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Peace campaigners launch week of action to ‘keep space for peace’

PEACE campaigners will launch a week of action to “Keep Space for Peace” on Saturday, as the United States advances its plans to militarise the cosmos with a “Space Force” project.

The British government is complicit in the US military’s plans, partly by its association with the Nato military alliance and partly by the presence of US military bases within the country, which will be involved in the space militarisation project.

One of the bases, USAF Croughton in Oxfordshire, will be targeted for a demonstration tomorrow, organised by Oxford Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND).

Oxford CND said: “The United States is spending £200 million to turn Croughton into one of its largest intelligence gathering hubs.

“This major US communication and intelligence base supports space communications, data links, military drone information, bomber guidance, missile defence, diplomatic communications and command and control war fighting functions.

“It will be a key link in the ‘chain’ controlling US surveillance, armed drone and special forces operations across Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.”

Speeches from the Campaign for Accountability of American Bases co-founder Lindis Percy, Labour’s shadow minister for disarmament Fabian Hamilton and others will be heard at the demonstration.

On Tuesday, campaigners will hold a peace vigil outside RAF Menwith Hill in North Yorkshire, a US base which gathers military, political and financial information communicated by spy satellites circling the Earth.

Menwith Hill, which is run by the US National Security Agency, feeds the information collected to the Pentagon.

Menwith Hill Accountability Campaign’s Sarah Swift warned that any war in space “could be disastrous.”

Ms Swift said: “The Pentagon wants to test a space-based weapon in 2023.

“The new Commander of US Space Command has spoken about ‘the changing realm of space operations’ — that it is becoming a contested ‘war-fighting domain.’

“Nato also aims at recognising space as a domain of warfare this year and Britain will become the first nation to join ‘Operation Olympic Defender’ – a US-led international coalition formed to deter hostile actions in space.”

Ms Swift said that worldwide opposition to the plans is growing.

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