P.O. Box 2 Lincoln College Canterbury NZ

December 1987 nO.16

incorporatin2

News!etter of Citizens for the Demilitarisation of Harewood �-----.--------------------------�

Decorating the fence outside the USAF-MAC buildings, Harewood action, October 18.

In This Issue: US Dirty Tricks in the Philippines - Parallels with New Zealand

Changing of the Guard at Christchurch USIS Office

Book Review: "The Book of Leaks"

Anti-Bases Campaign Discussed at National Peace Workshop

How to Stop a Starlifter

The Siege of Pine Gap

The Ultimate Shared Intol1igence: 30 Minutes to Oblivion

'Civilian' Hercules labelled as Navy

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U.S. DIRTY TRICKS IN THE PHILIPPINES � PARALLELS WI'm NEW ZEALAND

by Nuclear Pree Kiwis

During the last few years, Nuclear Free Kiwis have published articles in "Nuclear Free", "NZ Monthly Revisw" , "Peacelink", and "Peace Researcher". The theme of these articles has been the threat to NZ's nuclear freedom from American subversion. A recent report of a U.S.-Philippine fact-finding mission to the Philippines, May 20-30 this year, provides a graphic confirmation of the validity of our concern and work to date.

The report is titled "Right-Wing Vigilantes and U.S. Involvement", published by the Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates, July 1987. The authors are headed by highly respected, former U.8. Attorney-General, Mr Ramsey Clark. Another author is ex-CIA agent, Mr Ralph McGehee, who made a lecture tour to NZ in 1986. The remaining authors are also prominent leaders in the human rights movement. What the report reveals is a pattern of US action, both overt and covert, to set up death squad operations in the Philippines ('The star' cited the report on 26 May 19B7). These operations are modelled on those the US has engineered in Vietnam, Indonesia, El Salvador, Guatemala, and other countries. The objective is to eliminate leftist activists and their supporters.

From a NZ perspective, what is so striking about the report's contents are the parallels. between US operations in the Philippines for a specifically bloody purpose and US operations in NZ for a non-violent kind of subversion.

Articles by Nuclear Rree Kiwis have described a network of US agencies and activities in NZ. This network has involved, inter alia, 1) the United States Information Service (USIS), 2) a right-wing Anzus think-tank led by "ex"-CIA agent'. Ray Cline, with connections to the Moonies and the neo-fascist World Anti-Communist League (WACL), 3) CIA covert operations like the so-called Maor! Loans Affair, 4) various Moonie fronts, 5) the instigation of local pro-nuclear groups, 6) "red-scare" ploys, 7) the US National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and its backing for the Pacific Democratic Union and the NZ National Party, and 8) the US national labour union body (the AFL-CIO) and CIA-inspired union activity. What the Philippines fact-finding study reveals is a similar network in action but one which is unrestrained by the conventions and context of a developed Western country. In the Philippines, this US subversion programme is prepared to use the most ruthless means to achieve its ends.

To make the parallels between the NZ and the Philippines situations more meaningful, we shall cite below various examples of US activity described in the Ramsey Clark report. Quotes are from the report. NZ parallels are given where relevant.

Examples of US Activity

(a) On the island of Mindanao in Davao City, there has emerged a particularly vicious right-wing vigilant. group, the Alga Masa. The aim of Alsa Masa is to eliminate left-wing activists under the pretext of their being communists. In fact, most victims of Alsa Masa and other vigilante violence in the Philippines are "poor farmers, labourers. and slum dwellers struggling for a better 11fe". VI'

� The principal instigator of Alsa Masa in Davao City is US-trained Lt Col Franco CaUda. To quote the report, "More recently, he [CalidaJ has met frequently with William Parker of the USIS". In New Zealand the origins of certain pro-nuclear groups like the Plains Club and Collective Security have been linked to USIS-sponsored trips to the US by key group members.

CIA steps up its Philippine operations

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Pra!,:i.dent Reagan has '""sued a iiew. vigilante squads. Mission meml:iet' "findin9'; that will add. 12 ag�hts t(,. ·the 'lla1l'h McGahee, said that when ha was in. 115.-membar. CIA station in. Manila", reported Vil'tni$l!l with the CIA he workad with simii� tha Marc!> 23.Newswaak. It , «1S9 "",,:%""""""" lar groups callad "provincial racon-', thorised _cov�rt, actions naissance units" which; were- act�alJ.y; forea ovarflights of rahel araas. assassination taam sant to "puri-

'fy" villagas of allaged·conlmunists. Tha April 9 � Eastern !££:: Another mission participant, Black nomic Review confirmed the "rePort'� lawyer Garald Horna, commantad that adding that tha CIA would also ba"

"rainvigorating" tha Philippines the godfathar of tha original Alsa

vigilantes in Davao, Cole CA > saerat police. "does not make a move without

In 'May a human rights'mission' ,led by .=B",.i"l",l'---c:"-'==,,""" formar US Attornay-Ganaral" Ramsey Clark saw aviden"a tha CIA was involved with the

(b) On the island of Cebu, "The team also learned that the USIS had sponsored lectures on the 'evils of communism' and distributed literature of the same tenor to top ranking students In the area who were then encouraged to form associations to combat it. Material from CAUSA International (the political arm of Rev Moon's Unification Church), an extreme rightist group, is freely available from the USIS and similar literature is distributed through the USIS library. Representatives of student groups told the Team that these activities have been going on since 1984". As well, CAUSA was funding the activities of anti-communist agitators.

