Pine Gap
Pine Gap is a joint Australian–United States satellite communications and signals intelligence surveillance base and Australian Earth station approximately south-west of the town of Alice Springs. It is jointly operated by Australia and the United States, and since 1988 it has been officially called the Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap ; previously, it was known as Joint Defence Space Research Facility. It plays a crucial role in supporting the intelligence activities and military operations of the US around the world. The base's role has caused much controversy in Australia, leading to various protests.
The station is jointly run by the Australian Defence Force, the US Central Intelligence Agency, US National Security Agency, and US National Reconnaissance Office and is a key contributor to the NSA's global interception/surveillance effort, which included the ECHELON program. The classified NRO name for the Pine Gap base is Australian Mission Ground Station, while the unclassified cover term for the NSA function of the facility is RAINFALL.Peter Cronau, , Background Briefing, ABC Radio National, 20 August 2017; Ryan Gallagher and Peter Cronau, , The Intercept, 20 August 2017.
Base
The facilities at the base consist of a massive computer complex with 38 radomes protecting radio dishes and operates with over 800 employees. Former NSA employee David Rosenberg indicated that the chief of the facility was a senior CIA officer at the time of his service there.Australian personnel stationed at the installation have access to the entire facility. However, all Australian personnel are prohibited from entering the NSA's cryptology room. Similarly, all US Personnel are prohibited from the Australian Signals Directorate's cryptology room.
The location is strategically significant because it controls United States spy satellites as they pass over one-third of the globe, including China, North Korea, the Asian parts of Russia, and the Middle East. Central Australia was chosen because it was too remote for spy ships passing in international waters to intercept its signals. The facility has become a key part of the local economy.
Military activities
Pine Gap's activities have become more military-focused over time. One of its roles is to detect and geolocate the source of electronic signals, such as those emitted by mobile phones. This information is used by Five Eyes to identify and geolocate targets of interest, which it can then attack using special forces or lethal unmanned drones, for example.Since it was established, Pine Gap has assisted the US in planning for nuclear war.
Leaked Department of Defence documents revealed that satellites controlled by the Pine Gap and Joint Defence Facility Nurrungar facilities were used during the Vietnam War to pinpoint targets for bombings in Cambodia.
Joint Defence Facility Nurrungar relayed warnings of Scud missile launches to the Israel Defence Forces during the Gulf War in the early 1990s. By 2003, this function had been fully transferred to Pine Gap.
Location data provided by Pine Gap was used by the US to kill al-Qaeda and the Taliban soldiers with drones. US drones have also killed hundreds of civilians.
During the Gaza war, it is alleged Pine Gap provided the IDF with communications and electronic intelligence, which it had collected using two geosynchronous Orion satellites located over the Indian Ocean.
Operational history
In late 1966, during the Cold War, a joint US–Australian treaty called for the creation of a US satellite surveillance base in Australia, to be titled the "Joint Defence Space Research Facility". The purpose of the facility was initially referred to in public as "space research". It was officially referred to as a "joint space research facility" until 1988. The Pine Gap treaty was signed on 9 December 1966 and stated that, after an initial nine years, either Australia or the US could cancel the agreement on giving one year's notice.Operations started in 1970 when about 400 American families moved to Central Australia. The function of the base when it first opened was to monitor military activities such as missile tests in Russia, China, Pakistan, Japan, Korea, and India.
The base was placed on nuclear alert by the US Government during the Yom Kippur War in 1973 when US secretary of state Henry Kissinger issued a DEFCON 3 force-wide alert. Australian personnel at the base, the Australian Government and Prime Minister Gough Whitlam were not informed of the alert.
Since the end of the Cold War in 1991 and the rise of the war on terror in 2001, the base has seen a refocusing from mere nuclear treaty monitoring and missile launch detection, to become a vital warfighting base for US military forces. In 1999, with the Australian Government refusing to give details to an Australian Senate committee about the relevant treaties, intelligence expert Professor Des Ball from the Australian National University was called to give an outline of Pine Gap. According to Ball, since 9 December 1966 when the Australian and United States governments signed the Pine Gap treaty, Pine Gap had grown from the original two antennas to about 18 in 1999, and 38 by 2017. The number of staff had increased from around 400 in the early 1980s to 600 in the early 1990s and then to 800 in 2017, the biggest expansion since the end of the Cold War.
Ball described the facility as the ground control and processing station for geosynchronous satellites engaged in signals intelligence collection, outlining four categories of signals collected:
- telemetry from advanced weapons development, such as ballistic missiles, used for arms control verification;
- signals from anti-missile and anti-aircraft radars;
- transmissions intended for communications satellites; and
- microwave emissions, such as long-distance telephone calls.
With the closing of Nurrungar in 1999, an area in Pine Gap was set aside for the United States Air Force's control station for Defense Support Program satellites that monitor heat emissions from missiles, giving first warning of ballistic missile launches. In 2004, the base began operating a new satellite system known as the Space-Based Infrared System, which is a vital element of US missile defence.
Since the end of the Cold War, the station has mainly been employed to intercept and record weapons and communications signals from countries in Asia, such as China and North Korea. The station was active in supporting the wars in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq and every US war since the September 11 attacks.
The Menwith Hill Station in the UK is operated by the NSA and also serves as ground station for these satellite missions.
One of Pine Gap's primary functions is to locate radio signals in the Eastern Hemisphere, with the collected information fed into the US drone program. This was confirmed by an NSA document from 2013, which says that Pine Gap plays a key role in providing geolocation data for intelligence purposes, as well as for military operations, including air strikes.
On 11 July 2013, documents revealed through former NSA analyst Edward Snowden showed that Pine Gap, amongst three other locations in Australia and one in New Zealand, contributed to the NSA's global interception and collection of internet and telephone communications, which involves systems like XKEYSCORE. Journalist Brian Toohey states that Pine Gap intercepts electronic communications from Australian citizens including phone calls, emails and faxes as a consequence of the technology it uses.
According to documents published in August 2017, Pine Gap is used as a ground station for spy satellites on two secret missions:
- Mission 7600 with 2 geosynchronous satellites to cover Eurasia and Africa
- Mission 8300 with 4 geosynchronous satellites that covered the former Soviet Union, China, South Asia, East Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and countries on the Atlantic Ocean
Whitlam dismissal
, Prime Minister of Australia, considered closing the base. Victor Marchetti, a former CIA officer who had helped set up the facility, said that this consideration "caused apoplexy in the White House, a kind of 1973 Chilean coup d'état|Chile was set in motion", with the CIA and MI6 working together to get rid of the Prime Minister. On 11 November 1975, the day Whitlam was scheduled to brief the Australian Parliament on the secret CIA presence in Australia, as well as it being "the last day of action if an election of any kind was to be held before Christmas", he was dismissed from office as he was unable to guarantee supply by the Governor-General John Kerr, using reserve powers, described as "archaic" by critics of the decision.In 2020, previously confidential private correspondences between the Palace and the Governor-General were released. In one of the letters, John Kerr describes his alleged CIA connections as "Nonsense of course", and assured the Queen of his continued loyalty. Nonetheless, according to revelations from CIA whistleblower Christopher John Boyce, Kerr allegedly maintained ties with CIA-funded organizations and was referred to as 'our man Kerr' by the agency.