June 10 2001
From Sunday Times (UK)

Americans expand top spy base in UK
by James Clark

HUNDREDS of staff from America's most secret agency are to move from Germany to turn a Yorkshire radar base into one of the most advanced spy centres in the world.

The staff, from the National Security Agency (NSA), will be transferred from a base in southern Germany to RAF Menwith Hill. Their task will be to intercept personal and military communications in an expansion of the base's capabilities.

The move has added to the anger of civil rights and disarmament campaigners, who claim Tony Blair, the prime minister, and Geoff Hoon, the defence secretary, are too willing to bow to America's wishes over plans for its national missile defence (NMD) shield, or "son of star wars", which involves Menwith Hill and other British military bases.

The NSA staff will arrive between March and September next year, after the closure of Bad Aibling in Bavaria. They will be responsible for cracking codes, interception of communications, including e-mail, and other sensitive tasks. The NSA is closely linked to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) but is even more secretive.

The move to Menwith Hill comes as the government faces criticism from Europe that its spying co-operation with America is at odds with its commitment to European defence co-operation.

A European parliament report last month into the American-run Echelon eavesdropping network, in which Britain is a partner and whose targets are said to include European Union countries, said: "That a global system for intercepting communications exists . . . is no longer in doubt. They do tap into private, civilian and corporate communications." Britain has always denied the existence of Echelon.

The deal to allow the NSA to move its listening operations, which were the subject of protests in Germany, was struck last year, although no public announcement was made. Senior Ministry of Defence officials hoped the transfer might go unnoticed because there will be no obvious changes to the high-security site at Menwith Hill.

It currently operates as a radar station, giving early warning of missile and other threats, although it carries out some interception work on behalf of the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. MI6, MI5 and army intelligence use the base along with their American counterparts.

The NSA move will mean the base greatly expands its monitoring of telephone calls, radio messages, faxes and e-mails. The Americans, like other Nato allies, are scaling back operations in Germany because public opinion has turned against large foreign military bases.

An MoD spokeswoman said the additions to Menwith Hill were not part of the NMD programme, which George W Bush, the American president, is trying to persuade EU nations to back.

Britain has already said it wants to take part in scientific tests of equipment to see if the shield could work, but Blair has so far refused to commit Britain to accepting the plan.

A Washington diplomatic source said last week: "The NSA is the apple of the Washington eye these days. There was an understanding that there would be great pressure put on the Labour government to accept this, but that wasn't needed."

Last week a group of protesters at the site, campaigning against the son of star wars system, were moved on by a court order. Nick Walsh, chief executive of Harrogate council, said: "We are concerned about star wars II. As a community we don't know the consequences of it. People are worried that Harrogate will be a potential target."

Bruce K. Gagnon
Coordinator
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 90083
Gainesville, FL. 32607
(352) 337-9274
http://www.space4peace.org
globalnet@mindspring.com