With regard to NZ the US National Security Council has instructed the USIS to "lead a government-wide public affairs strategy addreSSing [our nuclear free statusJ". ('The Press', 22 May 1986, p. 4)

(c) The Frederick Ebert Foundation, a German organisation rumoured to be a CIA front, had given $100,000 to a local radio station on Cebu. The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines, apparently CIA subverted according to the report, owns the station which was also receiving money from NED. The radio station, previously linked to Marcos, "has been whipping up waves of anti-communist hysteria".

The US has tried to subvert NZ unions through AFL/CIO (CIA) activity in the form of the Labour Committee on Pacific Affairs. (1)

(d) WACL was supporting anti-communist activists on Cebu. So was a closely related organisation, The World Christian Anti-Communist Crusade. The latter organisation was giving a lot of attention to the Philippines with its Vice-President, John Whitehall, frenetically scurrying between the islands and his US residence.

In NZ in recent years a number of National Party MP's have been involved in WACL. J

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� (e) On the island of Negros, one of the right-wing vigilante groups is called the Kristiano Kontra Kommunismo (Christians Against Communism). "It is one of many vigilante groups with a fanatic religious connection." The CIA and WACL did not need the US fundamentalist groups to teach them about the potential of politico-religious cults in the Third World.

In a different sort of setting and style, the Moonies and certain religious fundamentalist groups serve foreign-inspired reactionary ends in NZ.

Various Moonie fronts in NZ, like the Professors' World Peace Academy and CARP, have been at work. Yet another Moonie front organisation the 3lobal Economic Action Institute (' Covert Action', No. 27, Spring 1987 ), probing NZ for weak spots, received some publicity when it gave Sir Robert Muldoon an award. ("The Mo�n

. o:gani�a�ioIJ is skilled at using the prestige of

out-of-power polltlclans. CA , No. 27, p. 46) The Institute has known links to the CIA. Muldoon said that his association with the Institute went back as far as the change of NZ government in 1984 ('The Press', 17 Sept 1987). He had attended a number of the Institute's meetings.

(f) On Luzon, the Team found more vigilante groups emerging, the most nocable among them being the Citizens Against Communism, a group with ties to WACL. In Central Luzon, CAUSA has spearheaded "a virulent and intensive anti -communist propaganda campaign • • • "

"CAUSA'S activities since the early 1980's have paralleled US government operations in Central and South America, Southeast Asia and other parts of the Third World, suggesting covert US funding." One moderate Filipino presidential advisor expressed concern about CAUSA and said that he thought it was a CIA front.

(g) CAUSA and WACL are intimately interlinked and reflect the privatisation of US foreign policy - the involvement of private groups (as disclosed in Irangate) which carry out US dirty work overSeas. They evidently work hand in glove with the CIA, USIS, NED and similar agencies. In the Philippines they were actively engaged in supporting, propagandising and organising the anti-communist vigilante movement. CAUSA has recently joined the other Moonie fronts operating in NZ ( 'Wellington Confidential', No. 38, October 1987).

(h) A whole pattern of events in the Philippines was found to be typical of a major CIA programme. Evidence of direct CIA involvement came in various forms. "In a presidential finding of early 1987 President Reagan directed the CIA to conduct low intensity operations against the communist New People's Army." These operations were to include the creation of new political groups and disinformation/propaganda tactics. Infiltration and penetration of the leadership of leftist movements would be another obvious priority. Later in the year, Reagan authorised $10 million and 12 new agents for CIA covert operations in the Philippines. A filipino newspaper report stated that a CIA branch of 70 agents was recently established in Mindanao!

Further, it is very significant that "Ray Cline (a long-time CIA asset)" and leneral John Singlaub visited the Philippines and met together with former Filipino Defence Minister, Juan Ponce Enrile, and 3eneral Fidel Ramos, Chief of Staff, prior to the aborted November coup attempt in 1986.

Retired 3eneral Singlaub, " • • • who apparently serves in the capacity of CIA contract agent", is the US's leading organiser of death squad operations in the Third World. A member of a secret Pentagon committee on unconventional warfare, Singlaub has a long history of dedicated murderous activity. Once operations leader of the US' s Phoenix assassination programme in Vietnam, Singlaub has been prominent of late rW1ning arms to the contras, and now instigating death squads in the Philippines. Until recently, Singlaub was ../ chairman of WACL.

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I"" Ray Cline is at the centre of a spider web of CIA, WACL, Moonie and other extreme rightist organisations. He is an unabashed enthusiast for terrorism to roll back national liberation movements. He visited NZ in 1985 on a covert mission.

The contacts, activities, and movements of Singlaub in particular were evident to the investigating Team. "It was General Singlaub who suggested to the businessmen at gatherings during his visit to the Philippines that they organise into groups to oppose leftist tendencies." Singlaub was arranging for US Special Forces personnel to train Filipino soldiers in unconventional warfare techniques. He also visited people very close to Aquino such as her brother, Peping (sic, Clark report) Cojuangco, and speech writer, Teodoro Locsin.

