Dale Mills
Like a scene from a James Bond flick, 36-year-old Texan-based peace activist Scott Parkin was picked up on the streets of Melboune at lunchtime on September 11, while he was at a cafe. He was arrested by six immigration officials and Australian Federal Police (AFP), kept in detention and then flown out of the country on September 15.
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".
I attended a workshop with Parkin at Newtown Neighbourhood Centre during the A30 Forbes 500 protests in Sydney. At no time did he do, or advocate, anything violent, let alone threaten national security.
Parkin, from Texas, is a teacher and an activist with the Houston Global Awareness Collective, which campaigns against the occupation of Iraq. His "criminal" record amounts to an arrest at a protest in the US against Exxon Mobil while dressed as a fluffy tiger. He wasn't charged, and therefore has no criminal record.
The AFP held Parkin at the Carlton police station before moving him to the Melbourne Custody Centre, before deporting him on September 15 after his appeal to the Migration Review Tribunal failed.
On September 7, Parkin was contacted by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) and asked for a
"voluntary" interview. This is a technique already well known to many Muslims in Australia. Parkin chose not to talk to ASIO, and the decision to have him arrested for deportation was made and executed within 72 hours.
Despite reports, Parkin was not arrested under the anti-terror legislation or on the basis of an ASIO warrant as there were no grounds for such a warrant. Rather, his six-month visa was cancelled without him being told so. From that moment, he didn't have permission to be in Australia, and was therefore arrested for not having a valid visa.
However, ASIO did notify the Department of Multiculturalism and Immigration Affairs that Parkin had been assessed to be a direct or indirect threat to national security, and it was this that triggered the cancellation of his 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.
Parkin was completely open about his views and political stance; he had issued a number of statements, appeared on SBS news and described himself to the Advertiser as a "protest organiser". During that interview, he said that the demonstration he had taken part in was aimed at KBR, a subsidiary of the US oil energy group Halliburton. Parkin said that these two companies "are essentially the poster children of war profiteering. They have more contracts than any other company in Iraq from the US government and they are making a lot of money from the exploitation of the death of Iraqis."
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".
The Greens' Bob Brown questioned whether Parkin's arrest has come on orders from Washington. "I think the big question here is whether it's a political arrest and deportation. It seems to have nothing to do with terrorism. The Howard government will do whatever Washington asks of it and I am very concerned the request for his arrest came in the wake of information from Washington ... because he's an
absolute thorn in the side of Dick Cheney, Halliburton and profit-making deals that apply in Iraq."
Labor opposition leader Kim Beazley initially hesitated, but after a special briefing from ASIO, endorsed the government's decision to deport Parkin.
Prominent human rights lawyer Julian Burnside QC, acting on Parkin's behalf, described his client's arrest and detention as political. Burnside said that if Parkin was a security threat, why wasn't that figured out before and, if not, what had happened to make him a security threat now? If it was a case of Parkin's opinions making him a security threat then "we are all in serious trouble", Burnside said.
The government must answer why protesting peacefully
is enough to justify deportation, said Burnside. "No Australian government should deport a person merely for their political beliefs." 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.
Federal Attorney General Phillip Ruddock denied that the US government had exerted any pressure.
In arresting Parkin, the government may have bitten off more than it can chew. Media attention has been extensive across Australia, with the story also being highlighted in newspapers in his home state of Texas, as well as on <www.Al-jazeera.net> on September 11.
The arrest and deportation were condemned by civil libertarians, lawyers and political commentators. Even the September 14 Australian editorialised against Parkin's arrest, saying that "Political activism is no excuse to use laws intended to keep Australia safe against a visitor who had done us no harm".
A Sydney Morning Herald online poll showed 82% of respondents thought Parkin shouldn't be deported.
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. Protesters held signs saying "Arrest me too!" and "Scott Parkin political prisoner" and had "ASIO" taped over their mouths.
According to the September 14 Australian, Parkin has now been placed on an international travel alert list, which will restrict his travel outside the US.
[Dale Mills was the primary researcher for Be Informed: ASIO and Anti-Terrorism Laws. More information on Australia's ASIO and terrorism laws can be found at and .]
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, September 21, 2005.
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