The 16 media releases I wrote for Friends of Scott Parkin helped earn ongoing media coverage for Parkin's civil legal action against the Director General of Security .
Melbourne, 11 September 2005: The organisers of a public forum at which detained peace activist Scott Parkin was due to speak on the day of his detention have condemned the actions of Federal authorities and vowed to support efforts to uphold his civil liberties.
Spokespeople for Friends of the Earth Melbourne, Forest Action Trust, and Pt'chang Nonviolent Community Safety Group say they are baffled and extremely concerned at the decision to arrest and deport Mr Parkin. Scott was detained on Saturday and is facing deportation from Australia. The groups say they believe that this is a result of his involvement in protests and community education against the Iraq war.
Scott was detained by Federal Police and Immigration Officers while travelling to an event organised jointly by the three groups, entitled "Bringing Down the Pillars: People Power Strategies and Direct Action". He has not been charged with any crime.
"We had invited Scott to speak on his experience as a peace activist working with Houston Global Awareness, a grassroots organisation with a clear commitment to nonviolence," said Iain Murray of Pt'chang.
"The impending deportation deepens community concerns about the proposed new anti-terror laws. The deportation of a peace activist from Australia highlights the potential for government abuse of the new powers contained in the terror laws particularly against people who speak out against government policy," said Cam Walker of Friends of the Earth.
While in Australia Scott has been involved in community education and anti-war protests including street theatre ourside the Sydney offices of KBR, a subsidiary of Halliburton, a giant US corporation with close ties to the Bush administration that is profiting from the war in Iraq.
"The Howard government chose to participate in the illegal war in Iraq, which was based on false and misleading information, and now they are arresting, vilifying and deporting the very people who are speaking the truth about the situation," said Lauren Caulfield of Forest Action Trust.
"It is deeply concerning that a peace advocate would be targeted by ASIO officials and government departments. This is a clear attempt to silence opposition to war in Iraq and to the corporations that profit from violence" said Cam Walker.
"We strongly support Scott at this difficult time and we will assist him in whatever way we can."
Melbourne, 19 September 2005: A roomful of protesters wearing Mahatma Gandhi masks demanded an explanation for the deportation of US peace activist Scott Parkin from Australian Attorney-General Philip Ruddock at a speaking engagement in Melbourne tonight.
Supporters of Mr Parkin donned the Gandhi masks and confronted Mr Ruddock in a bid to find out why ASIO, the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation, considers the 36 year old history teacher a threat to Australia's national security. Several held placards which asked "Would you deport Gandhi, Mr Ruddock?"
Mr Parkin, who was deported from Australia on Friday, has spoken of his committment to nonviolent methods of protest and remains "baffled" as to the reasons for his negative security assessment and deportation.
In a statement made while still in detentation last week, Mr Parkin said: "I am a student of mass social movements in the tradition of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr and I think that these movements have shown us the way to achieve positive social change."
The protestors are demanding to know if Australian citizens who have associated with Scott are also considered threats to national security by ASIO.
Iain Murray was the first person contacted after Mr Parkin was seized by Australian Federal Police in Brunswick on Saturday 10 August. Mr Murray was preparing to co-present a workshop with Mr Parkin scheduled for day that he was detained.
"Scott has been involved with teaching people how to participate safely in nonviolent forms of protest. In doing so, he worked alongside a number of Australian citizens who share his committment to nonviolence. In fact, every single one of Scott's co-trainers was a graduate of an event held in Victoria in February called the 'Nonviolence Skillshare for Trainers'", Mr Murray said.
"Scott and I spent two days planning a workshop of the sort that Mr Ruddock has inferred could 'incite political violence'. If Mr Ruddock is so certain that what was being taught in those workshops was such a threat to Australia's national security, why am I still free to roam the streets while Scott has been locked up, then kicked out of the country?"
