8/2/2019 Menwith Hill spy station occupation

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Spy station occupation

The Menwith Hill US spy base

A secretive Yorkshire military base used by an American spy

agency is to become the focalpoint of a protest organised byOccupy movement activists.

Demonstrators from across thenorth are planning to descendon RAF Menwith Hill nearHarrogate this week to raiseawareness about what theyclaim is unaccountablecommunications surveillance.

Owned by the Ministry of Defence, Menwith Hill has beenused by the US NationalSecurity Agency (NSA) sincethe 1950s. It is considered to bethe largest American overseasintelligence base in the worldand intercepts communicationssignals from satellites.

Military spendingDominic Linley, a Leedscampaigner who is helping

organise the protest, said: Itsnot just about our own civilliberties as British citizens andwhether we might be spied on.Its about the fact that the base isdirectly giving information tomilitary forces that are thencarrying out attacks whichcould result in civilian deaths.

We have very little say inwhat happens to theinformation gathered there. Wehave to take it as read that

theyre doing it in our bestinterest but theres no

accountability to parliament.Calling themselves OccupyMenwith Hill, the protestershave arranged workshops anddiscussions to take place at afour-day makeshift campsitenear the base. On Tuesday theyare planning to hold a peacevigil to coincide with a globalday of action against excessivemilitary spending.

Drone strikesBradford-based researcher SteveSchofield is scheduled todeliver a workshop that willfocus on the role Menwith Hillplays in international militarycampaigns and its possible rolein assisting controversial USdrone air strikes in Pakistan andAfghanistan.

Its not just a passive

surveillance centre as mostpeople see it, Schofield toldThe Big Issue in the North . Itsactually active in warfare.

The Occupy Menwith Hillcamp hopes to tap into publicdisquiet following recentrevelations about a newgovernment surveillance planthat could involve the real-timemonitoring of onlinecommunications.

It goes to the heart of the

accumulation of power byunaccountable bodies,Schofield said. They say it hasa legitimate function to provideintelligence about potentialenemies, but we have no accessto information about the natureand scale of the activities thatMenwith Hill is involved in.

Unaccountable powerWhat the Occupy movementhas been saying about the banksand unaccountable power alsoapplies to the security services,and that needs to be challenged.I hope Occupy Menwith Hillwill spread to challenging allthe military centres of power inthis country.

The Occupy movement wasformed last September in New

York by protesters angry atcorporate greed and inequality,

but it has since inspired manysplinter groups rallying arounda variety of causes.

Next month, protesters incities worldwide, includingLeeds, London, Manchester andSheffield, plan to take to thestreets as part of internationallyorganised days of action.

Ronan McNern, a spokesmanfor Occupy London, saidactivists across Britain weregearing up for a second wave of demonstrations following theeviction of the St PaulsCathedral encampment inFebruary.

You saw the first wave of Occupy six months ago. This isabout taking it to the next stage,McNern said. What happenedthen was a conversation startedabout injustice and inequality

across politics, economics,environment and social justice.There is a lot of feeling now thatits time to get out, make somenoise and go further than lasttime.

RYAN GALLAGHER

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