Australia Deports U.S. Peace Activist For Encouraging "Spirited" Protest

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While the Australian government has successfully deported U.S. peace activist Scott Parkin, the public backlash grows. A friend of Parkin's, Iain Murray, told journalists, "There's about as much evidence of Scott representing a threat as there's been evidence found of weapons of mass destruction [in Iraq]." After citing "national security" grounds for the decision, a spokesman for Attorney General Phillip Ruddock told a journalist that while Parkin had peacefully protested the U.S. military contracting company Halliburton, he encouraged "spirited" protest action. The Age cited sources who said Parkin was being deported because he taught "techniques for preventing police from taking protesters away for arrest." Former Australian Office of National Assessments analyst Andrew Wilkie said "if he was genuinely any sort of security threat, well they wouldn't just send him out of the country, ... he'd be charged."