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Peace campaigners rally outside US military base

PEACE campaigners demonstrated at a US communications base in Yorkshire on Tuesday night as part of continuing nationwide opposition to war on Iran.

RAF Menwith Hill is staffed almost entirely by US military and civilian personnel.

The base is an intelligence-gathering operation linked to satellites which gather political, military, economic and other information from around the world.

Campaigners have been calling for the closure of the base for more than 40 years, and vigils are held outside its main gates every Tuesday.

One protester was arrested for alleged obstruction on Tuesday night after a car left the base and narrowly avoided a collision with another vehicle.

Sarah Swift of the Menwith Hill Accountability Campaign said: “Obviously the base is not under the control of the UK government. It is under the control of the United States’ National Security Agency.

“It gathers information for United States’ interests — diplomatic, military or economic.

“There is evidence that the base has been involved in drone attacks in countries with which neither the US nor the UK is at war. There are proven links to drone attacks in Yemen and Pakistan.”

Menwith Hill is one of a network of bases which play a key role in US military ventures worldwide, including drone strikes.

The base is easily identifiable on the North Yorkshire moors outside Harrogate, by more than 30 huge, white “golf ball” structures housing the radomes which link it to information-gathering satellites.

 

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