Talisman Sabre 2007

A joint military exercise involving 7,500 Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel, 20,000 US troops, 125 aircraft and 30 ships, began at the military site, north of Rockhampton, on Monday the 18^th June. The pristine wilderness of Shoalwater Bay is being pounded with live aerial bombing, ship to shore naval firings, under water depth charges and land based artillery firings. Nuclear subs using high level sonar frequency and nuclear aircraft carriers participate in the fun and games from within the Great Barrier Reef marine national park.

The live munitions role playing at Shoalwater Bay runs simultaneously with US bombing runs by Stealth, B1 and B52 bombers from Guam to drop their live payload from 5 kilometres high on Delamere bombing range near Katherine NT. Abrams tanks also blast the country side against the wishes of the senior Aboriginal elders, at Bradshaw tank range, surrounded by Bradshaw national park south of Darwin.

The war games and their coordination in both states is beamed live via satellite from tiny cameras on the tanks, bombers, landing craft, etc to the coordinating War Room at Newcastle where the US and Australian generals call the shots of what is fired next.

It is reported that on Tuesday the 19th June, Shoalwater Bay:

Seven peace activists entered the military training area with the intention of remaining inside the base in order to stop the war games. One of the activists, 66 year old grandmother June Norman, decided to take this action saying that: "War is not a Game. I feel for the children of Iraq who are being killed by the actions of the US and our military. The military has upped the ante with these exercises so I have to up my own personal ante in opposing them on behalf of the children in Iraq". http://www.peaceconvergence.com/news/22

A second group of five people entered the base on the 20th and were detained by military police on the morning of the 21st June. A spokesman for this group had earlier stated that:

“We plan to enter the base to disrupt this military exercise with our presence. As followers of the non violent Jesus, we cannot stand by while our country plans the destruction of our brothers and sisters in other countries and the environment here at Shoalwater Bay.

We do not take these actions lightly, but with an awareness that the gravity of our actions pales in comparison to the crimes of the Australian and US militaries this week. The destruction of pristine wilderness, with unique and endangered wildlife is unacceptable, as is the increased reliance on violent methods of conflict resolution. We take these actions because all other legal attempts to stop the exercises have failed.”

The military have been and still are, maintaining that the first group that entered on Tuesday is a hoax. The live munitions’ blasting therefore remains unabated. It’s quite a convincing hoax, as one of the group; June Norman has been reported as missing inside the base by main stream media.

Spokesperson for protest action group the Peace Convergence, Kim Stewart, says, “The military are spending over $55 million a day on practicing to kill people, while unpaid volunteer State Emergency Service workers are doing the work of rescuing people in the NSW floods.”

Update 25/6/07

It is reported on 23rd June that the group of seven activists who entered the base on the 19th have declared themselves to the military. Split into two groups, one group appeared on an airstrip and the other on a main road.

The group are astounded at claims that June Norman, 66, was lost, maintaining that they were fully equipped and had mobile phone coverage at all times.

Through out the whole Talisman Sabre exercise, info in the media regarding protests has been obscure and more over, just totally absent. It is reported on some web sites, that on the 23rd June, 3 more protestors were arrested, and then another 11 arrests followed on 24th June. I have seen no television coverage of these events. In addition, usual satellite imagery services from various sources, which would ordinarily bring pictures of the area in question, have also been totally absent from public view over the time period of the exercise.

Related links

http://www.peaceconvergence.com/Resources/Guamarticle.pdf http://www.peaceconvergence.com/page/military