Who said the police never lie? Lakenheath 8 trial update.
Twiddle and co. | 03.12.2008 00:39 | SOCPA | Anti-militarism | Iraq | Terror War | Cambridge
On Monday 1st December 10 am, the Lakenheath 8 began their trial on charges of SOCPA 128 and Criminal Damage.
Wreaths were laid at the door of Ipswich crown court in remembrance of Margaret Moss, one of the defendants who died in 2007, and for all the victims of cluster munitions.
After a late start due to an unforeseen ‘Irene’ incident the trial started at 1.30pm.
First into the witness box for the prosecution was Mrs.'I know nothing' Rice, deputy director of Air Staff, responsible for all policy matters relating to United States visiting forces. She has held this position in London for 18 years.
Wreaths were laid at the door of Ipswich crown court in remembrance of Margaret Moss, one of the defendants who died in 2007, and for all the victims of cluster munitions.
After a late start due to an unforeseen ‘Irene’ incident the trial started at 1.30pm.
First into the witness box for the prosecution was Mrs.'I know nothing' Rice, deputy director of Air Staff, responsible for all policy matters relating to United States visiting forces. She has held this position in London for 18 years.
When questioned she said she was not aware of day-to-day procedures at USAF Lakenheath regarding the deployment of weapons.
She said ‘I am not saying the RAF commander has any control of the base’ and that she would not necessarily know if there had been any dispute between the RAF commander and United States Air Force (USAF), adding that she didn’t know what would happen if there were any.
The Lakenheath 8 see this as a little shocking considering her area of responsibility.
Next up was Sgt. 'I just load'em' Thomas, USAF Technical Munitions Specialist. Thomas was in the munitions area when the Lakenheath 8 arrived to block the loading of cluster bombs. He was alledgedly busy not loading bombs, but alerted Munitions Control of the activist's presence in order to greet them with a cup of tea and a cake or two… Although Thomas told the court that as a matter of policy, weapons would not be moved around and planes do not fly when protestors are on site, F15-e’s can be heard in the video of the action, showing that the USAF play fast and loose with their own health and safety policy. P.s. A half man half rabbit seems to have taken the footage as most of the video is of the grass and of feet………
Thomas also admitted that although he had intimate knowledge of cluster bombs before passing them to his flying buddies, he wouldn’t know how to handle the after effects once they left the USAF embrace.
The Lakenheath 8 were shocked yet again, this time at the lack of knowledge of what bombs do when so unceremoniously dumped. Lets face it- loading and preparing these weapons is all part of the process that leads to the deployment of these illegal weapons. Does it surprise you that a USAF Technical Munitions Specialist is unaware of the consequences of cluster munitions?
Third in line to the stand was MOD Police Sgt. ‘Total Recall’ Hutchenson.
Hutchenson was the person the Lakenheath 8 called from their lock-on in the weapons area to investigate the war crimes they believed were being committed. Although it was the activists who were surrounded by men with big guns, Hutchenson must have been in a flap at the time, because in the witness box he could not ‘recall’ war crimes or cluster bombs being mentioned during that phone call. After their arrest, Sgt. Hutcheson suggested Mell Harrison should bring up her request vis. war crimes in her interview with the MOD CID. Which she later did…. And they said, now is not the time to report a crime......
Although campaigners had reported war crimes to Hutchenson at every opportunity in the past, he could not ‘recall’ war crimes being mentioned on any other occasion, or being asked to investigate them. He said that if he got any reports of war crimes he would have passed the investigation to CID.
He said he would usually advise that all activity at base stops when there are intruders inside and that the MOD police would usually check the whole area of the base for further intruders before giving the clearance to begin air and ground traffic.
Sgt Hutchinson said the 11-strong MOD police’s main job at USAF Mildenhall and Lakenheath is to deal with protesters, not legal issues at the base.
He went on to say he could not say that all activities on the base were always legal.
He could not ‘recall’ much really…
The Lakenheath 8 are appalled that Hutchenson had no recollection of cluster bombs or war crimes or being asked to investigate anything- ever!!
Tuesday 2nd Dec- Day two.
The fourth prosecution witness was the amazing MOD PC Meddings.
Strangely, although his main job (as Hutchenson) is to police protests and protesters, he had only dealt with ‘one protest and a few Lindis Percy actions’ - though was aware of others at USAF Lakenheath and elsewhere - and did not know what the protests were about. He thought they were probably 'anti-American'.
Need we say more!
The fifth witness so far was the very dodgy DC Smith, who just fibbed his way through the cross examination… He'd apparently never been told anything about war crimes; Mell had never spoken to him about illegal goings on at the base apart from just once, in her interview. On that day he did not feel the complaint of war crimes was a pressing issue, as he had the pesky protestors to deal with. Also Smith did not feel it was appropriate for a police officer of his level to deal with complaint of this nature, meaning the war crimes.
Again he was not aware what the protests were about, who Trident Ploughshare were (he thought they could be a Christian group), or what the beliefs of organisations involved in these protests were. However, he did give one of the defendants a glowing character reference- told you he fibbed his way through his evidence.!
The Lakenheath 8 think all MOD police may have been briefed…………. Mmmmmmmm we are sure they would not dream of talking codswallop under oath - they are the Police after all.
Smith was later reported to be chain smoking, pacing and swearing a lot outside the court. Oh dear. Well he should tell the bleed’ in truth then shouldn’t he?
And finally the ADMISIONS!
1. This is amazing- after years of “ we can neither confirm or deny” The USAF actually confirmed the presence of cluster bombs at USAF Lakenheath AND that they were present on the day the Lakenheath 8 took action.