Houston Global Awareness, the group that Mr Parkin worked with back home, has a stated committment to nonviolence in its mission statement and asks all who participate in their protests to abide by a set of guidelines which includes adhering to nonviolent methods. (1)
Last Thursday, supporters of Mr Parkin invited Mr Ruddock and the Director-General of ASIO to participate in a nonviolence training workshop in a committee room of the Australian Federal Parliament.
"Unfortunately, Mr Ruddock, who by all indications desperately needs a lesson in the difference between violence and nonviolence, failed to show. We're still not sure whether any ASIO agents were in attendance," Mr Murray said.
Note to editors:
(1) http://houston.indymedia.org/news/2005/04/38966.php
Houston, Texas, 22 September 2005: Scott Parkin today spoke from Texas to clear his name and refute the media claims of an alleged ASIO leak that he was planning to teach violence in his peace workshop in Melbourne.
Mr Parkin said, "These are false, unfounded and personally damaging allegations.
"ASIO put me in solitary detention for 5 days and not once made these allegations to me nor have they provided these stories to my lawyer, Julian Burnside QC.
"If I am such a threat why have the FBI not even phoned me since my return from Australia, to follow up ASIO's silly allegations?
"If ASIO wants the public to trust this process is fair they should have made these allegations in the proper way and not via some exclusive supposed leak.
"The Government has a public responsiblity to provide facts and not make smears.
"Osama bin Laden is free, meanwhile Australia's peak intelligence agency is running around fretting about peace protestors.
"As I always say and sincerely believe, it is unprincipled to do anything violent at any time, including in a protest situation.
"During my time in Australia I spoke publically against techniques to de-arrest a person who has been lawfully detained by the Police because it is against my principles.
"ASIO should know this if they are doing their job properly.
"Horses suffer from being used as riot control machines and I completely oppose anything that abuses them.
"The media and public are welcome to come to nonviolent protest training by me or my colleages, but we can assume ASIO were there anyway and know these claims are unbelievable," said Mr Parkin.
Melbourne, 22 September 2005: In response to ASIO’s bungling smear campaign, Mr Iain Murray, co-presenter of Scott Parkin's activist workshops, has again offered to present and explain their teaching agenda.
Mr Iain Murray, who works with a small organisation called Pt'chang Nonviolent Community Safety Group, met with Mr Parkin the week prior to his detainment in order to plan a workshop entitled "Bringing Down the Pillars: People Power and Direct Action".
“Our teaching agenda is open for public scrutiny – Scott and I have nothing to hide.”
"Scott and I spent several hours planning the agenda for this workshop together. I still have the notes from our discussion. The workshop had absolutely nothing to do with horses or police. The most frightening thing we planned to do was screw up pieces of paper and throw them at each other, and that was my idea, not Scott's."
"I know that this particular workshop was the only one that Scott planned to participate in before leaving for New Zealand to continue his holiday. Anyone claiming to know what we planned to teach in the workshop would have had to have been following us around the cafe's of Smith Street in Collingwood and hiding behind newspapers, but I don't recall seeing any evidence of that."
Mr Murray challenged the anonymous source behind the reports in The Australian to identify themselves.
"This would have to be one of the clumsiest attempts to smear an individual's name that we've ever seen in this country. There is absolutely no evidence to back these claims, and whoever has made them has done so from behind the firewall of secrecy that surrounds this whole affair.
"Let's hear them repeat the claims openly. As an individual who is deeply and publicly committed to nonviolence, I would welcome the opportunity to test the accusations in court, as I'm sure would Scott."
Melbourne/Boston, 21 October 2005: Scott Parkin, the US peace campaigner who was deported from Australia last month after being detained without charge for five days, has welcomed the formation of a new group to advocate on his behalf.
Friends of Scott Parkin are demanding that Federal Attorney General Philip Ruddock provide Mr Parkin with the reasons for his detention and forced removal from Australia. They are also calling for an apology to Mr Parkin, re-instatement of his cancelled visa and provision of compensation.
Mr Parkin, who is travelling through the north-east United States in an effort to make up for the abrupt end to his holiday, welcomed the formation of the group and thanked Australians for their support.
