Up and Atom: Winter 2007

Up And Atom - Winter 2007

Lakenheath Action and Demo

Lakenheath Demo

On 1st of October about 200 peace campaigners gathered at RAF Lakenheath base in Suffolk to demand the removal of nuclear weapons.

It is believed that the base is home to 110 nuclear bombs.

Bruce Kent said. "Their existence is an obstacle to nuclear disarmament which is the issue in front of us,"

As well as Bruce Kent and Kate Hudson from CND there was also music and Theatre of War during a violent storm which did not seem to deter the protesters.

A “judge” also appeared to condemn the base for their part in war crimes including possession of nuclear weapons and the use of cluster bombs and depleted uranium munitions.

The Lakenheath Eight

The day after the demo a group of eight people cut through the fence and chained themselves to a munitions dump inside the base. Cluster bombs were seen at the munitions dump a few weeks before.

The police were informed that we had secured evidence relating to illegal war crimes. These included cluster bombs and depleted uranium munitions.

It took several hours for the police to cut us free. All eight were arrested under section 128 of SOCPA (see below) and criminal damage. Having been initially bailed to the police station for the 30 November this has now been extended to 1st February.

Section 128

The Serious Organised Crime and Police Act brought in a new charge of trespassing on a designated area (Section 128). Although they were brought in to stop terrorism - suicide bombers will definitely be deterred if they can get £5,000 fine and/or 51 weeks in prison.

Lakenheath F-15s Bomb Iraq

Bombers from Lakenheath have been moved to Qatar from where they carry out regular bombings in Iraq.

The planes are mainly being used to bomb urban areas in Bagdhad and Basra using new “small diameter munitions” along with more conventional bombs.

The planes can be in the air for up to 7 hours at a time bombing multiple sites and up to 46 missions have been known to be flown in a single day.

Cluster Bombs

A term for a type of bombs which opens mid air to release a large number (typically 250) of smaller bomblets. Many bomblets do not explode on impact (5%-14%) and lie around to later explode killing civilians (many of them children).

98% of recorded cluster munitions casualties are civilians according to Handicap International. They pose a threat to civilians for two reasons: they have a very wide area of effect, and they almost always leave behind unexploded bomblets. If dropped on City Hall they would cover an area from the Castle to Chapelfield Gardens.

“15-year-old Sayyid Ahmad Sanef spotted what he thought was one of the yellow food packets. He picked it up to look at it. It blew his head off. “ BBC, 22 November, 2001

Depleted Uranium

Depleted Uranium is the waste that is left after natural uranium is enriched. Although it is slightly less radioactive than ‘Natural Uranium’ it is still a hazard both as a heavy metal poison and its radioactivity. It is very heavy and burst into flames on impact at high velocity and is therefore used in guided missiles and bombs.

On impact the Uranium turns into very small particles.

Of nearly 700,000 US personnel who served in the First Gulf War (1991) over 240,000 are now on permanent medical disability and 11,000 have died and in a US Government study on post-Gulf War babies born to 251 veterans, 67 per cent of the babies were reported to have serious illnesses or serious birth defects.

During the “Shock and Awe” bombing during the second Gulf War (2003) it took a few days for depleted uranium from the attack to be detected near Aldermaston. It is estimate that an average person in the area would have inhaled 25 million depleted uranium particles.

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