1999 has been a very busy year in the campaign. We continued to pursue the military lands byelaws 'saga' at the American National Security Agency base at Menwith Hill, near Harrogate North Yorkshire. The Ministry of Defence police have manipulated and abused the law for many years at MHS and other American bases and 1999 saw no change. Even bringing a private prosecution against John Quinn (Sergeant MDP) which resulted in his conviction for common assault against Lindis failed to make a difference. The degree of institutionalised manipulation of the law by the MDP is very concerning.

After over a year of trying to bring the MDP to account for their actions after the byelaws had been declared invalid by Judge Jonathan Crabtree in 1997 Lindis, after much thought finally took the serious step ofbreaching her permanent injunction. She was in 'contempt of court' over 400 times before she was served papers which summoned her to the High Court London for committal to prison. In a acrimonious case involving questionable evidence given by Chief Inspector Drummond, Judge lan Kennedy committed Lindis to prison for nine months.

Issues about prison conditions and attitudes of the prison officers emerged with Anni dealing with many difficulties that arose from Lindis being segregated and finally moved back to a closed prison for raising questions. There have also been good opportunities to speak out about the conditions and treatment of women in prison.

The byelaws at MHS were declared valid for the second time in the High Court London in January 1999. Many arrests and charges under the byelaws were brought during this time and in September 74 cases were discontinued by the CPS at York Crown Court.

An unexpected struggle of a more personal nature has been with the Data Protection Agency. After finding a blacked out section on a copy of a custody record given to her by Harrogate police after an arrest at Menwith earlier this year Lindis asked for a true copy of the original. The blacked out section had been a note to say she had the following entry on the Police National Computer(PNC), 'violent, assaults and makes allegations against police, offends on bail'! Yes - she has broken bail and made justifiable complaints against the police but the 'violent' slur was absolutely untrue, deeply offensive and perhaps went some way to explain why so much violence is used against her by the American security police, the MDP and the civil police. After a long struggle and with the help of a friendly solicitor Lindis has finally been notified that the 'violent' entry has been removed from the PNC. It is possible that many other people have politically motivated untruths entered against their names!

During the year MHS has been prominent in the news because of it's role in the ECHELON system. The European Parliament's second commissioned STOA report (partly written by Duncan Campbell, the investigative journalist who first brought Echelon to public attention) finally got the European business community to question why the US were using satellite intelligence to undercut bids and win contracts from them. We have given interviews to local, national and international journalists about NSAMenwith Hill and Echelon and advised and given interviews to TV reporters. The NSA has recently refused to hand over requested documents about Echelon to the US Congress, claiming that compliance would breach 'client confidentiality'!

The major change at MHS has been the designation of the base as the European Ground Relay Station for the American Space Based Infra Red System. We knew about this in 1997 as we regularly monitor Harrogate Planning Department and tried to publicize it. However there was very little interest by the press. This is the rebirth of Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative ('Star Wars'). The Russians and Chinese are warning darkly that the introduction of the American National Missile Defense system will be the start of a new nuclear arms race and will have a destabilising effect on the world order. Two Space Based Infra Red radomes which will be part of the American NMD system are being built as we write. We have taken legal action in the High Court, London, to try to stop this construction by way of an Injunction against Col. Clyde D Harthcock (MHS American Base Commander); Secretary of State for Defence; Defence Land Agent and Squadron Leader Humphrey Vincent (RAF Liason Officer at MHS).

As we go into the 21st century CAAB will rigorously work to highlight and oppose the abuse of power by the US government aided and abetted by the UK government. All our security is at risk.

We thank Yorkshire and National CND for their continuing support of our work. and send Christmas/Solstice/Seasonal/Millennium greetings to all our friends and supporters.

Love and peace,
Anni and Lindis