"Stories of my friends and comrades in Australia speaking truth to the power of their Government buoyed me while I was 'detained' in the Melbourne Custody Centre," Mr Parkin said.
"I can't say enough how overwhelmed and honoured I am by this outpouring of support."
Iain Murray, a friend of Mr Parkin's, said that the he and Scott's other Australian friends were concerned that Mr Parkin's treatment breached human rights enshrined under the UN treaty system.
"The precedent set by Scott's case is frightening, not just for overseas visitors, but for all Australian citizens," Mr Murray said.
"You don't need to be a human rights lawyer to know that there's something very wrong with the way Scott has been treated. The very minimum that Mr Ruddock must do is tell Scott exactly what he is alleged to have done to warrant such appalling treatment."
The group's website - www.scottparkin.org - provides detailed information on the content of Scott's workshops and video footage of the street theatre protest Scott organised in during the Forbes 500 protest in Sydney.
Mr Parkin has urged Australians to make their voices heard in relation to the proposed new anti-terrorism laws.
"If my expulsion from Australia is an indication of the Australian Government’s stance on freedom of speech and the community’s right to peaceful protest, I believe fundamental human rights are under threat should these proposed laws become legislation."
A demonstration against the anti-terrorism laws will be held in Melbourne on Saturday 22nd October, beginning 1pm at Parliament House, Spring Street.
Monday 31 October 2005: Deported US peace activist Scott Parkin was not involved in violent activity, the head of ASIO admitted tonight, in apparent contradiction of Attorney-General Philip Ruddock.
Responding to questioning by Senator Bob Brown in a hearing of the Senate Estimates Committee, ASIO Director-General Paul O'Sullivan confirmed that Mr Parkin was not involved in violence.
Asked if Mr Parkin had been violent while in Australia, Mr O'Sullivan said:
"I understand there was some background while he was in the United States, but I believe the answer to your question in respect to Australia is no."
Mr O'Sullivan also denied any knowledge of an alleged leak from ASIO to The Australian newspaper and refused to vouch for the accuracy of a report in The Australian that Mr Parkin advocated violent protest techniques.
Mr Sullivan's answer appeared to contradict earlier statements on ASIO's security assessment of Mr Parkin by Attorney-General Philip Ruddock. Mr Ruddock, speaking on ABC radio shortly after Mr Parkin was detained in September, said that "ASIO is responsible for protecting the Australian community from all forms of politically motivated violence, including violent protest activity, and they've made an assessment in relation to those matters."
In September, in response to a Senate question about the nature of Mr Parkin's negative security assessment, Justice Minister Chris Ellison also said that it was ASIO's role to protect Australians from "violent protest activity".
"Mr Ruddock told Australians that ASIO made an assessment of Scott in relation to violent protest activity," Iain Murray, an Australian friend of Mr Parkin, said.
"Now we hear from the head of ASIO that this was not in fact the case."
Mr Murray called on the Attorney-General to immediately reveal to Mr Parkin the exact nature of the ASIO assessment.
"Now that ASIO has admitted that Scott was not involved in violence, Mr Ruddock should be on the phone to Scott or his lawyers immediately to explain exactly what it is that he is supposed to have said or done to warrant this appalling treatment at the hands of our Government."
San Francisco, 6 December 2005: Deported US peace activist Scott Parkin has dismissed a report on his treatment released by the Inspector General of Intelligence Services, Ian Carnell, as "unfair" and challenged Attorney-General Philip Ruddock to reveal the specific allegations that led ASIO to issue an adverse security assessment against him.
"I have a fifteen year history as a nonviolent activist. I teach nonviolent civil disobedience in the tradition of King and Gandhi," Mr Parkin said.
"If Mr Ruddock is so certain of the truth of ASIO's allegations, why can't he tell me what I am supposed to have done so that I can defend himself?"
