Womenwith Hill Women’s Peace Campaign
From Helen John November 16th 2004

There are a number of reasons why the United States Missile Defence programme has an impact on the environment. A detailed submission from Anne Lee of Womenwith Hill Women’s Peace Campaign has dealt with the physical problems arising from the presence of USA Satellite Ground Relay Bases on UK and other foreign soil.

I wish to supplement her fine work, with details of the way in which illegal acts that have accompanied these bases from their onset in the UK in the early 50s have had a detrimental impact on the human environment. The US Missile Defence programme envisages an escalation of such bases, which would result in an escalation of the ongoing environmental destruction.

The 1966 Labour Government of Harold Wilson secretly purchased the Island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, without the knowledge of the British public, Parliament or the United Nations, at the request of the United States, which wished to lease the Island. The entire population from Diego Garcia were systematically exiled between 1966 to 1973 from their homeland, and abandoned to a life of misery and poverty on Mauritius. Many did not survive the ordeal. Their environment has been stolen from them and polluted by a war-fighting strategic facility in the Indian Ocean region. This base is closely connected to Menwith Hill. Both are ground relay bases.

The ongoing tragedy of these people, who are bravely trying to gain recompense from the British Government (so far to no avail) is currently before the High Court . The British Government feels the whole incident was too long ago to be of any interest in the 21^st century.

This attitude of contempt for human life displayed by the British and American governments in the case of the Diego Garcia islanders, is also reflected in what we see today in Iraq.

The USA wanted a foothold in the Indian Ocean region, and the UK bought it for them. When this court case first came to the courts, information revealed as part of this showed that, in return for providing the USA with Diego Garcia the British government received a discount on the price paid for the Polaris nuclear submarine system. Polaris, and its successor system Trident – which up-grading itself represents a massive escalation by the UK – are also grave environmental threats to the entire planet.

Former Chief of CIA, Stansfield Turner, stated in a Dispatches programme for Channel 4 Television in October 1993 that he spoke to a Station Chief of a ground relay base, who said he had intercepted information, which "could have been of use to a US corporation". When asked what he had done about it by Stansfield Turner, he replied: "Nothing, there is no policy on this." Stansfield Turner then said: "I saw to it that policy changed."

From that time on commercial and personal communications have been subjected to economic warfare waged against any individual, government or business interest that could benefit the USA.

When major contracts are lost due to unfair competition, the job losses that ensue ruin the lives of many honest men and women worldwide, wrecking their personal environment and their vision for a safe, prosperous future.

Poverty, trafficking of women and children for sexual exploitation, crime, drugs and alcohol addiction can all to often follow this fate. Unclean drinking water (the greatest cause of death globally), lack of adequate housing, health care and education cannot be halted whilst this cancer of global theft remains in our midst, carried out by US Ground Relay Bases.

Germany quantified its loss at £7 billion worth of contracts it had expected to win. This finding has led to the US Base at Bad-Aibling in Bavaria closing on 30^th September 2004.

In 1985 the Conservative government of John Major altered the Telecommunications Act to prevent any recourse in law should a harmed party try to prove the theft of commercial contracts.

To expand the range and scope of bases for USA Missile Defence will foster a more dangerous and lawless world, where the threat from first strike nuclear weapons policy held by the USA and the UK may well be put into operation against Non-Nuclear States.

A new and deadly Nuclear Powered Arms Race in Space has already begun, hastened by the unilateral withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in June 2002 by the Bush regime. The religious fundamentalism underpinning the US Administration’s policies following the re-election of George W Bush does not evoke confidence in humane solutions toward world peace.

A nation that has declared it intends to have FULL SPECTRUM DOMINANCE over Space to protect USA Commercial and Military interests does not sound very friendly to the rest of us.

Whilst George Bush and Tony Blair, see the threat of weapons of mass destruction everywhere else, neither have honoured their obligations under UN Article 6 of the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty to eliminate their own nuclear arsenals – adopting the policy ‘Do as I say, not as I do’. This shows a lack of maturity of such dangerous proportions that a Missile Defence programme with catastrophic Environmental Potential would be a disaster waiting to happen to an unprotected planet.

Ballistic Missile Defence, is not a Defensive policy, but a truly Offensive one in every sense of the word.