KEY POINTS:
An activist charged after striking an embarrassing blow to the Waihopai spy base says he has no regrets about the hefty bill taxpayers will have to bear.
Organic gardener Adrian Leason was released on bail from police custody yesterday with Dominican Friar Peter Murnane and farmer Sam Land, five days after a 30m rubber balloon shielding a satellite dish at the top-secret Marlborough base was punctured and deflated.
Mr Leason, who fasted while in custody with the other two men to stay "focused", was pleased to be free and munching on a meatloaf and cheese sandwich yesterday, but defiant over his actions.
The trio, acting under the auspices of the "Anzac Ploughshares" group, are facing charges of intentional damage and unlawful entry, but are determined to fight them on the grounds their actions were humanitarian.
"We're feeling very proud to have raised the issues we have raised," Mr Leason told the Herald.
The Waihopai base, which collects sensitive information from satellites for analysis and sharing with other nations, was New Zealand's tie to a "million people getting killed in an illegal war", Mr Leason said.
The Government Communications Security Bureau, which runs the Waihopai base, has condemned the raid as a waste of taxpayers' money. The cost of the damaged balloon was estimated at up to $1 million.
But Mr Leason said: "It's a shame that we have spent so much money on this base ... to build it, and now another million dollars to repair it ... because this base is a key part of the American communications network that is delivering the war to Iraq.
"Writing letters to the editor and doing petitions on the spybase is not generating a lot of interest. So action like this is about saying, 'There is a US spybase on our whenua tapu'."
The raid took four to five months to plan and the trio always expected to be arrested, praying at a makeshift shrine until police came.
"We had tooled up with quite a lot of equipment ... to get in over the security system. But as it turned out, the security system I don't think was turned on."
Mr Leason admitted feeling weak after days without food and after 30 minutes standing in court yesterday "the knees were starting to shake a wee bit".
The three were ordered not to associate with each other, not to go within 100m of a military base and not to visit Marlborough other than for court appearances or to see their solicitors.