(i) Crucial to the CIA programme were " • . • media and propaganda operations built around a cadre of recruited members of the target country media. Through the long-term build-up of an integrated media structure united with a network of agents-of-influence in the military. political, labour, academic, religious, cultural and social fabric of a country, the CIA initiates an entire series of operations designed to raise the level of anti-communism to a hysterical pitch". "The fact-finding Team found that many of the typical media operations are being implemented today in the Philippines."

The CIA concentrates on subverting the media in countries of primary operational interest. It is its major contribution to subversion. One of the media operations cited in the report concerns "stories of Russian ships depositing weapons at isolated beaches". Such a story suggestive of possible CIA input appeared in NZ in the form of a 'NZ Truth' story, 23 June 1937, which alleged Maori army rebels were smuggling guns to revolutionary gangs.

Summary and Conc14sions

In the Philippines, the Reagan Administration has the advantage of having key people in the Filipino government and military who are publicly, as well as secretly, prepared to support efforts to set up right-wing vigilante groups. One of Singlaub's contacts was apparently Filipino Defence Secretary, Rafael Heto, who confirmed to the fact-finding Team that "vigilante groups are tolerated and encouraged by the Department of National Defence as necessary to combat communism in that country". Various other sources also indicated that vigilantes have the enthusiastic endorsement, encouragement and support of the military high command.

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Human rights and cause-oriented groups are rapidly becoming prime targets of the Vigilantes and the military. The military has now accused 22 left-leaning church, labour and human-rights organisations of serving as fronts for the communist party ('The Press', 22 Nov. 1987). One of the accused organisations is the highly respected Catholic Task Force Detainees group on which Singlaub personally attempted a subterfuge in an effort to extract information. So-called civilian defence groups are being set up while death-squad activities are increasing,

To quote the fact-finding Team again, "At this moment in the Philippines, forces represented most graphically by a growing right-wing Vigilante movement�

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,...are bent on violently eliminating those who seek fundamental changes in an unjust social and economic order".

The tragedy of what is currently happening in the Philippines should motivate people to publicise US activity there and to actively support the cause of justice and Filipino human rights. The report, "Right-wing Vigilantes and US Involvement", points out that "Washington's policy towards Manila is establishing ties with right-wing military and vigilante networks to move the Philippines government to the right, or even overthrow it". Any democratic dissent is suspect and open to attack. Repeated coup threats and coup attempts serve the objective of coercive diplomacy. The centre-left forces which brought Aquino to power and which continue to agitate for labour rights and against economic exploitation and the presence of US bases, have to be destroyed. Aquino herself has publicly endorsed the NAKASAKA vigilante group.

On her visit to NZ earlier this year, international peace worker Dr Helen Caldicott told peace activists here in NZ that, "If you were in Central America now, many of you would be dead and Mr Lange would have been killed by

now" ('The Star', 3 August 1987). In the Philippines, the terror of the Marcos era is returning in an even worse form. Meanwhile. in the quite different situation of NZ, the US continues activities parallel to its operations in the Philippines, Central America, Fiji, and elsewhere. According to 'Covert Action' (No. 28, Summer 1987) New Zealand is one of the countries where a major CIA operation is currently underway. The style is different as circumstances dictate different tactics but the ultimate aim is to destroy the peace movement, at least in the Sense of political influence. We must never relax our vigilance if our anti-nuclear independence is to survive.

Note

(1) See compilation of press articles by Denis Freney, entitled "All the Way with the CIA? The Labour Committee for Pacific Affairs and the attack on the Pacific Trade Unions", 1984; available from PR/OB.

CHANGING OF THE GUARD AT CHRISTCHURCH USIS OFFICE

As readers of PR/OB will know, we have a USIS office in our midst here in Christchurch. It opened officially in January of 1986 with Patrick Linehan as its first public affairs officer. Mr Linehan's tour lasted less than two years. He left Christchurch for duty in Hokkaido, Japan, in July of this year. In the 'Star' (24 June 1987) he commented on life as a diplomat, "You work for a country you don't live in. You are in a country where you don't belong". That last statement certainly applies to his agency, but not, in the writer's opinion, to a chap as amiable as Patrick. He kept a very low profile and we're not sure just what his role here was. Librarian? Surely not the whole story.

Pat Linehan has been replaced by the even younger Karl Stolz. At 27 Mr Stolz is serving in his first diplomatic role. According to a press report, he said, "This is an ideal job. I get to travel, work with people, write, and do promotional work". But he probably won't be here much longer than Mr Linehan. He gets itchy feet after about two years in One place and ultimately wants to work in the Soviet Union. J

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� Is his job description accurate and complete? Perhaps it is for the backwater Christchurch posting. Linehan mentioned on leaving that his office had been picketed by protesters. And he said 'anti-American demonstrators' had discussed US policies with him. Apparently, any New Zealander, (or indeed, American) who criticises US policies is anti-American. If you're not for Reagan and his henchmen, you're anti-American; never mind what the bulk of Americans might think about US policies in Nicaragua, Fiji, Belau, 3renada, and southern Africa, to name but a few regions subjected to US covert and/or overt intervention.