2. We owned up to being there on the day……… we think they may have already spotted us when we were there as we were attached by D locks to the area containing cluster bombs and other weapons of the ‘conventional’ sort… So we said Yep, we cut the fence, yep we entered a SOCRAP area and yep we locked on. BUT that we did not commit a crime as we had legal excuse. Mmm clever huh???!!!
Mell Harrison was first witness for the defence…………..but we can’t tell you about that yet as she is still under oath, she has been cross examined for over two hours so far and has to go back in the box first thing in the morning.
As she left the box she asked if this meant she could not fib all night………. If that is the case then she is already broken that oath as she told me that she does not believe in pixies………..
More tomorrow if we have not all lost the plot by then…….may ‘the force’ be with you.
She said ‘I am not saying the RAF commander has any control of the base’ and that she would not necessarily know if there had been any dispute between the RAF commander and United States Air Force (USAF), adding that she didn’t know what would happen if there were any.
The Lakenheath 8 see this as a little shocking considering her area of responsibility.
Next up was Sgt. 'I just load'em' Thomas, USAF Technical Munitions Specialist. Thomas was in the munitions area when the Lakenheath 8 arrived to block the loading of cluster bombs. He was alledgedly busy not loading bombs, but alerted Munitions Control of the activist's presence in order to greet them with a cup of tea and a cake or two… Although Thomas told the court that as a matter of policy, weapons would not be moved around and planes do not fly when protestors are on site, F15-e’s can be heard in the video of the action, showing that the USAF play fast and loose with their own health and safety policy. P.s. A half man half rabbit seems to have taken the footage as most of the video is of the grass and of feet………
Thomas also admitted that although he had intimate knowledge of cluster bombs before passing them to his flying buddies, he wouldn’t know how to handle the after effects once they left the USAF embrace.
The Lakenheath 8 were shocked yet again, this time at the lack of knowledge of what bombs do when so unceremoniously dumped. Lets face it- loading and preparing these weapons is all part of the process that leads to the deployment of these illegal weapons. Does it surprise you that a USAF Technical Munitions Specialist is unaware of the consequences of cluster munitions?
Third in line to the stand was MOD Police Sgt. ‘Total Recall’ Hutchenson.
Hutchenson was the person the Lakenheath 8 called from their lock-on in the weapons area to investigate the war crimes they believed were being committed. Although it was the activists who were surrounded by men with big guns, Hutchenson must have been in a flap at the time, because in the witness box he could not ‘recall’ war crimes or cluster bombs being mentioned during that phone call. After their arrest, Sgt. Hutcheson suggested Mell Harrison should bring up her request vis. war crimes in her interview with the MOD CID. Which she later did…. And they said, now is not the time to report a crime......
Although campaigners had reported war crimes to Hutchenson at every opportunity in the past, he could not ‘recall’ war crimes being mentioned on any other occasion, or being asked to investigate them. He said that if he got any reports of war crimes he would have passed the investigation to CID.
He said he would usually advise that all activity at base stops when there are intruders inside and that the MOD police would usually check the whole area of the base for further intruders before giving the clearance to begin air and ground traffic.
Sgt Hutchinson said the 11-strong MOD police’s main job at USAF Mildenhall and Lakenheath is to deal with protesters, not legal issues at the base.
He went on to say he could not say that all activities on the base were always legal.
He could not ‘recall’ much really…
The Lakenheath 8 are appalled that Hutchenson had no recollection of cluster bombs or war crimes or being asked to investigate anything- ever!!
Tuesday 2nd Dec- Day two.
The fourth prosecution witness was the amazing MOD PC Meddings.
Strangely, although his main job (as Hutchenson) is to police protests and protesters, he had only dealt with ‘one protest and a few Lindis Percy actions’ - though was aware of others at USAF Lakenheath and elsewhere - and did not know what the protests were about. He thought they were probably 'anti-American'.
Need we say more!
The fifth witness so far was the very dodgy DC Smith, who just fibbed his way through the cross examination… He'd apparently never been told anything about war crimes; Mell had never spoken to him about illegal goings on at the base apart from just once, in her interview. On that day he did not feel the complaint of war crimes was a pressing issue, as he had the pesky protestors to deal with. Also Smith did not feel it was appropriate for a police officer of his level to deal with complaint of this nature, meaning the war crimes.
Again he was not aware what the protests were about, who Trident Ploughshare were (he thought they could be a Christian group), or what the beliefs of organisations involved in these protests were. However, he did give one of the defendants a glowing character reference- told you he fibbed his way through his evidence.!
The Lakenheath 8 think all MOD police may have been briefed…………. Mmmmmmmm we are sure they would not dream of talking codswallop under oath - they are the Police after all.
Smith was later reported to be chain smoking, pacing and swearing a lot outside the court. Oh dear. Well he should tell the bleed’ in truth then shouldn’t he?
And finally the ADMISIONS!
1. This is amazing- after years of “ we can neither confirm or deny” The USAF actually confirmed the presence of cluster bombs at USAF Lakenheath AND that they were present on the day the Lakenheath 8 took action.
2. We owned up to being there on the day……… we think they may have already spotted us when we were there as we were attached by D locks to the area containing cluster bombs and other weapons of the ‘conventional’ sort… So we said Yep, we cut the fence, yep we entered a SOCRAP area and yep we locked on. BUT that we did not commit a crime as we had legal excuse. Mmm clever huh???!!!
Mell Harrison was first witness for the defence…………..but we can’t tell you about that yet as she is still under oath, she has been cross examined for over two hours so far and has to go back in the box first thing in the morning.
As she left the box she asked if this meant she could not fib all night………. If that is the case then she is already broken that oath as she told me that she does not believe in pixies………..
More tomorrow if we have not all lost the plot by then…….may ‘the force’ be with you.
Twiddle and co.
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