Filipino Muslim Woman Leader To Visit Waihopai Spybase Thursday 25TH, 10.30 A.M.

The Waihopai electronic intelligence gathering base, near Blenheim, is operated by New Zealand’s Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) in the interests of the foreign Powers grouped together in the super-secret UKUSA Agreement (which shares global electronic and signals intelligence among the intelligence agencies of the US, UK, Canada, Australia and NZ).

Its two satellite interception dishes (shielded from public view by giant domes) intercept a huge volume of telephone calls, telexes, faxes, e-mail and computer data communications. It spies on our Asia/Pacific neighbours, and forwards the material on to the major partners in the UKUSA Agreement, specifically the US National Security Agency (NSA).

Its targets are international communications involving New Zealanders, including the interception of international phone calls. The codename for this – Echelon – has become notorious worldwide as the vast scope of its spying has become public. New Zealand is an integral, albeit junior, part of a global spying network, a network that is ultimately accountable only to its own constituent agencies, not governments, and certainly not to citizens.

The Waihopai spybase is New Zealand’s most important contribution to the “War on Terror” and any other American-led wars. President Bush and President Arroyo of the Philippine shave declared that country to be the “Second Front” in the “War on Terror”, specifically in relation to the war that has been waged against Muslim separatists in the south of the Philippines since the 1970s.

That war is current, directly involves US military Special Forces, and causes a huge amount of misery for the Muslim population of the southern Philippines. It is a safe bet that the network of which Waihopai is part targets that Muslim struggle in the southern Philippines.

Thus it is entirely appropriate that a touring speaker from that part of the Philippines, Amirah Ali Lidasan, a young, progressive woman leader of the Filipino Muslim people, should visit the Waihopai spybase to see for herself New Zealand’s involvement in the US-led global spybase network which targets her people (among others). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that a representative of an actual target group has visited this top secret spybase.

Amirah Ali Lidasan will be visiting the Waihopai spybase at 10.30 a.m. on Thursday October 25. We have written permission from the Station Chief for our group to enter the outer perimeter of the base and walk up as far as the inner security gate. That written permission includes journalists who wish to accompany us.

We invite reporters and photographers to join us (meet us at the Waihopai Valley Road gate at 10.30 a.m. on Thursday 25th). The visit will be on regardless of weather.

See below for details on Amirah Ali Lidasan and her itinerary

Murray Horton
Secretary

PSNA
Philippines Solidarity Network of Aotearoa
Box 2450, Christchurch, New Zealand
cafca@chch.planet.org.nz
www.converge.org.nz/psna

PhilippinesSolidarity Network of Aotearoa
PO Box2450,Christchurch,NewZealand
email: cafca@chch.planet.org.nz
www.converge.org.nz/psna

Chief Reporter
Hidden Voices
A Filipino Muslim Woman
On The US “War On Terror”
And Its Impact On Her People.

TOURING NZ OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2007
AVAILABLE FOR MEDIA INTERVIEWS

Amirah Ali Lidasan is the National Vice-Chairperson of the Suara Bangsamoro Party List Organisation, which aims to get representation in Congress for the Philippines’ several million Muslims (known as Moros and heavily concentrated in the southernmost islands). Amirah is a young (early 30s) progressive Muslim woman, with a history of senior leadership in the student movement in Manila, and is a leader in groups such as the Moro Christian People’s Alliance. She has an international profile.

In March 2007 she was part of a Philippine human rights delegation which toured North America and Europe, drawing international attention to the human rights crisis at home.

The Philippine military has been waging a full blown conventional war in the southern Philippines since the 1970s (simultaneous to the better known and equally long war against the Communist guerrillas throughout the whole country). Right now that war is seeing some of its heaviest fighting in decades, with direct involvement from the US Special Forces who have been stationed in the southern Philippines since 2002. It has had hugely negative consequences for the whole Muslim population in the South (including Amirah and her family) and it has now become part and parcel of Bush’s global “War on Terror” against “Islamic terrorists”. Indeed, he has proclaimed the Philippines to be “The Second Front” in that war.

Amirah Ali Lidasan’s tour presents a unique opportunity to hear firsthand about a war in our own backyard that is almost totally unknown to New Zealanders. She is the first Muslim, let alone Muslim woman, that Philippines Solidarity Network has brought to NZ. To clarify a couple of points – Amirah is not involved with, nor does she speak on behalf of, those Muslim groups waging the separatist war in the southern Philippines. And she is not coming to NZ as a “spokesperson for Islam”. She speaks excellent English (which is an official language in the Philippines).

ITINERARY

Tuesday October 23 – Dunedin.
Public Meeting 7.30 p.m, Gazebo Lounge, top floor University Union Building, access off Cumberland St opposite Otago Museum
Contact: Greg Hughson, e-mail: greg.hughson@otago.ac.nz

Wednesday 24 – Christchurch.

Public Meeting – 7.30 p.m. Knox Presbyterian Church, 28 Bealey Avenue

Contact: Murray Horton, e-mail: cafca@chch.planet.org.nz

Thursday 25 –Blenheim.

Public Meeting: 7.30 p.m. Nativity Centre Lounge, corner Henry & Alfred Streets

Contact Steffan Browning, greeny25@xtra.co.nz

Friday 26 – Wellington.

Public Meeting, 5 p.m. St Johns in the City, Willis Street

Contact: Mary Ellen O’Connor, oconstance@gmail.com

Monday 29 – Palmerston North.

Public Meeting, 7 p.m. 1st Floor, PSA House, 43 King Street (opposite rear entrance of Farmers).

Contact: Dion Martin, dion.martin@ndu.org.nz

Tuesday 30 &Wednesday 31 – Auckland.

Public Meeting: Wednesday 31st, 7.30 p.m. Trades Hall, 137 Great North Road, Grey Lynn

Contact: Helen Te Hira, e-mail: helent@nzctu.org.nz

Thursday November 1 – Whangarei.

Public Meeting: 7 p.m., Manaia PHO rooms, 17 Norfolk St, Whangarei (corner Grey & Norfolk Sts, behind KFC on Kamo Road).

Contact: Tim Howard, e-mail: the-farm@ihug.co.nz

PSNA
Philippines Solidarity Network of Aotearoa
Box 2450, Christchurch, New Zealand
cafca@chch.planet.org.nz
www.converge.org.nz/psna

ENDS

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