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Where the bloody hell are you?
"Where the bloody hell are you?" That's the question that a controversial Australian tourism commercial broadcast to the world in an effort to entice more overseas guests into visiting the land downunder.
But after Australia's domestic spy agency ASIO deemed US citizen Scott Parkin a threat to Australia's national security in September 2005, the answer could well have been "in a bloody jail cell".
As Scott's detention and forced removal sparked a storm of protest across Australia, Attorney-General Phillip Ruddock lowered a cone of silence on the Parkin affair, refusing to explain exactly what the avowedly nonviolent peace activist was supposed to have said or done.
Now, more then eighteen months later, and in the absence of any sensible explanation from the Australian Government, a group of Scott's Australian friends have prepared their own "security assessment". And unlike Scott's ASIO file, it's available to all and open to scrutiny.
Latest news
2 November, 2007: Activist welcomes ASIO court order
22 May, 2007: ASIO admits foreign influence in Parkin case
22 May, 2007: Australians risk jail to defend deported activist
4 April, 2006: Scott Parkin court challenge begins
16 March, 2006: AFP investigate Scott Parkin "leak"
23 January, 2006: Pentagon spied on Parkin
13 December, 2005: Parkin launches Federal Court challenge
6 December, 2005: ASIO report unfair: Parkin
31 October, 2005: Parkin was peaceful: ASIO
Scott Parkin is a grassroots environmental and peace activist from Texas. Originally from Dallas, Scott completed his Masters thesis in history on the origins of the Vietnam War.
Scott’s visit to Australia was to be the first leg of a long planned trip overseas. He planned to take in New Zealand and Vietnam before returning to his home town of Houston, Texas.
