Dear friends,

After two weeks of trial, we now head into week three…phew!

On the weekend we had to say goodbye to about half of our supporters who thought the trial would have finished by now.

Just to let you all know – our supporters have staffed an information stall in Alice Springs mall every day, they have made a procession to court every day with banners, readings and singing, organised and participated in our actions at Pine Gap, organised and participated in our public meetings and film nights etc etc.

All this as well as general running around, photo-copying, making lunch every day, bringing us coffee and the main thing: sitting in the public gallery of courtroom showing moral support.

We still have a small band of supporters left here and will carry on – but we will miss all those who had to leave – thank you so much to all of you wonderful people.

If anyone would like to come up to Alice Springs for a week or two, we will still be here, and you will be very welcome!

Friday in court was pretty intense, which is probably why I’ve found it hard to write about it. Bryan finished his evidence in chief and then Jim took the stand. He talked about phoning the anti-terror hotline in 2003 to report Pine Gap and shared how the stories coming back from Iraq about civilian deaths were affecting him. He started reading a news report about civilian deaths but broke down in tears when it mentioned that nine children were killed in a bombing. The judge adjourned the court and every left quietly to the sound of Jim sobbing. There was not a dry eye in the place, the court attendants, the security guards, everyone was affected. It was a very powerful moment.

Adele then gave her opening and I gave my opening. I would like to share this with you when I get a copy of the transcript. It felt great to finally talk directly to the jury, explain why I did what I did, and why it was the right thing to do.

So we start off on Tuesday with Adele giving her evidence in chief followed by me. I expect my evidence to take a while, as I plan to go right into my experience in Iraq.

Tomorrow will be an important day in court for what will happen next. Crown Prosecutor Dembo has indicated he does not want the trial to proceed until we have an argument about our defences and a ruling from the judge about whether she will allow our defences to go to the jury.

This could make or break us. It will be a very hard argument, but we have been preparing all weekend and will put up a good fight.

Please send your prayers and energy our way.

For more news on what’s been happening, you can read the updates on the blog

www.pinegapontrial.blogspot.com

I’m off to study more case law… now I know why they get paid so much!

bye for now

Donna