Article first appeared in Golwg Magazine in January 2010

John Pilger is one of the world’s best journalists. He says “It is too easy for western journalists to follow a government agenda that states which oppressors are good and which are bad, and that presents ‘our’ policies, as the harmless ones, even though the opposite is usually true”

In December 2009, in an article in the New Statesman, under the heading ‘Normalising the crime of the century’, he said that the purpose of the Chilcot Enquiry was to normalise an epic transgression. And that when Tony Blair would make his appearance in January, he would play his part to ‘loathsome perfection’.

And his prophecy was of course correct. There weren’t any scandals that had been hidden until now, all questions were answered, no veering from the usual self-righteous path, and most importantly of all, there was not even an admission of regret, not to mention an apology to the families whose loved ones had died. And still, in Iraq, the confusion continues, as does the fighting in Afghanistan.

The work of developing WMDs ( similar to the ones that Saddam supposedly had) also continues, in West Wales. As Tony Blair was busy rehearsing his overly-genuine answers, the Welsh Assembly Government was quietly publishing its response to the consultation that would permit Uavs to be developed and tested in the sky above Ceredigion.

And yes, without paying much heed to the numerous worries expressed, they have approved the application to allow these vile military weapons to be tested over an area of 600 square miles, over the heads of 50,000 Welsh inhabitants, from Aberporth to Mynydd Epynt.

Exactly 70 years since the War Office stole 54 Welsh homes, closed the primary school, the church, and the pub on Epynt, it is unbelievable that our very own devolved government has decided that the theft of land is not enough, and that our sky has to militarised as well.

Apart from Adam Price (who was truly excellent, by the way, when asked on Sky News, to analyse Tony Blair’s boldness), none of the other 12 Assembly members, or any member of Parliament that represents the area in question, has opposed the plan. Worse still, they support it.

Why? In the face of the Chilcot Enquiry, you would expect politicians to be more careful when agreeing to military work. Surely, there must be many politicians who deeply regret by now, their agreeing to the war in Iraq, with cowardly non-questioning acceptance.

Perhaps the questions to ask are these: if our politicians truly believe in the virtues of testing these dangerous machines over West Wales, then why don’t they insist on being given the praise for the development? Why are they so taciturn? Why isn’t the story being highlighted in the press?

This brings me back to John Pilger’s point. Saddam Hussein did not possess WMDs, but the threat of the possibility that he could develop them was sufficient reason to go to war. But we are supposed to believe that the work of developing WMDs, similar to Saddam’s, in Ceredigion, is just and lawful. Yes, it is time for us all to start asking questions.

Flight Global, the aviation website reported yesterday 2nd February 2010 (Half way down the page).

Maybe Selex Gailieo had decided that the risk of one of it’s planes dropping out of the sky onto a west Wales town (remember 2 crash landed in 2009) is just too high. It would be a PR disaster for the company which would be forever linked with UAV unreliability.

Watch out for financial inducements from the Welsh Assembly Government desperate to save face. How big will WAGs sweeteners to Selex need to be to keep them at Parc Aberporth? One million, two million? No rent for a year and free pasta?

People going about their daily lives will be observed and filmed by UAV’s flying above the clouds. They will become actors in the new “West Wales Theatre” (of war of course) to be recorded, analysed by computers and neutralised by trainee “pilots” sitting perhaps thousands of miles away. Welcome to Wales. Welcome to the UAV Zone!

While the elected members of the Welsh Assembly slept on the job, this plan for a West Wales Wargame Wonderland has taken shape, culminating in last years “public (con)sultation” which pedalled the notion of a civilian UAV testing zone and the promise of “high quality” jobs.

Click the link below to listen to the programme.

Right click and “save target as” to download and MP3 of Robo Wars Programme 1 (12Mb)

1. Consultation Responses 1
2. Consultation Responses 2
3. Consultation Responses 3
4. Consultation Responses 4
5. Consultation Responses 5
6. Consultation Responses 6

The  “Code of Practice” for UAV operators (presumably excluding the MOD) can also be downloaded below

1. Code of Practice for UAV Operators

The 640 sq mile zone will overfly a large area of West Wales inhabited by approximately 50,000 people. It will include part of north Pembrokeshire, north Carmarthenshire, south Ceredigion and an area of western Powys including the Sennybridge military training area of Mynydd Epynt.

