Sam Downie and Viram Patel join us to discuss the right and wrongs of the psychological warfare against poor people, behavioural modification embodied in the governments happiness agenda. The work of world renowned blogger Kitty S. Jones has catalogued the misuse of psychology by the British Government https://kittysjones.wordpress.com/2013/07/25/propaganda/ Sarah Swift & Brigid-Mary Oates join Tony Gosling outside RAF Menwith Hill in Yorkshire home to the US National Security Agency. MoD Police Sgt Dougie Page introduces the official version of what RAF Menwith Hill is there for. We then go on to discuss attempts by the US to restrict protests at the base and stop people talking to the staff as they go in and out. What is Menwith Hills and militarisms role in the modern world? Is the spending on the base justified? What about Britains relationship with the US? What do the British get out of it? The House of Commons voted yesterday to renew Trident nuclear ballistic missile submarine force but does it cost the widely reported £30bn, or £205bn as The Guardian reported? https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/may/12/replacing-trident-will-cost-at-least-205-billion-campaign-for-nuclear-disarmament RAF Menwith Hill base is used for US surveillance within Britain, surely the US need to do that to keep us safe? and what have the Edward Snowden revelations taught us about that relationship?
NSA/NRO Menwith Hill is the largest US intelligence-gathering, interception and surveillance base outside the US, however, a £200 million expansion is planned for USAF Croughton near Oxford which will become the Joint Analysis and Intelligence Center and will then be as important as NSA/NRO Menwith Hill - although there will probably be about 9/10 radomes at Croughton (5 at the moment) and NSA/NRO Menwith Hill has 33/34. The JIAC at Molesworth is closing sometime in 2020 and will move to Croughton (AFRICOM is based at the JIAC at Molesworth and will probably be transferred to Croughton). NSA/NRO Menwith Hill is part of the global network of Signal Intelligence (SIGINT) bases. Two of the 33/34 radomes currently on the site form part of the Space Based Infra Red System (SBIRS), a key component of the US Missile Defense System. It is now the designated Regional Security Operations Centre for Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and the Indian Ocean. Successive UK Governments have complied with this expansion and specialisation without any public or parliamentary discussion, and with no democratic oversight, ignoring dangers posed by the continued presence and methods of functioning of the base. The British government colludes with the NSA to shroud its illegal operations in total secrecy, using national security as a convenient smokescreen, preventing public debate and comments on its intelligence functions.
CAAB campaigns to raise public awareness, and for scrutiny and accountability of US overseas bases, and highlights the secrecy and disinformation surrounding US bases in Britain and the inadequacies of democratic oversight and accountability.
US bases in Britain are called RAF bases in order to hide the extent of the US presence. There are at least ten bases in England. The RAF Commanders are liason officers with no right to interfere with anything that the Americans do on the bases. In 1996 Menwith Hill was designated 'RAF' Menwith Hill in order to validate the military bylaws which apply to UK military bases under the Military Lands Act of 1892. Apparently "This was simply an administrative change to bring the base into line with other RAF sites made available by the Ministry of Defence to the United States Government". The Military Land Bylaws were first brought in as a reaction to the protest against Cruise missiles at Greenham Common in April 1985 by the then Secretary of State for Defence, Michael Heseltine. The intention was to make trespass a criminal offence and therefore arrestable and so people could be criminalised to stop their actions of resistance. Campaigners tested and challenged the bylaws and there were many arrests and court cases which lead to the disclosure of a number of documents revealing the history of how a small group of people in London made the decision to hand over vast areas of land to the US visiting forces in the late 40s/early 50s (the 'NATO Status of Forces Agreement'), and that the land was compulsorily purchased at the request of the US. Among the documents disclosed were details of the 'Security of Tenure' agreement which allowed the Americans use of the land for 21 years, renewable every 21 years, on request of the USAF. There were also details of how bases should be referred to as 'RAF' and not USAF. The bylaws cases provided an unprecedented opportunity to expose the connivance of the UK State Legislative/Executive/Judicial structures with the Pentagon in support of US bases in Britain.
NSA/NRO Menwith Hill received awards for its support to US naval operations in the Persian Gulf from 1987 to 1988 and in 1991 for support of the Iraqi war operations Desert Storm and Desert Shield. (High-resolution satellite imagery and signals intelligence played a vital role in identifying military targets in Iraq. Signals intelligence was used to identify key Iraqi military command, control, communications and intelligence facilities that became priority targets for the US offensive.)
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