Picket of President Clinton in Christchurch, NZ

Picket of President Clinton in Christchurch, NZ

11 September 1999

Chief Reporter

PICKET OF PRESIDENT CLINTON'S STATE DINNER 5.30 P.M., WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15 MAIN SOUTH ROAD ENTRANCE, AIR FORCE WORLD, CHRISTCHURCH

The Anti-Bases Campaign has a simple message for the Commander in Chief of the US military whilst he is visiting Christchurch - get the US Air Force out of Christchurch Airport! We will be picketing his State dinner this week to take that message directly to him and the several hundred other guests. New Zealand prides itself on being nuclear free and out of ANZUS - but there is unfinished business concerning our military relationship with the US.

For over 40 years, Christchurch's Harewood Airport has hosted a medium level, multi-purpose US military base, under the guise of providing logistic support for peaceful scientific research in Antarctica. In fact, the Harewood base plays a vital role in servicing the Pentagon's top priority nuclear warfighting intelligence bases in Australia. These bases - Nurrungar and Pine Gap - have played a vital role in every recent American war, from Iraq to Kossovo. Harewood keeps us directly involved in the American military machine.

And we have a message for Bill Clinton's host, Jenny Shipley - close down the Waihopai and Tangimoana spybases, cut the intelligence links with the US National Security Agency, get NZ out of the UKUSA spying agreement! NZ is the junior partner in this top secret five nation intelligence gathering agreement. The Waihopai and Tangimoana spybases, operated by the NZ Government Communications Security Bureau, work as sub-contractors for the US National Security Agency, collecting electronic intelligence by satellite and signals interception. NZ is neither nuclear free nor truly independent until we have cut these overt and covert links with the US military and intelligence agencies.

Clinton is in NZ because of APEC - there will be a strong anti-APEC theme to the picket, because the issues are linked. The world's sole superpower blatantly uses its miltary and intelligence muscle to secure profitable advantage for American Big Business, the transnational corporations that dominate the global economy. APEC aims to throw open the Asia/Pacific region to (un)free trade and unrestricted foreign investment. The US military is used as the main enforcer of this bankrupt ideology.

BREAK THE TIES! NO US BASES! NO SPYBASES!

Murray Horton

Ph (03) 3663988 day/night CAFCA Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa PO Box 2258, Christchurch email: cafca@chch.planet.org.nz

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