Gloucestershire Weapons Inspectors

Oct 31 - Fairford

14 Dec 2002 : Fairford - Mass Citizens Weapons Inspection Protest

We are back from a fun day out at Fairford - The mass weapons inspection attempt by 500+ citizens was very successful in helping focus attention on the strategic importance of Fairford. See IndyMedia reports 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 - late on, after many people left, some protestors cut the fence and gained access to the base. Police removed these volunteer inspectors and no arrests were made. See short report on IndyMedia. We think it was video filmed... we'll be watching out for the pics... here's the video
BBC Wiltshire got it wrong and said 500,000 anti war demonstrators marched to Fairford.
Now it's time to follow through and support the B-2 OR NOT B-2 campaign.

Here's a few of our own pics (thanks Cher) - video to follow soon...

	Over 500 Citizen Inspectors gather from around the UK. Coaches from Bristol, Manchester, Bath, Swindon and Oxford. People from Cardiff, London, Brighton and many other cities and towns from came to Fairford in Gloucestershire on a freezin cold winters day to join a mass WMD inspection attempt at RAF Fairford. RAF Fairford is one of only 3 B-2 Stealth bomber forward bases in the world. First wave of attacks on Iraq will most likely be acrried our by B-2 Stealth bombers flying from Fairford and Diego Garcia - both Birtish territory. Whilst permission has already been granted to use Diego Garcia the UK Government has still to give permission for use of Fairford. By turning up the pressure now protestors hope to influence that decision.

The procession of 500 inspectors plus media including BBC, Channel 4 and Carlton TV - winds its way for two miles through the lanes from Fairford village to the airbase.

Music & P.A. from Rinky-Dink (thanks Dan and the crew) and rhythm from Stroud Samba Band entertained the marchers.

The GWI recently captured B-2 bomber led the procession and was well behaved for the most part...

	...Until it got itself involved in a little collateral damage incident - filmed by Carlton TV. The bomber - claiming the name Spirit of Resistance - was apparently frustrated by being prevented from entering the airbase and just had to let of steam. Relegated to the car park SoR overstayed the 15 minute parking restriction ignored by police as they raced to intercept volunteer inspectors who have penetrated the fencing surrounding the base.

The first B-2 Stealth bomber to arrive at Fairford prior to the widely anticipated attack on Iraq. The next wave of arrivals might not be quite so friendly!

Full text of BBC Wiltshire Report: "DEMONSTRATION: More than 500,000 anti-war demonstrators, from across the region, marched to RAF Fairford at the weekend. The march was to protest against the possibility of war against Iraq and the continuing use of the base by US Air Force planes and personnel. Although access to the base was denied it is believed that a small group cut through the perimeter fence and squatted on the runway before being removed by service personnel." see their news page