| THE REVD Chris Howson, a city-centre Mission Priest in Bradford, and a peace activist (above), this week alleged that officials from the Ministry of Defence (MOD) spied on his emails and monitored his activities in the days leading up to a demonstration at a military base in Yorkshire in July.
Mr Howson says his suspicions were first raised when he received a phone call from the MOD asking how many demonstrators were expected at the “Independence From America Day” on 4 July. The protest had been organised by Yorkshire CND at the Menwith Hall military base near Otley, which is owned by the MOD but contains a substantial American presence.
Details of the protest had been emailed only to a group of activists at Mr Howson’s church.
Mr Howson said that “all sorts of unusual things” had been going on. “When I asked the intelligence officer how he knew about the protest, he said he was able to get the information through an ‘open source’ on the internet. I told him that, if he was reading my emails, if it was not illegal it was certainly immoral.
“Then, on the day of the demo, two Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) were outside the church monitoring our coming and going. North Yorkshire Police have said they were not responsible for these officers, so we can only assume the MOD authorised it.”
Mr Howson, who has been arrested four times for his involvement in anti-nuclear-weapons demonstrations, is concerned about this possible encroachment on his civil liberties.
“Peace and environmental protesters are increasingly being criminalised. We’re saddened that the PCSOs were outside our church rather than being out there protecting the community from crime, and having their time wasted by effectively spying on us.
“One of the PCSOs told me he was embarrassed to be there.”
The MOD was approached for
a comment, but was unable to respond by the time of going to press.
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