The protesters, from Berkshire and Buckinghamshire Citizens Inspection Agency (CIA), walked unchallenged through the grounds of the US Navy base at Daws Hill, near High Wycombe, and established ‘Camp Freedom’ - a peace camp inside the secure area surrounding the bunker.

The Daws Hill base is responsible for providing command, control, communications, and computing (C4) support to US armed forces across the globe. Daws Hill provides support to the US National Command Authority communications network, through which the US President would issue any command to use nuclear weapons.

The three story underground bunker was built in the 1980s to act as a US command centre for use in the event of nuclear war.

The campaigners have occupied the secure area inside the base in opposition to the continuing US-led occupation of Iraq and George Bush’s so-called “war on terror”. They set up camp yesterday evening (July 3rd).

One of the campaigners inside the base, Kate Holcombe, said: “We set up Camp Freedom here as a direct act of defiance to the US armed forces and the US government. Although there are no aircraft or bombs here, this base, like other US signals and intelligence bases in the UK is critical to the US war machine.

“People need to recognise who the real enemies of peace, freedom and democracy are. The United States has made its ambitions for global military and economic domination of our entire planet, and space, clear in its published ‘Joint Vision for 2020’. They need to be stopped from lying about their agenda and killing for corporate profit.”

Campaigner Peter Burt said: “George Bush’s so-called “war on terror” is, in fact, a war against the large part of the world’s population who oppose the way the USA uses its military and economic power to force its wishes on them.

“Many people in other parts of the world see the invasion of Iraq, the revenge bombing of Afghanistan, and the systematic human rights abuses for which the US military is responsible as acts of terrorism every bit as unforgivable as the September 11th and July 7th atrocities.

“US military bases like Daws Hill don’t make us safer or protect us – they bind us into an aggressive US foreign policy that makes the world a dangerous and violent place for everyone.”

PHOTOS AND VIDEO FOOTAGE:

For photographs and high quality video footage of Camp Freedom, inside the secure area surrounding the Daws Hill nuclear bunker, please contact Sarah Lasenby on 0845 458 2544.

For information on the current situation or to contact the protesters please phone Anna-Linnea Rundberg on 01436 674850 or Adam Conway on 0774 3341934.