The only other USIS office in New Zealand is in the American embassy in Wellington. It is not surprising that the USIS people there have a bit higher profile than those in Christchurch. The embassy public affairs officer, Mike 30uld, recently released for media and public consumption an 8-page paper entitled "Disinformation and the Fiji military coup". To quote "Wellington Pacific Report" (No. 5, Nov. 1987), "Rather than attempting to rebut allegations about US involvement in the coup, [the 30uld/USIS paper] attempts to smear them as Soviet-inspired. The document is extremely interesting for all the evidence it does not attempt to rebut, and can be taken as confirmation [of] much of the evidence for US involvement (e.g., that in 'Wellington Confidential", now reprinted in full in 'Lobster", No. 14)." **

In addition to maintaining an operational base in New Zealand via its two offices, the USIS actively promotes the US image and policies through its International Visitor Grant Program. This is part of a "vigorous campaign to overturn New Zealand's nuclear free policy" (see "NZ Monthly Review', No. 295, February 1987, p. 12). In that article NFK published a list of New Zealanders who had traveled to the US under USIS sponsorship (Mr Linehan refused a request for that list; it was obtained from the USIA in Washington), Reaching influential members of the local media is one of the current key goals of this programme.

The Christchurch office of the USIS in its first one year-plus of operation has refrained from public controversy (except for one comical exchange with 'Canta', see PR No. 15). A number of American speakers have been sponsored by the USIS to speak on topics ranging from Antarctica to foreign policy. Local groups have picketed the USIS from time to time, and will probably continue to do so. The agency is not simply tne innocent source of information about good-friend America that it purports to be. The USIS is here for a reason and it appears to be largely because of continuing protest about the American military presence at Operation Deep Freeze.

Like the Harewood military base, the USIS in Christchurch, in addition to its information and publicity activities, is a contingency asset'; it is an arm of the US embassy ready for action to influence New Zealanders, either overtly or covertly, whenever American hegemony is threatened in this remote part of the world (also see Philippines article by NFK in this issue) •

•• Copies of the cited WPR and WC are available to PR/OB subscribers for $1.00 each to cover copy and postage costs.

8 "THE BOOK OF LEAKS"

"Exposes in Defence of the Public's Right to Know"

by Brian Toohey and Marian Wilkinson, Angus & Robertson, 268 pp.

reviewed by Murray Horton

Toohey and Wilkinson are two of Australia's top investigative journalists. Both have worked for that gem of the Fairfax crown, 'The National Times' (now 'The Times on Sunday'), Indeed, Toohey was its editor. He now edits a small satirical magazine, 'The Eye', and recently caused a furore in NZ with a throwaway line in the lengthy 'Listener' article stating that Hayden and Hawke study intercepted NZ diplomatic cables for evidence of Lange's foibles.

The seven chapter headings and subheadings of this book succinctly sum it up: "The BogIe-Chandler mystery, Does the FBI know what happened?", "The Loans Affair. Was the Labor Party set up?", "The 1975 Dismissal. Was Whitlam a security riSk?", The Intelligence Services. A law unto themselves?", "The Timor Papers. Did Australia condone the invasion?", The Nugan Hand Swindle. A CIA 'dirty tricks' operation?", "The Defence Strategies. Fraser or Hawke?".

The BogIe-Chandler murder mystery chapter is the most fascinating in a'c

individual sense, but also the weakest and most unconnected one. Most of the rest form a seamless pattern. Several were happening simultaneously. The loans affair (s) led to the Whitlam dismissal in '75, the same year Indonesia invaded East Timor, with Whitlam's tacit approval (and overt US support). I

lived in Sydney in 1975-76 and this brought back to me what a hectic year it was, not only in Australia but worldwide - the final liberation of Vietnam, the superpowers' proxy war in Angola.

Not surprisingly, most of the exposes involve security agencies, domestic and international. Australia crawls with spies. The NSA monitored Labor government communications to tip off the Tories about the highly irregular loans negotiations; Australian and American agencies were deeply disturbed by Whitlam starting to lift the veil off Pine Gap; the existence of ASIS was kept top secret for many, many years; Nugan Hand (which included Mr Asia amongst its select clientele) was run as a money laundering operation and financial front for the CIA;

The leaks have come right from the top: tapes of personal phone calls by Whitlam's Treasury Secretary, alerting fellow senior bureaucrats of the loans fiasco; daily CIA briefings for President Ford, proving that Indonesia was actively intervening in East Timor months before its outright invasion, and that the US knew and approved.

It has material relevant to NZ. Whitlam, without fanfare, wouldn't allow any US nuclear warships into Australia during his term. The Americans were thoroughly alarmed, but didn't behave in the same public and counter-productive way as they have towards Lange. They just made sure they got rid of Whitlam.

(Incidentally, the book lists one individual called Dunning Idle. Somebody with that name could only be a CIA agent.)

This book is a fascinating revelation about the secret elites who manipulate, ignore or actively oppose elected governments. It's also about governments who deceive and destabilise other governments, and governments who lie to their own people. It doesn't tell uS anything we don"t already know. But it proves it.

