In July 2011, peace activists Bryan Law and Graeme Dunstan took part in a Ploughshares action to disable a helicopter gunship during joint US/Australian Talisman Sabre military exercises. Before the action Bryan referred to the Collateral Murder video saying:
“Machine guns mounted on a US Apache helicopter, possibly even one that will attend Talisman Sabre, killed innocent journalists and wounded children in Iraq in 2007 as shown in the collateral murder film which sparked the Wikileaks controversy.”
In the event, it was another helicopter gunship, the Tiger, that became the target for the Australian action. Tiger helicopters are equipped to carry turreted-cannon, rockets and the same Hellfire air-to-ground missiles used by Apaches. Like the Apache, the Tiger has the capability to detect and engage targets (that often turn out to be civilians) at long distances.
Graeme is pictured here on the tricycle and with the garden mattock used by Bryan to disable the helicopter.
Bryan died earlier this year and Graeme faces trial alone starting 19 August in Rockhampton, Australia.
Graeme needs your support and solidarity. Use #StandbyGraemeD hashtag on twitter.
For more about the acts of mercy that have landed Graeme and others including Bradley Manning and Julian Assange in jeopardy, see this page.
For more information and details of how to support Graeme, see this page or the Peace Convergence blog.
