Jim Dowling
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Jim Dowling is a devout Catholic and a long time human rights, free speech and anti-war activist from Brisbane, Queensland. Together with fellow Catholic Worker activists, Ciaron O'Reilly and Angela Jones he founded the West End Catholic Worker community in Brisbane in the 1980s.
[edit] Iraq War Resistance
Jim Dowling has the honourable distinction of being the first Australian to perform a citizen’s arrest on a Federal MP--On September 30 2004 Jim walked onto the stage of a 'Meet The Candidates' meeting in the Dickson electorate and placed Federal member Peter Dutton under "citizen's arrest" for war crimes. Mr Dutton, an ex-Queensland police officer, not only voted for the invasion of Iraq but also was an enthusiastic supported of the invasion and the false claims of Iraq's WMDs. Mr Dowling made the arrest and called upon the police officer present in the hall to take Mr Dutton into custody until such time as the charges could be heard. In his written statement, Mr Dowling explained that the invasion of Iraq was contravening the Charter of the UN. He also claimed: Mr Peter Dutton was charged with: Planning, preparation, initiation, or waging a war of aggression or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances
–VI (i) Nurembourg Principles Participation in a common plan or conspiracy for accomplishment of the above – V(ii) Nurembourg Principles Participating in the use of cluster bombs in contravention of the Australian Anti- personnel Mines Convention Act 1998 Participating in the use of weapons of mass destruction in breach of the Geneva Convention including Fuel Air Explosives which cause death by asphyxiation Conspiring to subvert the course of justice by covering up or defending the use of torture and other breaches of the Geneva Convention against Australian citizens at Guantanamo Bay. Conspiring to continue the illegal detention of Australian citizens without trial or charges for over 2 years
On Sept. 1, 2005, members of the Queensland police force arrested Jim and physically assaulted him while attending a public debate between Federal Liberal Member for Dickson Peter Dutton and civil liberties lawyer Terry O'Gorman on a national security identity card. In an unprovoked attack, six policemen dragged Jim from the meeting, applied painful arm restraining techniques on him and inflicted grevious injuries to him while forcing his face into the concrete floor with their knees on the back of his head. The police then charged the 60 kg pacifist with disturbing the peace and resisting arrest.
In May 2006, Magistrate Kerry McGuiness handed down her decision regarding the charges of obstructing police after two months deliberation.
Ms McGuiness ruled that there was no evidence Mr Dowling had committed any breach of the peace or was about to do so on the night of Sept 1st 2005 when the police arrested him. Ms McGuiness then ruled there was no need to address the issue of whether Jim obstructed police, as one could not be convicted of obstructing police if the police had no lawful reason to detain you in the first place. She quoted precedents which clearly showed this.
[edit] Pine Gap Spy Base, Central Australia
On Wednesday morning December 8 Jim Dowling as well as Adele Goldie, Bryan Law and Donna Mulhearn (the Pine Gap 4) sought out Pat Hayes, the traditional Arrente caretaker for the Pine Gap area and asked his permission to walk on his land in order to expose the violence of the base which occupied part of that land. No permission had ever been sought or given for Pine Gap to be used by the military. Pat graciously gave the group permission to enter the area. At dawn on 3 October 2006, the four members of the group which had called itself Christians Against All Terrorism entered the spy base to conduct a citizens inspection of the activities and possible war crimes and terrorist activity, in particular the bombing of innocent civilians in Iraq, which were being carried out by a foreign power on Australian soil.
Two members of Christians Against ALL Terrorism, Jim Dowling from Daybora and Adele Goldie from Brisbane had entered the Pine Gap military base undetected and photographed themselves on the roof of a building before being arrested. Two other members of the group Donna Mulhearn from Sydney and Bryan Law from Cairns went undetected for an hour before being arrested cutting through the last inner fence. The four had walked for several hours through desert terrain. Jessica Morrison from Melbourne and Sean O’Reilly from Brisbane held a peaceful vigil outside the front gates around six that morning. During the vigil Sean O’Reilly was arrested for hindering police. Sean was later found not guilty in the Alice Springs Magistrates court.
Jim Dowling, Adele Goldie, Bryan Law and Donna Mulhearn have been charged under the Defence (Special Undertakings) Act 1952. The Act has not been used previously and carries a maximum jail sentence of 7 years, with an additional two years for taking photographs within the base. The four will be appearing in the Alice Springs Supreme Court in October 2006.
