At the closely guarded and secretive military facility, Pine Gap in Australia’s Northern Territory, police arrest six nonviolent activists: Paul Christie, Franz Dowling, Jim Dowling, Andy Paine, Margaret Pestorius and Tim Webb. Their crime – to step through a fence, lamenting and praying for the dead of war. They call themselves Peace Pilgrims. The Crown calls them a threat to national security and demands gaol time. Their political trials, under harsh Cold War legislation, tell a story of obsessive Australian secrecy about the American military presence on our soil and the state’s hardline response to dissent. In Peace Crimes, Alice Springs journalist Kieran Finnane gives a gripping account of what prompts the Pilgrims to risk so much, interweaving local events and their legal aftermath with this century’s disturbing themes of international conflict and high-tech war. She asks, what responsibilities do we have as Australians for the covert military operations of Pine Gap and what are we going to do about them?
ix, 283 pages : portrait, map ; 23 cm #120322
Pacifists — Australia. | Political activists — Australia. | Intelligence service — Northern Territory. | Secret service — Northern Territory. | National security — Australia. | Military surveillance — Northern Territory — History. | Intelligence service — Australia — History. | Military bases, American — Northern Territory — History. | Military surveillance — Australia. | Cold War — Australia — History. | Military bases, American — Australia — Pine Gap (N.T.) | Peace movements — Australia — Pine Gap (N.T.) | Politics & government. | Australia — Politics and government. | Northern Territory — History. | Pine Gap (N.T.) — History. | Joint Defence Space Research Facility (Pine Gap, N.T.) | Australia — Military relations — United States. | United States — Military relations — Australia. | Australian