Newsletter of Citizens for the Demilitarisation of Harewood. p.a. Sox 2258, Chri'tchurch, New Zealand

ANTI-BASES CAMPAIGN DISCUSSED AT NATIONAL PEACE WORKSHOP

The National Peace Workshop this year was held at Curious Cove in the magnificent Marlborough Sounds. An anti-bases campaign workshop was held on

the first day. Attendance and enthusiasm were good and over 2:) signed 2 Ii.i.,t

wanting to be involved in some way with further work on the campaign.

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The workshop was led off by Owen Wilkes of Peace Movement Aotearo2 and Bob Leonard of CDH. The three existing bases (Harewood, Black Birch and Tangimoan;:::-:.) were described in some detail and a number of questions ar:G. iE;:,:ue�:',

were discu�;8ed amongst the participants. Jenny Easton facilitated thE; lat',ter part of the meeting as we got down to the hard part: what to do about the bases. There was a CO::lsensUS that Aotearoa/New Zealand should not be hosting them. But the wider peace movement� let alone the general publiC, simply does not grasp the significance of the bases to our nuclear free status and independence from US nuclearism�

No firm plan of action was deci.ded upon at the workshop, but a brainstorming �Jession produced a long list of pOfJsible tasks and actions that could be undertaken locaLLy or nationally. The national campaign was kicked off in October at the demonstration at Harewood. Such actions will continue at the bases in 1938.

Education is another urgent need" It can be accomplished in part by the production of leaflets, videos, and articles for broad distribution to and by the grass roots peace groups. Bases do not engender the strong feelings that warships invading our harbours do. This is part of the problem we face. The base�::; may be just as important as the ship visits but the issues ar8 more complex and often technical� They don�t involve nuclear weapons directl:r sc:, people miss the connection between the bases and the insidious nuclear war-fighting strategies dominating the US global view.

Who will do the work of the anti-bases campaign? If it is to suc,�:e�d the' campaign will require the same broad cor.lmittment as the ships issue. iJlle fJ.ce a Labour government that has gone about as far as it thinks it can given the pressures it faces from i ts � friends'" CDH has agreed to play a c.:�ordinating role in the south island and to help people in the north to find a group ,'" �

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�centre to do likewise up there. Of course, there is PMA in Wellington, but running such a campaign is not in their brief. Their assistance is assured, of course. PMA researchers do the bulk of the detailed research work that is central to our understanding of the bases. We hope that the Manuatu Peace Movement will want to play a role given their proximity to Tangimoana.

As a footnote, it is important to recognise that the bases issue is not static - we face yet another one to be built in the Marlborough region in 1999-89. It will be a satellite snooping station in the Waihopai Valley not far from Blenheim. In the fond tradition of past NZ governments, the station is shrouded in secrecy by the Prime Minister. But the indefatigable Owen Wilkes has managed to produce a challenging paper which gives excellent insight into the likely capabilities and uses of the Waihopai facility. A copy can be obtained from CDH, or from PMA.

If you are concerned about the continuing foreign military and intelligence presence in NZ, despite our nuclear free policy, please let uS know of your interest. We can send you literature on the bases and keep you informed as to what you and your group can do as the campaign develops.

HOW TO STCP A STARLIFTER - HOLD A DEMO (OR THREE)

CDH organised a march, demonstration and encampment to coincide with large and well-planned ' Close Pine Gap' actions in Australia along the route of the weekly Pine Gap Starlifter (Richmond near Sydney, and Alice Springs). A major purpose was to protest, yet again, the regular Sunday Channel flight of a Starlifter on its way to Pine Gap in service to the C.I.A. Our protest drew 75 supporters. At Richmond RAAF Base near Sydney there were 300, at Alice Springs 700. It was sufficient in our view to cause the U.S. Air Force to reschedule or perhaps even cancel the flight (Alice Springs Peace Jroup tells us the flight arrived on the Wednesday, two days late).

We didn't draw the numbers they did in Aussie but we got excellent radio and newspaper coverage. The Australian actions were big, colourful, well-organised, and very newsworthy. Hundreds were arrested at Pine Jap, including Senator Jo Vallentine, for violating a security area (see article by Murray Horton for·details elsewhere in this issue). Our action did not involve civil disobedience but it was a big success.

On Sunday morning, October 18, a few early risers gathered in the Square with banners and placards (we were outnumbered by the latter and had to stow a few). It was a beautiful morning and a shame so many of the faithful missed a magnificent march to the airport. At just after 10 am we set off in our single digit numbers for Hagley Park and across to Fendelton Road which magically changes into Memorial Ave. As we approached the airport Our numbers swelled into double digits including Owen Wilkes for the last 200 metres. Owen told us we were late and, noting that numbers were not all that great as yet, suggested that peace people were not feeling the appropriate sense of outrage toward "a country which bombs Tripoli, invades Grenada, threatens Nicaragua, arms Iran, nuclearises Belau, militarises space, supports French testing, opposes the Rarotonga Treaty. refuses to Sign the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and doesn't want a comprehensive nuclear test ban" (Have you guessed the country?).

