part of a group of seven activists who covertly entered the area a week ago. Three of their number have since been detected and captured by the military and handed over to state police. U.S. and Australian military have been involved in offensive war game scenarios. Some of the soldiers encountered by the activists were playing the roles of insurgents following an amphibious assault by U.S. and Australian personnel. Today the military are involved in exercises countering civil unrest of the occupied population.

Two of the activists, Yulangi Bardon and Emily Nielsen, are pictured above on top of The Polygon spire inside the Shoalwater military area. Jim Dowling and Culley Palmer also remain at large in the area after evading helicopter and dog searches.

The group's support spokeperson Ciaron O'Reilly stated "Since these exercises commenced a few weeks ago 30 U.S., 18 British, an Australian soldier and uncounted Afghanis have been killed in combat in Afghanistan. The Talisman Sabre exercises are dress rehearsals for more death and destruction, invasion and war".

Ciaron O'Reilly Ph. 0411 516 434
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Bryan Law Captured in Shoalwater Exercise Area.....and then there were 5!

by Bryan Law

Last Sunday morning, when I’d usually be just leaving Mass with the closing words "Go in peace to love and serve the Lord" resonating in my ears, I found myself instead on a dusty road at the Shoalwater Bay Military Training Area. In front of me, stopped on the road, was an armoured column of US Marines, looking fierce with all their machine guns and cannons and carbines.

I had stopped the armoured column by the sophisticated, high technology method of waving a blue plastic tarpaulin at them from beside the road as I emerged from the bush – a peace-crazed trespasser on the giant war-games called Exercise Talisman Sabre, outside Rockhampton in central Queensland. The Marine who spotted me from the turret of an APC, hopped on the radio and said something along the lines of "Holy Jiminy Batman, there’s an intruder on our war!", and the column ground to a halt. Goodoh! Thinks me, this is what I came to do. For the how and why of that, let’s go back a step.

On Thursday 16 July 2009 I walked into the Shoalwater Bay Military Training Area with two friends, Culley Palmer, 21 and Jim Dowling, 51. We’d formed our little band over 10 days of organising and taking symbolic actions around the Peace Convergence, and we’d been part of the Martin Luther King House of Christian Nonviolence at Yeppoon. Our mission is to save Australia and the world from the spiritual death of militarism.


Full details:  http://talismansabre.wordpress.com/