The report reveals that criteria used by ASIO in issuing an adverse security assessment of Mr Scott Parkin were drawn from a secret "determination" issued by a former head of ASIO in 1990.
The eight-page report, which fails to provide any specific allegations against Mr Parkin, says that a 1990 determination issued by the Director General of Security was used to assess whether Mr Parkin represented a risk to national security on the grounds of "politically motivated violence"
The release of the report, which concludes that "legislative requirements were met" by ASIO in issuing the adverse security assessment, follows ASIO head Paul O'Sullivan's acknowledgement to the Senate Estimates Committee that Mr Parkin was not involved in violence.
The only recommendation made by Mr Carnell is "that the Director-General consider whether the 1990 Determination ... should be reviewed."
The report also confirms that allegations published in The Australian newspaper that Mr Parkin advocated throwing marbles under horses hooves were "not a reliable guide to the ASIO assessment".
A separate document, "Comments on ASIO security assessment in respect of Mr Scott Parkin", has been kept secret by Mr Carnell on the grounds that "it is in the public interest for security considerations to be given consideration".
Australian supporters of Mr Parkin have dismissed the report as a "whitewash".
"Not only does the report endorse ASIO's decision to brand Scott a security risk without providing any information on what he is alleged to have said or done, the actual criteria used to judge whether he was a threat are being kept both from Scott and from the public," said Iain Murray, a friend of Mr Parkin's.
"To claim that national security is being upheld by keeping ASIO's allegations secret is absurd. Scott is a peace activist who has only ever espoused nonviolent means of protest, who is now on the other side of the planet."
The decision to keep the specific allegations against Mr Parkin secret was "Kafkaesque", Mr Murray said.
Expressing concern for the state of democracy in Australia, Mr Parkin said: "Democracies are supposed to have a transparent system of checks and balances. Obviously this isn't the case here."
Tuesday 13 December 2005: US peace activist Scott Parkin has launched a Federal Court challenge in a bid to quash the security assessment that led to his detention and forced removed from Australia.
Challenging the continued secrecy surrounding the reasons for his treatment, Mr Parkin called on Attorney-General Philip Ruddock to "play fair" by detailing the allegations that led to his detention and removal.
"The head of ASIO has admitted that I was not violent and the only specific claims made against me - that I advocated throwing marbles under horses' hooves - have been dismissed by the Inspector-General of Intelligence Services," Mr Parkin said.
"The IGIS report acknowledged that keeping the accusations secret was, effectively, a denial of natural justice.
"Despite this, there has been no information released to me, my lawyers or the public to explain how I was treated."
Mr Parkin said that he was pursuing the Federal Court action in an effort to clear his name and protect others from similar treatment.
"This isn't just about me and my rights, it's about the right that all people have to know they won't be locked up without a reason and to know what they are accused of if they are," he said.
"When convicts were sentenced to transportation to Australia, at least they knew what they were accused of and could defend their name in court. Until Mr Ruddock tells me what I'm supposed to have done, I don't even have that small consolation."
Monday 23 January 2006: US peace activist Scott Parkin's Houston-based anti-war group was spied on by a top-secret Pentagon counter-intelligence agency in 2004, according to a report in Newsweek magazine.
The peaceful protest, organised by Scott Parkin and his group Houston Global Awareness on June 29, 2004, was attended by approximately ten local peace activists.
The protest involved handing out peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to employees of giant military contractor Halliburton to draw attention to allegations that the company over-charged for military food contracts in Iraq.
A report in Newsweek this week reveals that the Pentagon's Counter Intelligence Field Activity (CIFA) filed a report on the protest, which took place outside Halliburton's headquarters in Houston, Texas.
Speaking from San Francisco, Mr Parkin said he was "disturbed, but not surprised" by the latest revelations.
"The theme of the protest was to 'cook food, not books'", Mr Parkin said from San Francisco today.
"It's unbelievable that this simple act of street theatre could be considered a potential threat to national security by the Pentagon."
In September 2005, Mr Parkin's detention and forced removal from Australia sparked protests around the country.
