Yorkshire CND,
Bradford
Yorkshire England

October 05, 2019
Peace campaigners launch week of action to ‘keep space for peace’
The Morning Star

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/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.

Croughton, Oxfordshire

The new U.S. ‘Space Force’ is part of the militarisation of space. This will need ground stations like USAF Croughton. This major U.S. 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 is a key link in the ‘chain’ controlling US surveillance, armed drone and special forces operations across Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.

Fabian Hamilton MP, Shadow Minister for Disarmament, speaking at the Oxfordshire Peace Campaign ‘Keep Space for Peace’ march and rally at the main gate of USAF Croughton.

October 06, 2019
Space Week begins in India
Visakhapatnam

Some in Visakhapatnam, gathered yesterday to stand with Keep Space for Peace Week which first began in 2001.  They plan to hold events all through space week across their city.

Each year people around the world hold various kinds of events in order to bring our space concerns to people in their communities.

The man in the white shirt behind the banner is JV Prabhakar, a former regional director of technical schools in his community - from high schools to colleges.  So each year all during space week he goes to various schools and makes presentations and holds protests.

A couple of years ago several of our Global Network leaders went to Visakhapatnam where Prabhakar took us from lower level schools to higher level engineering colleges.  He has wide reach and he works to bring all classes into these important discussions.

There are about 300 million poor people in India and their nation is spending alot of money to become a 'player' in space.  Like in the US, poverty is neglected in order to support the financial interests inside the aerospace industry.

October 07, 2019
Space Week in Asheville
North Carolina

I just got home from our first day walking around Asheville for the week. As you know, last year I did this on my own, couldn’t get anyone from Veterans For Peace to join me. But this year, I have some takers. Today, 4 of us walked around town - I led with the banner, then we had a drummer, a woman costumed in a shroud with a sign and another passing out flyers. And not only was it Saturday in Touristville, but it was Octoberfest! So many people out on the streets for our parade! We got a lot of attention, handed out close to 100 flyers and had some pretty good conversations. We went for about an hour and a half. I came home elated. Just wanted to share my successful day with you.....

From the flyer I am handing out:

"NATO was created 70 years ago to contain the Soviet Union which no longer exists. Still, NATO has grown to be a global military alliance.

US/NATO military bases, war games, and weapons are now deployed directly on Russia’s border and around China. A nuclear WW III could start in a flash.

The continuing development of US “missile defense” systems and space weapons are creating an expensive new arms race.

Militarism is the largest single contributor to carbon emissions on the planet, accelerating our planetary climate emergency.

“The US is already spending $1 trillion a year on our endless war empire. The only way to fund Space Force is to cut Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and what little is left of the welfare program. Are you going to stand for that?” - quote from Bruce Gagnon"

October 08, 2019
Space Week at Menwith Hill
North Yorkshire, England

This year's 'Keep Space for Peace' demonstration at Menwith Hill coincided with the usual weekly Tuesday demonstration from 6 – 7:30 pm at the Main gates of NSA/NRO Menwith Hill, near Harrogate.

It was a windy, wet, blustery evening and just a handfull of demonstrators turned out but there were a few speeches and a minute's silence for Harry Dunn, the 19 year old who was killed after his motorbike collided with a car near RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire on 27 August. The wife of a US 'diplomat' left the UK after she became suspected as being the driver.

October 12, 2019
Public Meeting on Menwith Hill
Friends Meeting House,
Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England

Menwith Hill Accountability Campaign (MHAC) & Yorkshire CND. gave presentations about Menwith Hill.

Sarah Swift from MHAC spoke on how Menwith NSA/NRO spy base is invlved in the targeting of US armed drone strike operations in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Afghanistan. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism has catalogued some 6,700 strikes overall, resulting in between 8,400 and 12,100 deaths between 2014 and 2019. Around 1,725 of those killed were civilians, including 400 children.

Menwith Hill gathers intelligence from intercepting electronic messages sent via satellites or fibre optic cables. Satellite interception is carried out using US government satellites orbiting Overhead of target countries to monitor ground communications such as mobile phone and WiFi. It is also part of the Fornsat global "foreign satellite collection" system that intercepts communications from satellites.

In 2016 "The Intercept" reported on how Menwith Hill used programmes like GHOSTHUNTER (2006) and GHOSTWOLF (2012) ‘to geolocate targets [for capture or kill] . . . in Yemen.'

NB The US was not and is not officially at war with Yemen.

As Sarah also pointed out: “Menwith Hill has always had a role in monitoring communications and telemetry for missile tests in order to assess technological capabilities of potential adversaries and to provide prior intelligence of launches“

Dave Webb from Yorkshire CND and the Global Network described how Menwith Hill fits in with the US global military surveillance and intelligence gathering system. The demonstration at Menwith was one of the 40 known actions taking place in 10 countries as part of Keep Space for Peace Week. Dave outlined the use of hundreds of satellites by the US military for monitoring, communications, surveillance, drone operations, missile defence, missile targeting and guidance, global positioning and more.

As well as Fornsat, Menwith is also one of the stations involved in the Torus System, which uses multiple advanced quasi-parabolic multi-beam antennas to simultaneously intercept up to 35 satellite communications. It is also one of the stations in a worldwide network that monitors national and international fibre optic communications.

Documents disclosed by Edward Snowden illustrate how the extended UKUSA, five eyes, intelligence community uses systems such as Prism, a program developed by the NSA to collect internet communications from various internet companies to target encrypted communications.

Dave also mentioned the collaboration of other European countries, such as Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, in providing intelligence, operationaland logistical support to the lethal US drone programme. Menwith's role as a downlink station for the space based compnents of US missile defence were also outlined.

Finally, Dave outlined the international protest at relevent bases, installations, communications centres and associated corporations around the world. The Global Network's role is to support these groups and bring them together to share information and expereinces.