THE US spy base RAF Menwith Hill is easily identifiable by dozens of huge domes, often referred to as giant golf balls, spread across a vast acreage of land on the Yorkshire moors between Harrogate and Skipton in North Yorkshire.
 
The 37 domes house highly sophisticated intelligence-gathering equipment linked to US satellites collecting political, military and economic information from US satellites circling the Earth. The information is relayed to the Pentagon.
 
The base also can intercept personal telephone calls and other communications. It is among three similar US bases worldwide. Another is at Pine Gap, near Alice Springs in central Australia, and the third is in the US.
 
Although the base is owned by Britain’s Ministry of Defence, RAF Menwith Hill is only nominally under the control of the RAF. It is home to around 1,000 US military and civilian personnel. A much smaller number of RAF staff are under the charge of a Squadron Leader who liaises with the US masters.
 
The base is defended by Ministry of Defence Police. British MPs have been refused access to the base.
 
The base opened in 1954 and for more than 50 years peace activists have campaigned for its closure. The campaigns have taken on varying forms  —  permanent peace camps, regular demonstrations and incursions among them.
 
Anne Lee, a former teacher, mounted a long-term individual protest living in a caravan in a lay-by near the base for around two years, supplied with provisions by supporters.
 
There have been small victories. When the base wished to expand its perimeter Lee identified a rare orchid growing on the land the base wanted to expand over. An objection was lodged. The expansion was stopped. For once the US war machine shuddered to a halt. Flower Power in action!
 
In the 1980s the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament conducted its “Snowball” campaign against military bases in Britain. Thousands of activists mobilised, mounting peaceful acts of civil disobedience. One action was the cutting of wire fences around the bases. Token pieces of wire were removed from the Menwith Hill fence by activists.
 
Several were arrested at Menwith Hill and convicted of breaking military by-laws, among other offences. They appealed, and some convictions were overturned by a court in York partly because Menwith Hill’s perimeter fence had been extended to cover a public right of way.
 
Since the 1970s there have been several peace camps outside the base, of varying duration. Grotesquely the base sits in a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in Nidderdale.
 
Weekly vigils are held outside the base, every Tuesday at 6pm, by the Menwith Hill Accountability Campaign.