Texan teacher Scott Parkin was to deliver a workshop on non-violent protest when he was contacted by the Australian national intelligence agency  - ASIO  - and detained by Australian Federal Police on September 10th. His visa was revoked, he was put in solitary confinement, and he was asked to sign a waiver of his right to appeal his deportation.

At Scott's request, Greenpeace Australia-Pacific lawyers are working with Julian Burnside, QC, and Scott's lawyers to mount an administrative law challenge to the planned deportation.

The government has since retracted its request for the rights waiver and scaled back its threat of "deportation" to the less serious "removal."   But the government has yet to declare what law Mr. Parkin has broken, and is refusing media access to the activist. A recent opinion poll conducted by The Age online is currently running 82 percent in favour of Scott's right to speak for peace in Australia.

"If all Mr Parkin has done to be assessed a security risk is to peacefully express his opinions, then we are in serious trouble," says Julian Burnside, QC.

"At a time when Australians are already deeply concerned about the [Australian Prime Minister] Howard government's attacks on free speech and the right to protest in the name of fighting terrorism, the silencing of a peace activist for the 'crime' of satirising US policy will only confirm many people's worst fears," says Greenpeace campaigns director Danny Kennedy.

"Scott's mission is to end war and violence, whether perpetrated by terrorists or by governments. His weapons are humour and satire and his tools exposure and embarrassment."

"Peace is not terrorism. Peace is not a threat to national security. No democratic government should expel a foreign citizen because they oppose his political opinions," concludes Kennedy.

Scott made a statement via a Greenpeace support team which visited him today.

He said, "To my family and friends, everyone who is supporting me, both in Australia and in the US, I'd like to thank you for the overwhelming support that I have received."

"I am strongly opposed to any violence and do not believe that violence delivers any political gain, and in fact detracts from positive political engagement."

"I find this entire experience incomprehensible and am still baffled as to why my visa has been cancelled and I have been detained under these circumstances."

"To this date the only information that I have received is that I have been assessed as "a direct or indirect risk to Australian national security."

Parkin also said, "I am a student of mass social movements in the tradition of Ghandi and King, and I think that these movements have shown us the way to achieve social change."

"We live in a world where we have seen a globalisation of war and war profiteering, but also the restriction and criminalisation of peoples and dissent in ideas."

"I hope that when Australians visit the US that they are allowed to voice their critcism of government and corporate policy without fear of reprisal, and that they are freely allowed to participate in peaceful protest."

 Update 15 September: Scott Parkin was taken by government authorities to Melbourne airport at 6am this morning and left on a Qantas flight for Los Angeles at 10.46am. His plane is expected to land at LA airport at around 7:00am LA time where he is expected to transfer to a domestic flight to Houston, Texas.