Press Releases & Updates 2001

In a joint Trident Ploughshares/Menwith Hill Women’s Peace Campaign action on 19th June 2000, Angie Zelter, along with Helen John and Anne Lee, got through the new high security fence at Menwith Hill in Yorkshire in an attempt to dismantle the inner fence that serves to protect the communications array designed to be part of the US Missile Defence system. The Ministry of Defence say the total damage caused was £900. By their action the women were also confronting Trident, the UK’s weapon of mass destruction and the Echelon espionage system in which Menwith Hill plays a key role. Echelon has been recently slated for its breach of civil liberties in a leaked European Parliament report. *

The women were found guilty of criminal damage at Harrogate Magistrates Court on 30th April and in the same court on 22nd May Helen John was sentenced to three months and Anne Lee to two months. Angie did not attend court and a warrant was issued for her arrest. Angie (49), was one of the four women acquitted at Liverpool Crown Court in 1996 after damaging a Hawk aircraft bound for Indonesia. She is also a member of the Trident Three who disarmed a Trident -related research barge in 1999 and were acquitted in Greenock Sheriff court.

Angie said: "The mentality that comes with having and threatening nuclear weapons undermines human rights and the law. The US and the UK think they are entitled to do anything, to keep their plans and preparations for mass destruction secret and at the same time spy on their own citizens. By any reasonable definition that makes them terrorist states, rogue states."

Additional Contact: Menwith Hill Women’s Peace Campaign: 01943 468593

* See Guardian 26th May 2001 "Leaked spy report names UK"

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