OZ Catholic Workers to Resist Military Excercise & Af/Pak War
fightfirewithwater09 | 01.07.2009 12:37
Talisman Sabre 09
http://www.defence.gov.au/opEx/exercises/ts09/index.htm
is a biennial exercise that involves 20,000 U.S. & 7,000 Australian troops, fighter jets and warships, it is taking place in July in central Queensland, Australia.
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is a biennial exercise that involves 20,000 U.S. & 7,000 Australian troops, fighter jets and warships, it is taking place in July in central Queensland, Australia.
Australian complicity in the U.S. war on the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan includes the present deployment of 600 Australian (SAS, Special Ops and infantry) troops in Afghanistan, detention in Australia of Afghani refugees fleeing the war and daily targeting information for U.S. bombardment coming from the U.S. N.S.A Pine Gap near outback Alice Springs.
Long time Australian Catholic Worker peace activists Jim Dowling and Ciaron O'Reilly are preparing to travel to the Talisman Sabre exercises in central Queensland, Australia to carry out nonviolent resistance to the war machine they see killing again in Afghanistan.
O'Reilly and Dowling first met in custody in 1978 during the anti-nuclear/civil liberties struggles under the corrupt and authoritarian Joh Bjelkle Petersen Queensland government. By 1982 they were living and working at the Catholic Worker community in West End Brisbane and have since carried out nonviolent resistance together to nuclear war preparations, the war on East Timor and in the opening days of the war on Afghanistan.
Jim Dowling presently works and lives outside of Brisbane on the Peter Maurin Catholic Worker farm with his wife Anne and their seven children. He was one of the Christian Against All Terrorism group that broke into the secretive U.S. N.S.A. Pine Gap base near Alice Springs
http://www.pinegap6.org/blog2.html to carry out a citizen's inspection during the recent war on Iraq.
Ciaron O'Reilly spent a year in U.S. prisons as one of the ANZUS Ploughshares convicted of damaging a B52 Bomber in New York on the eve of George Bush Sr.'s war in 1991. O'Reilly was also part of the Pitstop Ploughshares arrested in Ireland in 2003 and charged with $2 1/2 million damage to another U.S. war plane en route to George Bush Jr.'s invasion of Iraq. The group was acquitted of all charges unanimously by an Irish jury in 2006.
O'Reilly stated, "Talisman Sabre is a $250 million exercise in futility. Talisman Sabre is not a game or an exercise it is a fantasy - a war theatre with no civilians! Most of those being killed by American, Australian and Pakistan militaries are innocent civilians, most fatalities have been women and children. The Af/Pak War is presently escalating and expanding. These Talisman Sabre exercises are siginificant preparations for more killing.
The Australian involvement in the war on Afghanistan is now eight years old. U.S. and Pakistani military involvement stretches back over 30 years, from arming and funding the Taliban to now attempting to destroy their own creation with an expanded war against the Pushtun people of northern Pakistan and southern Afghanistan. Ten Australian troops, hundreds of British and U.S. soldiers and thousands of Afghani civilians have been killed, millions of Afghanis and Pakistanis have been made homeless or forced to flee into exile.
Talisman Sabre occurs at a time of major escalation in the war under the Obama and Rudd administrations. The Australian military has a long history of running off to American wars in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan that have nothing to do with the defense of Australia. By killing more civilians, with the hi tech war machine on display at Talisman Sabre, we will be creating more terrorism and terrorists. It is important to put our bodies on the line in nonviolent resistance to this deadly cycle"
*Grana, 12, is the sole survivor of a coalition bombing in southern Helmand province that took her arm and her leg, and killed nine members of her family
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2009/jun/25/afghanistan
*Background on Jim Dowling
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Dowling
*Background on Ciaron O'Reilly
-Enough Rope interview with Andrew Denton
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/enoughrope/transcripts/s1666150.htm
-wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciaron_O'Reilly
Long time Australian Catholic Worker peace activists Jim Dowling and Ciaron O'Reilly are preparing to travel to the Talisman Sabre exercises in central Queensland, Australia to carry out nonviolent resistance to the war machine they see killing again in Afghanistan.
O'Reilly and Dowling first met in custody in 1978 during the anti-nuclear/civil liberties struggles under the corrupt and authoritarian Joh Bjelkle Petersen Queensland government. By 1982 they were living and working at the Catholic Worker community in West End Brisbane and have since carried out nonviolent resistance together to nuclear war preparations, the war on East Timor and in the opening days of the war on Afghanistan.