Mr Parkin's detention followed his participation in a similar protest outside the Sydney headquarters of Halliburton subsidiary Kellog, Brown and Root.
The Australian Government has denied that the decision to detain and deport Mr Parkin on national security grounds was influenced by information or pressure from US intelligence agencies.
In October, ASIO Director-General Paul O'Sullivan admitted that Mr Parkin had not been involved in violent activity in Australia. Attorney-General Phillip Ruddock has refused to divulge the contents of the adverse security assessment that led to the Mr Parkin's removal from the country.
"I find it disturbing that acts of lawful, permitted dissent are being criminalised in this way," Mr Parkin concluded.
Melbourne, 4 April 2006: US peace activist Scott Parkin has welcomed a Federal Police investigation into allegations that The Australian newspaper published leaked information regarding the ASIO security assessment that triggered his forced removal from Australia.
In a letter to NSW Greens MP Ian Cohen, Federal Justice Minister Chris Ellison has confirmed that the Australian Federal Police are investigating allegations that ASIO leaked to The Australian newspaper.
On 22 September last year, The Australian published a front page story alleging that Mr Parkin had planned to "teach tactics of violence", including using force to free protestors from police custody and advocated throwing marbles to disable police horses.
Mr Parkin, who advocates nonviolent protest, immediately dismissed the allegations as a "smear". In December, a report by the Inspector General of Intelligence Services said that the claims published in The Australian were "not a reliable guide to the ASIO assessment".
Mr Parkin said: "I'm encouraged that the Federal Police appear to be taking this seriously enough to investigate.
"If there actually was a leak from ASIO, it is outrageous that information which has been repeatedly denied to me, my lawyers and the public on the grounds of national security was secretly and selectively fed to the media.
"If there wasn't a leak, then I want to know exactly who dreamed up this ridiculous smear, and how it ended up on the front page of a major newspaper."
In December Mr Parkin's lawyers launched a Federal Court action in an effort to quash the negative ASIO assessment. A directions hearing has been set for 4 April.
San Francisco, 16 March 2006: Lawyers for US peace activist Scott Parkin appeared briefly in the Federal Court today to defend his right to know why he was detained and removed from Australia in September last year.
Lawyers for ASIO had sought to strike out Mr Parkin's application on the basis that there is no legislative provision for the review of ASIO security assessments. Mr Parkin's lawyers agreed to an adjournment until May 29 to enable them to clarify that that the security assessment is being challenged on natural justice grounds.
Mr Parkin's friend, Iain Murray, said that Mr Parkin still had not been given any reason for his treatment by the Australian Government. Mr Murray called on Attorney General Phillip Ruddock to immediately release the substance of the security assessment to Mr Parkin's lawyers.
"Scott was locked up in solitary confinement, smuggled out of the country under guard and handed a $12,700 bill courtesy of the Australian Government. Eight months later, he remains completely baffled as to what he is supposed to have done to warrant this treatment," Mr Murray said.
"It is outrageous and deeply disturbing that Scott has been forced to take court action to find out exactly what he is accused of, let alone defend himself from those accusations.
"This whole episode could have come straight from the pages of Franz Kafka's novel, The Trial."
Mr Murray said that national security legislation passed in 2004 could give Mr Ruddock the power to prevent evidence relating to Mr Parkin's security assessment from being heard in an open court.
"Should ASIO act illegally, improperly or in error - for instance, by interfering with the right of persons to engage in lawful advocacy, protest or dissent - Mr Ruddock has the power to severely curtail the courts' ability to examine evidence which would bring this to light," Mr Murray said.
Melbourne, 22 May 2007: Twenty-six supporters of deported peace activist Scott Parkin could face up to four years jail if found to have lied in statutory declarations backing the US citizen's assertion that he did nothing to threaten Australia's national security.
Lawyers for Mr Parkin will appear in the Federal Court this morning to defend his right to know why he is considered a threat to Australian national security. ASIO is appealing the court's decision to give Mr Parkin access to documents detailing the allegations against him.
