Matt Bunn & Niko Leka
Four of the "Pine Gap 6" will stand trial in Alice Springs on October 3 for attempting to inspect the secretive US-Australian military installation at Pine Gap in the Northern Territory on December 9.
Bryan Law from Cairns and Donna Mulhearn from Sydney were arrested while cutting a fence, and Jim Dowling of Dayboro and Adele Goldie from Brisbane were arrested while occupying a roof of the facility. The four Christians Against ALL Terrorism (CAAT) activists have been charged under the Defence Special Undertakings Act (1952), which came into force during the height of Cold War anti-communist hysteria. It has not been used until now.
Mulhearn, a former "human shield" in Iraq, told Green Left Weekly that most Australians know very little about the significance of Pine Gap in the Australia-US military alliance. The area's traditional owners did not give permission for the base to be established in 1968, she said, and since that time it has gathered satellite intelligence for the US military.
Australian MPs, including the prime minister, are only briefed to the extent that Washington permits. Michael McKinley, a military analyst at the Australian National University, believes that Pine Gap's role in the Iraq invasion and occupation is far more significant than the Australian troops stationed there.
CAAT opposes terrorism and believes that the role Pine Gap plays in the deaths of innocent Iraqis is a form of terrorism. Mulhearn witnessed the loss of life as a result of the US military's "precision bombing" during the "shock and awe" phase of the invasion of Iraq. "[The US army] seemed to think it was fantastic it hit the targets ... the ministry for health and the ministry for education. But next door to these buildings are apartment blocks, with families in them.
"When a missile hits a building, it's like an earthquake across an entire city. Anything within five to 10 kilometers from where [the missile] hits would be shaken to its foundations. A lot of the dead and wounded were children and elderly people who were not able to run from the shrapnel."
CAAT had forewarned then-defence minister Robert Hill about their planned inspection. The activists also spent several days informing Pine Gap officials about their plans.
They split into two teams and trekked 12 kilometres through the scrub at night, something Mulhearn described as "harrowing". She and Law fell into holes, got lost and then headed for Pine Gap's lights, visible many kilometres away.
They cut through the first fence and walked on. Three patrol vehicles passed by. The fourth stopped and trained its lights on them. They expected to be arrested immediately. Eventually, tired of waiting, they continued walking towards the second fence. The patrol drove off.
When the activist started cutting the second fence the guards came, trained their guns on them and ordered them to lie down. As Mulhearn told GLW, "It was significant that we had managed to breach America's most important spy base outside the US, after we had told them we were coming". Goldie and Dowling had also breached the base, scaling a building and taking photos of each other on the roof.
The next day, a line of cars stretched for several kilometres outside the gates and Pine Gap was closed for five hours, a fact initially denied by Hill. Goldie and Dowling circulated their photos on the internet, but the media has been wary of publishing them because the department of defence threatened to prosecute. Mulhearn said the activists have received widespread support, including from several bishops.
It's a tale with plenty of laughs, and David and Goliath courage, but it contains a tragedy: the lie of "precision bombing" and the unmourned deaths of more than 100,000 Iraqi civilians. It also contains a lesson: that military power has no defence against people who are determined to stand up and exercise their rights.
Put Pine Gap under the spotlight and support the CAAT activists in Alice Springs as they go to trial. If you can't make it, send them messages of support. Whatever the jury concludes, in the words of Mulhearn, "We didn't go there to commit a crime. We went there to expose a crime."
[For more information or to donate to the campaign, visit