It was our intent to greet the Sunday Starlifter from a vantage point along the fence near the new Customs quarters. While we waited for the imminent arrival in a cool Nor'easter, various speakers provided information on Operation Deep Freeze and the military, the international anti-bases campaign, and the current situation in the Philippines, in Central America, �

,.... and in Australia. The ,

sta�lif�er • still had not arrived and we began to suspect that it wouldn t (�t dldn t until Tuesday).

So we moved our centre of action to the long fence beside the Naval hangar and USAF MAC buildings in Orchard Road. CDH had brought along bags of colourful rags and ribbons with which to festoon the ugly gray fence. This kept the protestors busy for well over an hour, resulting in AOTEAROA 'ANTI-BASES CAMPAIGN 1987-1988' woven and knotted along about 50 metres of fence in letters two metres high. Our presence apparently was not threatening to either the military or the police. The latter kept a very low profile. US Naval personnel kept a bemused watch from near the buildings, coming out later to ponder the meaning of Aotearoa.

When a few of uS entered the gate and were allowed into Naval offices to ask a question, we were politely told that the Navy knew nothing about Air "orce flights - i.e., the Starlifter was not their concern. It is widely

known that the various US services don't get on too well (they're very competitive, particularly over things like who has the biggest missiles), but in this instance it is somewhat revealing. If the Starlifter were on significant Deep Freeze business, it would seem likely that the Navy would know about it. A service run to the CIA at Pine Gap would not concern the Navy.

Getting back to the fence, another notable decoration was an artistically rendered MAC checK-in counter complete with surly officer ready to process passengers for the Ice, or Pine Gap. depending On your business with the versatile US Air Force. One large arrow pointed up, the other down, representing roughly the great divergence of Starli.fter destinations from Christchurch.

We then held the great frozen "Credible Duck" raffle, first prize being an edible version of the "Credible Dove" cargoes carried by the Starlifters to Pine Gap. The duck was won by Elsie Locke. The dove bit is a code name for the upgrading of the spy base at Pine Gap. a process that is still continuing with the addition of yet more radomes.

Our encampment followed the main event. A small contingent erected a large marquee tent in a paddock overlooking Deep Freeze. There was a Starlifter there but it had arrived days before and was destined for the Ice in the service of science. There were also 5 ski-Hercules on the tarmac. We spent the night - some sleeping soundly, some fretting a bit over the intentions of horn-honking yahoos who seemed terribly agitated over our presence.

By 9am we and our tent and our porta-loo were gone. We were well satisfied, along with our Australian cohorts. It had been a successful exercise in solidarity across the Tasman. Thanks to the interested media the issues were raised before the public yet again - as they will be again and again and again '"

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THE SIEGE OF' PINE GAP

(Selected excerpts from a report) by Murray Horton

In July/August 1986 I spent 6 weeks travelling Australia by rail, meeting peace activists in every state and territory except WA and Tasmania. The definite highpoint for me was the week I spent with the Alice Springs Peace Group. They were the best organised, most imaginative group I'd met in a long time.

At that stage the ASPG was building up to the start of its 12-month-Iong campaign against Pine Gap (CDH expressed its s�lidarity with its October '86 Spies' Picnic at Harewood). I resolved then to get back to Alice for the October '87 climax, a national (and international) demonstration outside, AND INSIDE, the CIA's biggest and most important electronic spybase outside of the US.

So I fully intended to go as an individual. The situation changed however when first Owen Wilkes and then Bob Leonard had to decline the invitation to become the featured New Zealand speaker at the "Australia Beyond The Bases" forum that was part of the weeklong activities in Alice. I then became the New Zealand speaker.

I was not the only New Zealander there; Nerissa Te Patu and Marie Laufiso of Te Whanau A Matariki (Dunedin) were there to take part in the Pacific indigenous peoples' session of the forum, and to foster links with indigenous groups, both in Australia and around the Pacific. But I was the only representa ti ve of the "pakeha peace movement" (their words). Another New Zealand resident who made a big sPlash in Alice was Jone Dakuvula of Wellington, representing the Coalition for the Restoration of Democracy in F'iji. He got a lot of well deserved media coverage locally, nationally and internationally.

"Australia Beyond The Bases" was held over two consecutive nights. In the first session on and by indigenous peoples, several speakers presented comprehensive accounts of the struggles in their countries against US imperialism, French colonialism, Indonesian genocide, reactionary groups, and all pervasive European racism. It adds up to a devastation of indigenous peoples throughout the Pacific.

I took part in the second session, which examined defence alternaives for Australia. This was chaired by Senator Jo Vallentine, the Independent anti-nuclear senator for WA (both sessions were introduced by Brian Doolan, spokesperson for both the ASPG and the Australian Anti-Bases Campaign Coalition). My fellow speakers were Margaret Clark from Canberra Richard Tanter of Melbourne's Monash University, and Nancy Shelley of Canberra.

