warning the UK<\/a> that \u201cany base used for aggression against Iranian territory constitutes a legitimate target for our forces\u201d.<\/p>\nHowever, it remains unclear who or what was behind the alleged activity. Iran has denied any involvement. Tehran\u2019s embassy in London condemned what it described as \u201cunfounded and malicious speculation\u201d linking the country to the incident in the vicinity of the military base in Gloucestershire.<\/p>\n
Roz Savage, the MP for South Cotswolds, said she had many questions about the circumstances of how the alleged terror plot was averted.<\/p>\n
US air force personnel work on a B1 bomber at RAF Fairford on Monday. Photograph: Alastair Grant\/AP<\/p>\n
The Liberal Democrat MP, whose constituency covers the military base, said she would be writing to the prime minister and the defence secretary with her concerns.<\/p>\n
\u201cEver since it was first announced six months ago that RAF Fairford was going to be used as the base for US military airstrikes on Iran, I\u2019ve been asking questions of the government about whether they can assure my residents, my constituents, of their safety,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey had given that assurance. However, I feel that the events of this weekend do cast that into doubt.\u201d<\/p>\n
She went on: \u201cWho knew what? When did they know it? Where was the ball dropped? What more could have been done to secure the safety and security of my constituents?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are already in the process of writing to the secretary of state for defence and to the prime minister to try and ascertain the answers to some of these questions.\u201d<\/p>\n
There have been conflicting statements about who knew what and when. A farmer from Whelford told reporters she called police in the early hours of Sunday to report suspicious activity \u2013 which then triggered a rapid response.<\/p>\n
But the US president, Donald Trump, also suggested to reporters the men had been under surveillance. Now, the men have been released on police bail.<\/p>\n
Tristan Wilkinson, a cabinet member for Cotswold district council and councillor for the Lechlade, Kempsford and Fairford South ward, which covers Whelford, said: \u201cThe American president indicated last night in front of journalists that there was some intelligence and that these individuals were under surveillance.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf that was to be true, that they would have been allowed to get so close to the base and drive what was, at the time, believed to be bombs into residential areas of a small village, I can\u2019t imagine the security services allowing that to happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would have expected them to have done a hard stop on the van before they got to people\u2019s homes. So that that doesn\u2019t feel right.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seems insane that this appears to have been a tipoff from a member of the public, and the security services are claiming that there was a level of intelligence involved as well. I don\u2019t see how those two things can both come through at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n
He went on: \u201cBack in July, the Iranians issued a statement saying that any countries that were providing military and practical support for the American effort were legitimate targets and at the time they named RAF Fairford specifically.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo at that time, I and other civic leaders were calling for a more visible police presence to reassure residents, and that did happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo from July, if you were around the base, you would have seen more police patrols.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo if you\u2019d parked a car up in a layby or somewhere near the base in the last few weeks, then you probably would have had the police contacting someone quickly to find out who you are and what you are doing.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I do think there\u2019s been an increase in police presence in the last week as well. So I went past the base last Monday and I noticed that the non-manned entrances to the base have been fortified with vehicles.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey put diggers and heavy vehicles in place that I\u2019ve never seen before. So that\u2019s quite an unusual step to block an emergency exit. So that led to speculation that maybe there was an increased level of concern from the base for them to use those measures.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t expect the RAF to give a running commentary,\u201d he added. \u201cHowever, I think there\u2019s always room for improvement. We have a significant military presence surrounded on three sides by residential housing. You can walk right up to the perimeter fence. There\u2019s lots of military bases around the world that are quite remote for good reasons. So, the reality is this is a big military presence in a rural community.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will be asking for us to look at ways at how we can improve ongoing relations, and it\u2019s not just relating to security matters. You know, we have other issues that you know with regard to flooding and noise, so there\u2019s always more we can do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An MP and councillors representing the residents of the village near RAF Fairford who were evacuated due to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":785665,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-785664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=785664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/785665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=785664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=785664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=785664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}