The statutory declarations will be publicly released as part of a 72-page report detailing Mr Parkin's activities prior to the adverse security assessment that lead to his removal from the country in September 2005.
The report concludes that Mr Parkin's nonviolent political activity targeting Halliburton, a controversial military contractor with close links to US Vice President Dick Cheney, led to his detention and forced removal by the Australian Government in September 2005.
The report also reveals that:
Mr Parkin's group, Houston Global Awareness, was subject to surveillance by a top-secret Pentagon intelligence agency up to one year before he travelled to Australia.
Mr Parkin attracted ASIO's attention when his Australian visa application in May 2005 triggered an alert on the Australian Government's Movement Alert List, despite his never having travelled to Australia.
ASIO's adverse assessment of Mr Parkin was issued days after the US Consulate warned American citizens to stay away from a peaceful protest Mr Parkin organised at the Sydney headquarters of Halliburton subsidary, KBR.
The Australian Government has consistently denied any US Government influence in the decision to issue Mr Parkin with an adverse security assessment. Following Mr Parkin's removal from Australia, ASIO head Paul O'Sullivan told a parliamentary committee "there was no consideration of any particular matter coming from abroad in [Parkin's] case".
The author of the report, Mr Parkin's friend, Iain Murray, said that the statutory declarations had been collected in a bid to counter the official secrecy surrounding ASIO's reasons for declaring the avowedly nonviolent activist a threat to Australian national security.
"If there is any reasonable basis for ASIO's assessment that Scott was somehow involved in 'politically motivated violence', then those of us who have made declarations to the contrary must be lying. This isn't just a case of ASIO vs Scott Parkin, but ASIO vs the Australian people."
Welcoming the release of the report, Mr Parkin said: "I'm no expert on Australian law, but in my country, we have this thing called 'innocent until proven guilty.'
"If my treatment is any indication of how justice works down under, then Australians who are involved in peaceful political activity have a lot to be worried about."
Melbourne, 22 May 2007: ASIO did not rely solely on information on deported US citizen Scott Parkin's activities in Australia when it deemed the peace activist a threat to national security, lawyers for the domestic spy agency told the Federal Court in Melbourne today.
Charles Gunst QC, appearing for ASIO chief Paul O'Sullivan, said that Mr O'Sullivan denied that ASIO depended solely on information related to Mr Parkin's activities in Australia in making the adverse security assessment.
Following Mr Parkin's removal from Australia in September 2005, Attorney-General Phillip Ruddock denied that there was "any foreign government influence" [1] in ASIO's decision to issue an adverse security assessment of Mr Parkin.
In October 2005, Mr O'Sullivan told a parliamentary committee that "there was no consideration of any particular matter coming from abroad" in Parkin's case, and that the assessment was "related to his behaviour subsequent to his arrival in Australia". [2]
The full bench of the Federal Court today revoked ASIO's leave to appeal an order that the parties confer with regard to a list of documents sought by Mr Parkin's legal team.
This morning, supporters of Mr Parkin released twenty-six statutory declarations collected from people who attended talks and workshops given by Mr Parkin between his arrival in Australia in May 2005 and his removal in September 2005.
The sworn statements assert that Mr Parkin did not engage in or advocate any form of violence during his time in Australia.
Notes:
1 "No politics in activists detention: Ruddock", ABC Victoria News, 13 September 2006.
Washington, 2 November 2007: Deported US peace activist Scott Parkin today welcomed a Federal Court judgement ordering discovery of documents showing why ASIO branded him a threat to national security.
Mr Parkin was detained and removed from Australia in September 2005 after giving talks to local anti-war activists.
Mr Parkin said that he felt vindicated by the order that ASIO release the documents and called on the current and Shadow Attorney's General to respect the court's decision.
"I was labelled a security threat, detained for five days and forcibly removed from Australia on the basis of secret evidence. Others were locked up for years.
"After battling ASIO's secrecy for more than two years, this is a positive step.
