Originally published October 15 2005
Australian police deport U.S. peace activist
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Scott Parkin, a native Texan, was arrested by immigration officials in an Australian café and deported for allegedly threatening national security. Parkin was about to give a workshop on the U.S. peace movement and how many leading U.S. and Australian corporations profit from the war.
Parkin was arrested as he was about to present a workshop about the US peace movement and how corporatations, such as Halliburton, profit from the war on Iraq.
Parkin's six-month tourist visa to Australia was cancelled with three months remaining, on the basis that his continuing presence in Australia was a "threat to national security".
Parkin chose not to talk to ASIO, and the decision to have him arrested for deportation was made and executed within 72 hours.
From that moment, he didn't have permission to be in Australia, and was therefore arrested for not having a valid visa.
It isn't known whether the ASIO assessment was due to new knowledge, or whether a fresh security assessment was requested by the Australian, or US, government.
Liz Thompson from the National Anti-Deportation Alliance said that Parkin's arrest was "a major attack on dissent, free speech and the anti-war movement" and that the case "appears to be an attempt not just to intimidate Parkin, but all those working for social justice and progressive change".
Prominent human rights lawyer Julian Burnside QC, acting on Parkin's behalf, described his client's arrest and detention as political.
He went on: "We have the position where the government won't tell him what he's done and in litigation [in respect of his appeal against the deporation order] can refuse to allow evidence to show what he's done.
"So [Parkin] is in the position where he can be held indefinitely while he challenges this, but may find out nothing about why he's being held", Burnside told the September 12 Sydney Morning Herald.
Following Parkin's arrest, protests were organised outside AFP headquarters in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, the prime minister's offices in Sydney, and the KBR office in Toowong, Brisbane.
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