-Menwith Hill   US Spy base, England

In the quiet early light of a summer morning in northern England, more than 120 Greenpeace staff and supporters from seven countries arrived at the Menwith Hill spy base in Yorkshire. On July 3, one day before the anticipated Independence Day protests at the American base, fifty of the group simply strolled past the bemused MP at the gate, to the tune of the "Mission Impossible" theme. Thirty were disguised as missiles, and many carried flags reading "Star Wars Starts Wars." Another 80 or so activists scaled the perimeter fences. Once inside the base, the activists dispersed. One group climbed the water tower, while others scaled three more fences to occupy a restricted area surrounding the giant golf-ball looking radomes and the roof of a control building.

The occupation was well underway and the international press alerted by the time security alarms finally wakened the soldiers and staff at the base, one of two in Britain critical to the United States' missile defense scheme. Security forces worked through the day, removing bannerhangers from their perches and ferreting out occupiers inside buildings and between security fences. Some avoided arrest by climbing back out of the base. Not until late in the day were the last activists removed, (or were they?!) and twenty reentered the base again July 4. Two of that group remained for 15 hours before climbing down from a radio mast, where they had suspended a large banner.

Only two protesters were charged, each with criminal damage. But notably, none were charged with trespass. Thus did the Crown avoid a test of the legally-challenged bylaws governing the odd jurisdiction of a U.S. military outpost tucked among Her Majesty's dales. Menwith Hill is home to over 1,000 American National Security Agency personnel, primarily involved in the interception of international phone, fax, and e-mail communications, plus critical missile defense radars.

Nonetheless, by the end of August, the number of bylaw notices posted around the base significantly increased from the mere six posted for at least the last two years. Lindis Percy, of the Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases (CAAB), was reported to the High Court for having twice breached a permanent injunction barring her from the base as she monitored the bylaw notices. The base now also seeks permission to erect two prefab units "to provide additional accommodation ... for security personnel required for operational security reasons," but the plans look like the holding cells erected at Greenham Common in the 1980s for housing large numbers of peace activists.

Angie Zelter appeared in Harrogate Magistrate's Court on October 8 for sentencing for a June, 2000, action at Menwith Hill. She was sentenced to two months in jail, and released after serving one month.

INTERNATIONAL BRIEFS AND UPDATES

The Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases (CAAB) has carried the Stop Star Wars message to several bases around England this past summer, challenging local bylaws, risking and sometimes enduring arrest at Alconbury, Croughton, and Molesworth Air Force Bases, in addition to the radar and spy bases at Menwith Hill and Fylingdales. Lindis Percy walked on to the base at Croughton on August 28 and removed the official Stars and Stripes from its pole to protest American missile defense plans. She told American military police what she had done and wrote to the base commander, explaining her action. Percy again is seeking an appointment with the U.S. Ambassador, official keeper of the flag, to lodge her protest in person and return this flag and another from USAF Barford St. John that she brought down last year.

While protesting alone at USAF Mildenhall after September 11, she was arrested and charged with theft of the flags. She was released and informed the court by faxed letter of her intent to plead not guilty. Nonetheless, a warrant was issued when she failed to appear, but it was, curiously, not enforced for several days until the eve of the October 13 International Day of Protest Against Weapons in Space and a major demonstration at Menwith Hill. (300 in attendance, no arrests.)

Police came to her home in nearby Otley and took Percy and one of the flags into custody. She was held until the following afternoon, preventing her participation in a demonstration she had helped to organize. Percy was released on the condition that she not go within 25 meters of any military establishment used by the United States within England and Wales.

Percy challenged the bail conditions by returning to Menwith Hill with a favored protest banner: the Stars and Stripes emblazoned with the words NOT IN MY NAME. She was only arrested when she informed military police that she was in fact in breach of her bail. She was held overnight, then released with the same conditions.

The issue is now moot after an October 31 meeting between prosecutors and military police resulted in the theft charge being dismissed. Percy has again written to the U.S. Ambassador, seeking an appointment to return the other flag.

For more information, contact the CAAB, 8 Park Row, Otley, West Yorkshire, LS21 1HQ, England, anniandlindis@caab.org.uk and Greenpeace UK, Canonbury Villas, London N1 2PN, England; +44207-865-8245.