History
Menwith Hill Station was opened on 545 acres (2.21 km2) of land acquired by the British War Office in 1954 and leased to the United States. The U.S. Army Security Agency established a high frequency radio monitoring capability, monitoring communications emanating from the Soviet Union, operating from 1958.
In 1966 the National Security Agency took on responsibility for the U.S. operation of the site, expanding the capabilities to monitor international leased line communications transiting through Britain. The site was then one of the earliest to receive sophisticated early IBM computers, with which NSA automated the labour-intensive watch-list scrutiny of intercepted but unenciphered telex messages.
The European Parliament's Temporary Committee on the ECHELON Interception System stated: "It seems likely, in view of the evidence and the consistent pattern of statements from a very wide range of individuals and organisations, including American sources, that its name is in fact ECHELON, although this is a relatively minor detail." During the early 1970s, the first of what became more than eight large satellite communications dishes were installed at Menwith Hill.
In March 2012 researcher Dr Steve Schofield produced a 65-page report called "Lifting the Lid on Menwith Hill", funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and published by CND. The report revealed the base was "being expanded in a multimillion-pound programme" and becoming "increasingly vital to US intelligence and military operations".
During an interview with Kremlin-funded broadcaster Russia Today in April 2012, Schofield alleged that Menwith Hill was "involved in drone attacks". He said: "The UK’s providing a facility here that’s involved in drone attacks that we know, from independent assessments, are killing and injuring thousands of civilians, and because of the covert nature of that warfare, it’s very difficult to provide information and accountability through the UK parliament. And yet these are acts of war. And normally when we have war, parliament should normally inform people that we’re involved in those. And we’re not being informed. We’re kept entirely in the dark about them."
Read more about this topic: RAF Menwith Hill
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