I'm informed you want reports from activists at GWI's protest at Fairford .I was able to enter the base nimbly but peaceably after the main gate was forced open by protesters. An hour later following discussion with MOD police I was escorted back outside through the main gate.
My recollection of those events are as follows:
The ritual demand by the Gloucestershire Weapons Inspectors to be allowed to enter the base to inspect for WMD's was ignored as usual by the massed cohorts of MOD Police & their US minders causing the protesters to roar in unison "let us in, let us in"! Then suddenly to the astonishment and panic of the MOD police the padlocked personnel gate alongside the main gate mysteriously opened whilst atop its gate post virtually crucified in razor wire perched veteran peace campaigner Juliet Macbride.For a few enduring improbable minutes like Daniel it seemed we were invited into the 'lions den' but the gate was narrow and its guardians threw themselves like 'banshees'against it forcing it shut despite almost crushing the arms and legs of protesters.
It seemed to me this incident precipitated the assault on main gate which at first was angrily and rythmically shaken then ropes were attached and whilst disbelieving Police looked on the gate was pulled open and a tide of inspectors surged in! What followed resembled a football scrum reminiscent of the Vietnam War demos or the miners strike the police line pushed back yards from the gate towards the privet hedge behind which crouched the armed paramilitaries with their machine guns cocked, sweaty fingers on the triggers and eyes trained on US agents nervously observing the melee.
In the meantime police flanks were stretched, gaps opened allowing protesters to spill over the crash barrier and into the base dispersing peacefully admidst trees and huts located near the perimeter fence.I personally inspected a large brick bund its metal tank and associated shelter before deciding to sit on the grass inert at the approach of an MOD police dog and black flack jacketed handler. After being screamed at by a mental paramilitary
I collapsed and joined Juliet Macbride sat on the grass waiting for a medic under police guard. We were given treatment by a kind police medic and then told to stay put by two unsmiling nervous police guards. Julie decided to stand up and was promptly arrested by her guard whom she harangued about the law until the poor chap lost it at which point she complained to an MOD policeman whom she knew by name. She was then marched off onto the base away from the entrance without much explanation as far as I could tell and didn't return. Later I learnt from someone who had been arrested that protesters detained on the base were insulted and abused by MOD & US Police. Whilst sat down I overheard US personnel (in plain clothes) on mobile phones saying that all protesters on the base should be arrested. I questioned them about whose jurisdiction applied in unrestricted areas on the base but the americans pretended not to hear and walked away. By this time the situation at the main gate had calmed down and after negotiation I was escorted through the main gate where I rejoined my friends and we walked to Kempsford with a large group of singing and dancing protesters past numerous sections of fencing damaged earlier and now hastily barricaded by MOD workmen. Police vans were everywhere but police action was restrained and polite and we were not obstructed or harassed on our walk to the Peace Camp . MOD Police and their US controllers remained on the base and could be seen constantly patrolling runways or parked up scrutinising the perimeter fencing for intruders and observing groups of protesters on nearby roads in the gathering dusk.