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PEACE protesters targeted a US spy base in Yorkshire on Saturday to demand its closure as the United States marked Independence Day.
Menwith Hill base is run by the US National Security Agency (NSA), and staffed by more than 1,000 US military and civilian personnel.
Its moorland site is dotted by dozens of huge radar installations linked to satellites gathering political, military and economic intelligence from around the world, which is fed to the United States, and plays a key role in US military interventions.
Peace activists have been demanding its closure for four decades. They include the Yorkshire-based Campaign for Accountability of American Bases.
The group stages weekly vigils outside the base and organises an “Independence From America” demonstration every July 4.
Left-wing philosopher and writer Noam Chomsky and journalist John Pilger sent messages of their support.
Mr Chomsky wrote: “I would like to express my strongest support for the demonstration on July 4 at Menwith Hill.
“Anyone who is familiar with recent history should be aware of the dangers to the world posed by the vast and unique system of US military bases worldwide.
“The world deserves independence from this scourge and your contribution to ending it is most welcome.”
And Mr Pilger wrote: “Menwith Hill exemplifies all that is dangerous and Orwellian and wrong about the rapacious great power that occupies so much of the British Isles.
“Menwith Hill is a trigger to nuclear war. It is where the United States spies on the rest of humanity as part of its historic campaign of intimidation and violence against countries and individuals: from the current encirclement of Russia to the drone murders in North Asia and the Middle East.
“The infamous NSA operates from Menwith Hill — which, as Edward Snowden revealed, spies illegally on US citizens and not some of them, but all of them.”
He said the base’s presence in Britain was “an enduring humiliation,” but “nothing compared with the US wars that beckon — against the Russians, the Chinese, Iran and anyone else who challenges big brother.”