BEPJ is opposed to the creation of the zone because it will be mainly used to test a variety of military UAV’s, in particular the Hermes 450, an Israeli plane which has been bought by the Ministry of Defence as part of it “Watchkeeper” programme. We are also opposed to the zone on safety and privacy grounds. Two UAV’s built by the Italian arms company Selex have already crashed on take off from West Wales Airport in 2009. One UAV only narrowly missed dwellings on the perimeter of the airfield.

The 68 page “Feedback Report” was written by Welsh Assembly Government staff involved in the public consultation (mainly Paul Cremin) with technical support from QinetiQ, MOD, Mann Organisation and Siluri Integration. (The Mann Organisation is the private company which owns West Wales airport. Siluri Integration is a private consultancy whose staff held senior positions in both the Civil Aviation Authority and the Ministry of Defence. QinetiQ is a multinational arms company).

The report describes how a total of 201 members of the public visited it’s 7 “Drop-in Consultations” in local towns. Each consultation lasted 5 hours. Comments and questions left by attendees and others submitted by organizations and individuals are responded to in the bulk of the report.

The report is pretty much the whitewash we were expecting. It has a response to everything, but an answer to nothing. We do not even know the names and relevant qualifications of the authors of the report, who are dismissing the concerns expressed by the UAV experts at the “Aberporth Consultancy” about safety and privacy in an avalanche of platitudes. I think it an insult to the intelligence of the people who have raised real concerns and questions.

We have to recognize the sad truth that the Welsh Assembly Government is working at the behest of the British Ministry of Defence to create a military UAV testing zone on the back of a civilian project. Once the zone is created, the MOD will be able to use it as and when it wishes, to test whatever it likes. The Welsh Assembly loses all power over it. This fact is acknowledged in the report:

“.. it recognised that there will be some military activity at ParcAberporth. The Welsh Assembly Government has no jurisdiction over the nature of the flying activity in the proposed airspace, and the Ministry of Defence has responsibility for military flying, which is not devolved to the Welsh Assembly Government”

If we assume that the CAA is unlikely to turn down a testing area requested by the MOD, then there may be little hope of stopping it. However the peaceful opposition by BEPJ to the UAV testing zone project will not only continue, but intensify as events unfold. We have already been approached by one UK wide peace group which wants us to join a UAV event they are planning. The aim of BEPJ will be to make west Wales the focus of protest against this form of warfare. As people living under the zone experience the reality of living in an MOD testing area, we are sure the opposition will grow, and the Welsh Assembly Government will be held responsible.

Many of the objections and questions in the report are on the subject of the safety of UAVs. The responses given are straight out of “Yes Minister”.

Question: In the interests of public safety how will the flight of a malfunctioning air vehicle be controlled and terminated?”

Response: There is no simple answer to this question as procedures in the event of a malfunction will be determined during the safety assessment for each UAV on a case-by-case basis. Furthermore, each UAV could have a range of potential failure modes, each of which would be managed in a different way. Wherever possible, measures will be invoked to maintain control of the air vehicle, and to ensure that it does not present a risk other airspace users, or to people or property on the ground.

This leaves us with the inevitable conclusion that should a pilot on the ground lose contact with a UAV, the only strategy in place for stopping it landing on someone’s head is to hope for the best.

On the use made of the high resolution images gathered by the UAV’s the report says that private businesses using the UAV facility will have to abide by a “code of conduct” and must comply with the Data Protection Act. On the right to privacy of people living under the zone the report merely refers to the European Court of human rights. We believe that the very act of photographing someone in great detail while they go about their daily life in their back garden is a breach of fundamental rights as laid out in Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. BEPJ will be seeking legal clarification on this issue with a view to taking it further.

In a rather humorous section of the report the authors criticize the silent protests made by BEPJ outside two of its consultations. It even appears to blame BEPJ for the low attendance at one event in Cardigan, however that event was the second best attended with 45 visitors. All we can say in response, is, if the Welsh Assembly Government finds a single, silent protester in fancy dress annoying, they ain’t seen nothing yet…

Jeremy Clulow