Jim Dowling presently works and lives outside of Brisbane on the Peter Maurin Catholic Worker farm with his wife Anne and their seven children. He was one of the Christian Against All Terrorism group that broke into the secretive U.S. N.S.A. Pine Gap base near Alice Springs
![](/img/extlink.gif)
Ciaron O'Reilly spent a year in U.S. prisons as one of the ANZUS Ploughshares convicted of damaging a B52 Bomber in New York on the eve of George Bush Sr.'s war in 1991. O'Reilly was also part of the Pitstop Ploughshares arrested in Ireland in 2003 and charged with $2 1/2 million damage to another U.S. war plane en route to George Bush Jr.'s invasion of Iraq. The group was acquitted of all charges unanimously by an Irish jury in 2006.
O'Reilly stated, "Talisman Sabre is a $250 million exercise in futility. Talisman Sabre is not a game or an exercise it is a fantasy - a war theatre with no civilians! Most of those being killed by American, Australian and Pakistan militaries are innocent civilians, most fatalities have been women and children. The Af/Pak War is presently escalating and expanding. These Talisman Sabre exercises are siginificant preparations for more killing.
The Australian involvement in the war on Afghanistan is now eight years old. U.S. and Pakistani military involvement stretches back over 30 years, from arming and funding the Taliban to now attempting to destroy their own creation with an expanded war against the Pushtun people of northern Pakistan and southern Afghanistan. Ten Australian troops, hundreds of British and U.S. soldiers and thousands of Afghani civilians have been killed, millions of Afghanis and Pakistanis have been made homeless or forced to flee into exile.
Talisman Sabre occurs at a time of major escalation in the war under the Obama and Rudd administrations. The Australian military has a long history of running off to American wars in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan that have nothing to do with the defense of Australia. By killing more civilians, with the hi tech war machine on display at Talisman Sabre, we will be creating more terrorism and terrorists. It is important to put our bodies on the line in nonviolent resistance to this deadly cycle"
*Grana, 12, is the sole survivor of a coalition bombing in southern Helmand province that took her arm and her leg, and killed nine members of her family
![](/img/extlink.gif)
*Background on Jim Dowling
![](/img/extlink.gif)
*Background on Ciaron O'Reilly
-Enough Rope interview with Andrew Denton
![](/img/extlink.gif)
-wikipedia
![](/img/extlink.gif)
fightfirewithwater09
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Member of Citizen's Inspection Team Arressted trying to Access U.S.S. Essex
01.07.2009 13:16
Cairns Post report and photos on Citizen's Inspection action
Cairns
Homepage:
http://www.cairns.com.au/article/2009/06/29/49335_local....html
unstoppable
01.07.2009 16:32
only justice brings peace
decomissioners
Homepage:
http://www.decommissioners.wordpress.com
J26 Report - Vigil at ANZAC Square, Brisbane
02.07.2009 03:37
(photo
ANZAC (Australia New Zealand Army Corp) Square embodies the creation myth of Australia with statues of soldiers who have served in farflung wars on rquest of British and American empires. There is little visible mention of the civilian dead.
The Square is centred on the creation myth of Gallipoli, rarely challenged, and the illusion that our security depends on service to empire. The Gallipoli creation myth has been hyped in the past decade by both Conservative and Labor governments to stimulate contemporary recruitment. Eric Bogle's "The Band Played Walting Matilda" remains a solid response. Here performed by The Pogues
We circled, placing our demands on the perimiter
-Bring Our Toops Home
-Resist Talisman Sabre Military Exercises
-War is Terror is War
We read some of the names of the dead of the AfPak war
* 5 Afghani children killed by Australian SAS
* Australian military killed in Afghanistan
* Other foreign military killed in Afghanistan
*Afghani civilian dead
We recalled military resisters presently in brigs and facing the courts for refusing to deploy and resisting the war www.coragetoresist.org
Gary (whose father aged 16 fought at the Battle of the Somme) gave an inspring speech about the horrors of war and the roots and the need to resist the escalating Af/Pak War. (Photo
Simon with his squeeze box concluded proceedings leading us in song.
On Saturday 4th. of July 9.30 a.m. to Amberley Air Force Base
for an "Independence (from America) Day" vigil.
The RAAF(Royal Australian Air Force) bombed Iraq, transport troops and military to Afghanistan and presently have
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Detachment and the Air Force Control and Reporting Centre (CRC) deployed in Afghanistan. The CRC have 70 personnel based at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan.
Ciaron
For updates through July check this site
03.07.2009 09:49
For updates....