I had the unenviable job of speaking first and warming up the crowd. They seemed quite warm by the time r 'd finished. My paper was entitled 'The View from Aotearoa·. It dispelled the myth that we are nuclear free detailing the continued existence of objectionable military faciliti�s at Harewood, Black Birch and Tangimoana. It filled in the history of how Lange was forced to adhere to his anti-nuclear policy by the peace movement. And it canvassed arguments for and against nuclear free Aotearoa having any form of military alliance or relationship with an Australia that is a staunch member of ANZUS and a most loyal satellite of every aspect of US nuclear strategy. �

;r It was heartening to receive loud applause when I stated that Aotearoa is nuclear free and out of ANZUS. I called for Australians to help uS finish the job, and for us to help them fight the much bigger and much more entrenched US military and intelligence presence in their country.

The audience (several hundred attended each session) appreciated some humour, and people were surprised to learn that my speech was on behalf of two groups (CAFCA/CDH) and had been cleared, line by line, by special CDH meetings. (For a copy of the complete, sanitised speech send your address and $2 to Box 2258, Christchurch, to cover photocopying and postage.]

But the forum was only one of the activities in an action packed week (October 13-20). There were workshops on every day, all day, for the first part of the week on such topics as Kanaky, Fiji, the Philippines, cross-cultural awareness, non-violent direct action training, and legal briefings (Pine Gap is protected by all sorts of very draconian laws).

One whole day was set aside for a meeting of delegates to the Australian Anti Bases Campaign Coalition. The giant US communications base at North West Cape will be the focus of attention in 'S8 as its lease is up for renewal next year. There will also be a national protest in Sydney in October ' S8 . As part of the vastly overblown Australian Bicentennial celebrations, the US Navy is sending 74 warships Simultaneously into Sydney Harbour that month. So the AABCC is organising a national protest under the slogan "No Tall Ships! No Warships!" (the former being the reenactment of the First Fleet - of convicts) •

One particularly positive result of the AABCC meeting was an agreement to establish a regional committee to run a regional campaign against US bases, and to put money towards this. There are 3 countries involved - Australia, New Zealand, and the Philippines. Australia will assist US and send delegates to our planned actions at Harewood, Black Birch, and Tangimoana. I am the New Zealand representative. The Philippines' anti-bases campaign plans major actions at both Clark Air Force Base and Subic Bay Naval Base in December 38.

They want Australians and New Zealanders to take part.

Overall coordinator is Joy Balazo of the Philippine Resource Centre in Melbourne.

What happened at the Pine Gap action?

The organisational skills of the Alice Springs Peace Group were superb. Several hundred people came from all over Australia, some in chartered luxury coaches, some in private buses, vans, trucks and cars. They all stayed at the Heavy tree �ap caravan park, where the AABCC established its campaign office. There was a rich and diverse gathering of people - Helen Caldicott in her white hat and pearls, Nancy'Shelley in her pith helmet and white gloves, David Bradbury the filmmaker ("Chile. Hasta Cuando"), Mum Shirl from Redfern who regaled uS with tales of her multitudes of adopted children, innumerable grandkids and great grandkids. There were greatly disparate types of people -the union delegates in shorts and tanktops, the Christians dressed as cockroaches (the only lifeform to survive nuclear war), the Nimbin hippies, the Sydney punks a group of women who identified themselves in a paintup of ,

" the road to the base as "feral lesbians . Not to mention the various

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political groupings, including several rival communist parties, which all gO� on.

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� It was interesting that in a town where Pine Gap is the biggest employer, there was no organised opposition to the protestors, no perceptible hostility.

But very few locals took part (apart from ASPG stalwarts). It was very much an out-of-town affair.

The ASPG organised superb media coverage. The demo received extensive written and pictorial cover in all major Australian papers and was a lead item on ABC national TV and radio news. There was also heavy coverage on commercial TV networks.

October 18 and 19 were the days of actual protest and they were exhaustively planned. Affinity groups were formed; people had to discuss and decide on whether to get arrested or not, to hammer out a coherent plan of attack. Then the mass meeting recovened to reach a consensus: it was to enter the base. Por two days the CIA/National Security Agency ground the place to a halt. No worker 's buses in or out, no cars at all in or out. On the 19th some of us went to Alice's civilian airport to greet the weekly USAF MAC Starlifter from Harewood via RAAF Richmond. It never arrived at any of those airports; at Alice we were told it was delayed "because there's trouble in town". Someone had gone to the trouble of painting anti-Pine Gap slogans on the runway.

Earlier in the week 9 people were arrested for trying to stop one of the buses entering the base. The bus initially refused to stop, and pushed the protestors along the ground. They face the quaintly worded charge of "failing to cease to loiter". Another protest was aimed at the Mayor and her public pro-US policy, and at the council which recently decided that if notified of an imminent Soviet missile strike, they'd doorknock the town to suggest people might like to run very fast (believe it or not that's their policy).

Obviously, the main focus was the base, outSide and in. Invaders began early and were numerous. Seven got up to the inner security fence around the radomes and superglued themselves to the fence. This superglue business was to exercise a powerful fascination over the media. One group interviewed by a commercial TV network was asked if each protestor carried a tube of the stufc' for sticking themselves to things. Imagine what a coup it would be to glue yourself to a CIA agent. Two people did scale the surveillance camera tower just inside the main gate and very publicly glued themselves to it. The cops had to use acetone to disconnect them.

