What happened?

Liberty gagged? Scott's detention sparked protests all around Australia.

Scott Parkin's visit to Australia was to be the first leg of a long-planned overseas trip. He planned to take in New Zealand and Vietnam before returning to his home town of Houston, Texas, where he taught history part-time at a community college.

Scott's dream was to travel to South-East Asia. A passionate student and teacher of American history, his interest in this part of the world was sparked while writing his Masters thesis on the origins of the Vietnam War.

High on his travel agenda, like any backpacker, were snorkling, learning to surf and making new friends. And, as someone deeply committed to working for peace in his own community, it was only natural that he would make friends with Australians who shared his passion for nonviolent social change.

Scott signed up for the Willing Workers On Organic Farms program, working for room and board on several organic farms. And while travelling down the east coast of Australia, Scott shared his experiences as a peace activist, speaking at the Brisbane and Sydney Social Forums and teaming up with local nonviolence trainers to organise workshops on peaceful protest techniques, or "nonviolent direct action".

He also participated in a protest in Sydney during the Forbes Global CEO conference, organising a piece of street theatre outside the Australian headquarters of Kellog Brown and Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton. Halliburton is the giant oil services company with the bulk of the contracts to rebuild Iraq, and was the focus of Scott's anti-war activism in Houston.

Assuming satirical guise as "The Coalition of the Billing", Scott and his friends dressed in business suits, held banners reading "More Blood for Oil" and chanted "Four more wars!" to passers-by.

Next: ASIO calling >

> Listen to Scott tell his story