"My concern now is that the current or future Attorney General will use national security legislation to override the court's decision and keep these documents secret."
Among the documents ASIO has been ordered to release is a secret 1990 "determination" which sets out the criteria that ASIO applies when assessing security threats related to "politically motivated violence".
In May, 26 Australian supporters backed Mr Parkin's stated committment to nonviolent methods of protest by signing statutory declarations detailing his political activity in Australia.
Melbourne, 28 February 2008: ASIO's security assessments of deported US peace activist Scott Parkin and Iraqi refugees Mohammed Sagar and Muhammad Faisal could be based on information that the three men themselves were not aware of, the full bench of the Federal Court heard in Melbourne today.
Charles Gunst QC, appearing for ASIO chief Paul O'Sullivan, made the comments in response to suggestions from the bench that Parkin, Sagar and Faisal could establish a case for overturning the adverse assessments by submitting detailed life histories to the court.
Mr O'Sullivan is appealing a court order which would identify documents relating to ASIO's adverse assessments of Parkin, Sagar and Faisal. If upheld, the order for discovery will enable the three men's lawyers to apply for access to the documents.
ASIO's adverse security assessments could be based on "information that you yourself didn't know" or "associations the significance of which [you] may be unaware," Mr Gunst said.
Even revealing the number of documents ASIO held on the three men could jeopardise Australia's national security, he said.
Mr Parkin was deported from Australia and Mr Sagar and Mr Faisal faced indefinite detention on the island of Nauru after ASIO issued adverse security assessments of the three men in 2005.
ASIO conducted a second security assessment of Mr Faisal after his evacuation to a Brisbane hospital in late 2006 amid fears that he was at imminent risk of suicide.
The fact that ASIO's second security assessment cleared Mr Faisal for resettlement in Australia was evidence that "the system works", Mr Gunst said.
Julian Burnside QC, appearing for Parkin, Sagar and Faisal, told the court that the effective reversal of Mr Faisal's adverse assessment cast doubt on the lawfulness of ASIO's initial assessment.
All three men knew their own life histories and strongly denied that they had ever done anything to warrant being labelled a security threat, Mr Burnside said.
If the discovery order was overturned, they would be "flying blind" in their challenge to the assessments and would have no option but to relate their entire life histories to the court, he said.
Justices Ryan, North and Jessup reserved their decision.
Melbourne, 18 July 2008: Deported US peace activist Scott Parkin has welcomed a Federal Court judgement upholding his right to access a list of documents showing why Australia's domestic spy agency regards him as a threat to Australia's national security.
The full court judgement opens the way for Mr Parkin's lawyers to apply for access to his adverse security assessment and other ASIO documents relating to the case, including a secret 1990 "determination" showing the criteria ASIO used to deem him a security threat.
Mr Parkin launched legal action against ASIO chief Paul O'Sullivan after an adverse security assessment triggered his detention and removal from Australia in 2005.
Mr O'Sullivan appealed to the Full Court after Justice Ross Sundberg ordered the release of a list of documents relevant to the case.
In their written reasons for the judgement handed down today, Justices Jessup, North and Ryan rejected Mr O'Sullivan's argument that Justice Sundberg had misunderstood his argument that non-citizens should never be able to access adverse security assessments made about them.
"We consider that the appellant's submissions in these respects seek to have too fine, and too pedantic, a distinction in the way [Justice Sundberg] espressed himself", their Honours said.
Mr Parkin welcomed the court's decision as a victory for political freedom, but expressed concerns that legislation introduced by the Howard Government could still prevent him from getting a fair hearing.
"Under laws introduced by the Howard Government, the Attorney General Robert McClelland has the power to intervene in court proceedings to stop me finding out what I am accused of," Mr Parkin said.
"I am calling on Mr McClelland to respect the right to a fair hearing and allow my case to proceed in an open court."
"I hope the Australian people will remind Mr McClelland that ASIO is accountable to him, not the other way around."