MP3 Interview with Pine Gap Four: Donna Mulhearn

MARCH 6, 2007: Ten minute MP3 Interview with Peace Activist, Donna Mulhearn - one of the Pine Gap Four – the protestors who got on to property at Pine Gap and are facing some years in jail as a result of their protest against a US military presence on Australian soil...

AUDIO HERE:
Donna+Mulhearn.mp3

PINE GAP SIX WEBSITE:
pinegap6.org/
Pine Gap: Pine Gap is a military spy base for the United States located 20 km outside Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. Pine Gap gathers military intelligence and uses a satellite tracking system to pinpoint targets in U.S. bombing raids on Iraq and Afghanistan. It is also the command centre for the 'Missile Defence System', an integral part of the US 'Star Wars' system enabling the US to dominate and control space.

At dawn on December 9, 2005 a ‘Citizen’s Inspection’ took place causing Pine Gap to shut down for five hours. Six hundred employees were denied access into the base and the employee’s cars queued up for several kilometres outside.

Two members of Christians Against ALL Terrorism, Jim Dowling from Daybora and Adele Goldie from Brisbane had entered the Pine Gap military base undetected and photographed themselves on the roof of a building before being arrested. Two other members of the group Donna Mulhearn from Sydney and Bryan Law from Cairns went undetected for an hour before being arrested cutting through the last inner fence.

The four had walked for several hours through desert terrain. Jessica Morrison from Melbourne and Sean O’Reilly from Brisbane held a peaceful vigil outside the front gates around six that morning. During the vigil Sean O’Reilly was arrested for hindering police. Sean was found not guilty in the Alice Springs Magistrates court.

Jim Dowling, Adele Goldie, Bryan Law and Donna Mulhearn have been charged under the Defence (Special Undertakings) Act 1952. The Act has not been used previously and carries a maximum jail sentence of 7 years, with an additional two years for taking photographs within the base. The four will be appearing in the Alice Springs Supreme Court; a trial date is soon to be set.

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Donna Mulhearn: From Sydney, Donna was a human shield during the war in Iraq in 2003. She later returned to Iraq under occupation as a humanitarian aid worker to set up a shelter for street kids in Baghdad and support refugee families. She is a former journalist and political adviser who is now an independent writer and speaker on non-violence, spirituality and politics. Her latest Middle East trip included her third visit to Iraq as well as four months in the West Bank of Palestine

Donna joined the action to inspect Pine Gap with first-hand experience of the damage the facility has done to innocent people. “While staff at Pine Gap pin-pointed missiles in Iraq, I experienced the impact of them,” she said. “They call it a military strike; I saw it as murder of civilians”.

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RTRFM:
rtrfm.com.au

BACKGROUND:

Five Arrested at Pine Gap spy base
http://perth.indymedia.org/?action=default&featureview=419

Alice Springs storms Pine Gap
http://perth.indymedia.org/?action=default&featureview=356

Peace Activists Arrested at Pine Gap
http://perth.indymedia.org/?action=default&featureview=290

Pine Gap 4 in Court Wed A19 Charged Under Previously Unused Law
http://perth.indymedia.org/?action=newswire&parentview=18199

The Pine Gap Six - Background
http://perth.indymedia.org/?action=newswire&parentview=17146

The Pine Gap 6 - Sean O’Reilly found not guilty
http://perth.indymedia.org/?action=newswire&parentview=17025

Pine Gap Activists Face Court
http://perth.indymedia.org/?action=newswire&parentview=16772

Citizens inspection team shuts down Pine Gap
http://perth.indymedia.org/?action=newswire&parentview=14982

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US military base to be built in Geraldton, WA
http://perth.indymedia.org/?action=default&featureview=473