The two official days of mass protest action were a triumph. Hundreds of people took part each day (remember Pine Gap is thousands of km from the nearest large city in any direction). Each day began with a short march to the main gate, with a great variety of colourful banners, flags, constant mUSic, speeches, street theatre, and reading of the Nuremberg Principles. Everyone took photos in violation of laws providing 7 years gaol for anyone filming in the vicinity.

The cops were obviously under orders to behave themselves. They'd got heavy with the '83 women's camp and earned opprobrium. So they didn't try to defend the outer fence from the outside, only arresting people on the outside if they were actually cutting it with hacksaws or boltcutters. There was no thuggery. People were bailed quickly, with no conditions attached to bail. So some people were arrested more than once. Apparently the cops even gave fruit to those arrested.

People weren't deterred by draconian laws, high fences, barbed wire or masses of heavies - Northern Territory cops, Federal police, and the J

TAustralian Protective Services (the special body that guards the US bases). They went straight over the fence, cut through the gate, cut the barbed wire. Some made a run for it, some made it into the cover of scrub, others simply walked up to the nearest cop. One woman chained herself to the fence. By October 20, the number arrested had reached 213.

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Those arrested could not be labelled the extremists. Somewhere between a third and a half the total number of protestors were arrested. Most of the ASPG leaders jumped the fence (I suspect to get a few hours peace from meetings and phones). Or Bill Williams of Victoria, was arrested in a blaze of media coverage, trying to hand over a petition on behalf of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. The police were mortified at having to arrest 13 grandparents or great-grandparents. The highest profile arrest was that of Senator Jo Vallentine. Indeed her arrest kicked off the mass actions.

It was the mass arrests that captured the lavish media coverage. But there was no violence, from either side. It did not get sidetracked into a law and order issue. The week was a great success, as indeed was the whole campaign. The Australian anti-bases movement is going from strength to strength. We can learn a lot from them.

THE ULTIMATE SHARED INTELLIGENCE: 3D MINUTES TO OBLIVION

After years of federal politicians lying to the Australian people about the true functions of US bases, the Hawke government now admits that Australia is a nuclear target because it hosts strategic U.S. facilities that are essential to nuclear war fighting. So if deterrence fails and the missiles start flying, how much time will the Australian government have to prepare to pay the price of alliance with the US? 3D minutes warning is the time reported by the Reuter news agency in Sydney ('The Press', 21 April 1987).

Richard Armitage, US Assistant Secretary of Defanse for internal Security Affairs, could not confirm that the US had agreed to share nuclear early-warning information with Australia in a formal system link. But he thought there was nothing new in the report because he would expect complete information would be given to an ally, and perhaps even some similar information to New Zealand. We lost formal ALLY status recently on passage of the Broomfield bill in the US Congress.

Armitage displayed some fancy verbal footwork in trying to explain why NZ was no longer an ally, while Israel, caught red-handed spying on the US, " • • • was deserving of the status of a major non-NATO ally". NZ has 'torn the fabric of the western alliance' and thus we may not share in the 3D-minutes notice of an ICBM attack on Australia. Perhaps we'll notice the fallout.

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CIVILIAN' HERCULES LABELLED AS NAVY

We ask you - Why are transport aircraft which are owned by a civilian science agency given prominent military labels?

During our overnight encampment in October there were five National Science Foundation ski-Hercules parked on the tarmac at Deep Freeze. We happened to notice that some of them said ' U.S. Navy' in letters somewhat smaller than 'UNITED STATES OF AMERICA' boldly painted above. The labelling actually seemed to be only partially complete. It was as follows:

Hercules No. 01 : ' USA, VXE 6' No. 02 : ' USA, VXE 6. U.8. Navy No. 03: ' USA, VXE 6. U.S. Navy No. 04: 'USA, U.8. Navy

,

No. 05: ' USA, VXE 6, U.S. Navy ,

Many months ago when CDH asked the National Science Foundation (NSF) about the labelling of the Hercules, we were told the fuselage label was simply 'United States of America'. Our study of title to the aircraft (see 'Peace Researcher' No. 10, 1986) revealed that the planes are indeed owned by the NSF. So why the Navy labels?

We wrote the NSF representative at Deep Freeze about it recently. He replied, "Close to the front door of the aircraft is a marking which states that the aircraft are owned by the National Science Foundation, and operated for them by the U.S. Navy". This label is so small that it takes binoculars to read it from any distance. It must be intended primarily to inform boarding scientists and other civilian personnel.

We wrote back, "It is curious that the principal and only obvious labelling of the fuselage is U.S. Navy • • • , not NSF. It would seem quite logical for the Foundation to want the general public to associate these unique aircraft with its highly laudible Antarctic programme". We've had no further response.

ZlGGY

... CONGRATULA'T7CJNS MR. PRESIf?ENi·! 'Iou J./AVr; JUSTSUCC6SSFVU}r' .

LAUNCHED A Pf<E-EMPTlVC" . FIf<ST-Sf7:<IK£ A6AINST . ANfARCT/CA!

. ....

tJ

'Peace Researcher' P.O. Box 2

published by Educate for Nuclear Disarmament (E.N.D.) Christ church Lincoln College

Canterbury New Zealand