After this week's revelations that the Pentagon, on behalf of Halliburton, has been spying on a US protest organiser "in the national interest"  I would like to know, as an Australian Halliburton "activist",  how much the Australian Government has been spying on me.

I would also like to know how our Government can continue to rely upon, in matters of national security and international invasion, an intelligence system that can make such a stupid mistake.

Every "conspiracy theorist" looks in shadows for faces but perhaps some have greater cause for concern than others.  Looking at what's happenned to Parkin I reckon that I qualify for an extra dose of paranoia.

Scott Parkin has assisted orchestrating, from public ground, events that draw media attention to the ethically questionable and financially corrupt activities of a company  installed in its "pole position"  by the Vice President of the United States. 

The U.S. Army kept files on the fact that he handed out peanut butter sandwiches in front of a Halliburton office.  The Australian Government arrested and deported Parkin because the US Army had files on him.  Does this mean that Parkin was kicked out of Australia for serving sandwiches in Texas?     Sadly the answer is most likely "yes".   Our Prime Minister says he won't be allowed to return.

Parkin's legal efforts to retrieve information pertaining to his deportation resume in a fortnight.   Will the Australian Government continue to protect the internationally sensitive information, or confess that they accepted the word of the US Army without opening the manilla folder for a read?  Will our spy network confess that it "leaked" false information to journalist to protect the "Peanut Butter Files"

Aside: a couple of thing not in Newsweek

Newsweek did not comment on Parkin's deportation, or make
any assumption that the Australian Government used the fact that the US
Army had a file on him as the reason for deporting him.  They don't say
that the Howard cabinet was so eager to please the Bush White House by
kicking out a Halliburton protester that they might have, being aware
that such a file existed, not bothered to check what was in it. 

Newsweek doesn't
say that if ASIO had tried to protect non-existant information by
leaking a lie then they would be perceived as extremely incompetent by
the international intelligence community.

Newsweek also
doesn't say that if Kim Beazley was briefed that the US Army had a file
on Parkin as a possible terrorist, but didn't ask about the currency
and accuracy of the information, he would also appear to be a twit.

On the same Houston Indymedia that the US Army were monitoring appears the name of a certain Australian from time to time.. he's even currently linked their from the front page of international watchdog Halliburton Watch's website.  He has been shown on Australian national television putting up placards on KBR land (while standing on the public  footpath)  and his blogs and emails have been read by state and national politicians of many political persuasions.  His postings have been creating ripples of concern in Australia for two years now, and he shows no signs of stopping.

Who is recording my activities?  When I walk with my daughter to school is there a car in the street recording the event?  Are phone calls to my friends and family monitored.  When those military base files were found in a bin very close to my house, was this to serve as possible grounds for my arrest? Do my emails go through a computer in Canberra?   These questions may have been laughable a week ago, but look what they've done to Scott !  

If ASIO have been protecting those files then they've surely got a good one on me.  After, during the Rumsfeld protests, helping hang the No War banner on the pillars of Adelaide's Parliament House I'll have one in America too.  However, I can't be arrested and deported. 

If somebody wanted to bring me in for questioning it probably wouldn't be hard to find a reason.  When my family, friends and supporters ask the Government why, will the Prime Minister, the Attorney General, the Foreign Minister and the Defence Minster say that the fact that the Americans have a file on me was sufficient grounds to put me into a Detention Centre?

In using the files that Newsweek has uncovered, the integrity and reliability of Australia's intelligence system, and our politicians' unswerving response to its information, have been shattered.  If ASIO can be so wrong about something so simple, how can they be trusted in evaluating more complex matters. such as the status quo if international terrorism in Australia?  On the merits of their conduct in the Parkin Incident, it can be perceived that ASIO are a conduit for the US Government to manipulate the Australian political system, dispensing disinformation that Howard and his Henchmen can use without need to question.

The Australian Government can, in any situation, no longer claim innocence in their activities by claiming belief that their information was irrefutable.  In the hindsight of this comparitively minor event, basing any judgement or activity on faith in ASIO could only be classified as negligence, and guilt of creating any death and/or destruction brought about in this way can now be laid at the doorstep of Parliament House in Canberra.

Earlier statements that Australia entered into the invasion of Iraq based on assessments of our own espionage must also now be reconsidered. 

If an agency that considers a man with some sandwiches an international terrorist threat has lead us into war, and brought about the creating of anti-terrorist hysteria on the basis of its information,  we should withdraw from that war until we are once again certain we can rely on our knowledge

In the meantime..to any of you ASIO twits who might be in my neighbourhood, be warned.... I am known to be prone to violins (and accordions)  my attack cat is guarding the door, and my dog doesn't care who feeds her.

I'm happy to give you an extra piece of infomation that you might not have... I'm particularly fond of peanut butter.  You won't know this unless you have a camera in my kitchen. 

After the revelations this week regarding how you and your US counterparts have been violating Parkins' civil liberties, I wouldn't be the least bit suprised.