http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=003086442715630&rtmo=weioiwsb&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/01/5/3/nswar203.html
TECHNIQUES used at Greenham Common are being used by protesters to highlight
Fylingdales and Menwith Hill radar stations in President Bush's "Son of Star
Wars" defence system.
Helen John, 63, a founder of the Greenham Common protest, Angie Zelter, 49,
another Greenham veteran, and Anne Lee were found guilty yesterday of
criminal damage and told they could face prison. The women, now members of
the Menwith Hill Women's Peace Campaign, had cut a hole in the wire fence
around Menwith Hill, near Harrogate, north Yorks, to gain access to the
site.
A warrant was issued for the arrest of Zelter, who had asked to be tried in
her absence. All three had pleaded not guilty at Harrogate court on the
grounds that if the truth was known about the station it would be clear that
entering it with the intention of causing damage was not a crime.
"I had a hammer and we were hoping to cause as much damage as we could,"
said John after the case. The women have been campaigning against the
station for four-and-a-half years. John said: "This is not a defensive
system. This is an offensive system. America is dominating space to protect
their commercial interests.
We have entered the era of resource wars - oil, mineral, water - and the US
intends to dominate the world." The women are due to be sentenced on May 21.
Zelter was one of the protesters acquitted by a Liverpool jury in 1977 after
causing £1.5 million damage to a Hawk jet bound for Indonesia. They had
pleaded they were preventing a worse crime, genocide.
In a separate case yesterday, Anni Rainbow, 52, from Otley, Leeds, a veteran
campaigner at Menwith Hill, was charged with obstructing RAF bylaws. Ms
Rainbow, who says she has been arrested up to 20 times, said: "I don't like
having to go to court but this is so important that we have to do what we
can and if we get arrested for peaceful protest then that's the way it
goes."
Last week her colleague, Lindis Percy, 59, a former Greenham Common
protester, was acquitted of criminal misuse of an American flag, which she
had lain on the road from the base so that servicemen had to drive over it.
P.S.
Anne Lee, Helen John and Angie Zelter were found guilty today in Harrogate
Magistrate's court of causing damage to the SATCOM fence at Menwith Hill US
Space-War Spy Base, North Yorkshire. The action took place on 19 June last
year, and the women admitted that had they had more time they would have
caused as much damage as possible to one of the main ground stations needed
for the ballistic missile "defence" programme. District Judge Alderson,
from Nottingham, made it clear she would insist on a custodial sentence for
the £962 of damage, but that she would wait for the pre-sentence reports, as
is normal procedure. The women will be sentenced on 21 May 2001. Angie
Zelter, who was tried in her absence, has been issued with an arrest
warrant.