Pine Gap

In 1966, The United States and Australia signed a treaty that allowed the establishment of a jointly-run satellite tracking station just south of Alice Springs. The station became known as Pine Gap. For more than 50 years it has operated in a shroud of secrecy and has been the target of much public and political controversy. In this fascinating glimpse into the top-secret world of military surveillance, discover how the fallout of controversies such as the Edward Snowden leaks have made the ethics of eavesdropping more important than ever.

Leseprobe
PREFACE: NARROWING THE GAP I, David Rosenberg, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God. Taken 24 February 1986 General Michael Hayden (Ret) was Director of the National Security Agency (NSA) from March 1999 to April 2005, Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence from April 2005 to May 2006 and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from May 2006 to February 2009. His knowledge of the expanse and inner workings of the intelligence community are unlikely to be surpassed. General Hayden could have begun his book, Playing To The Edge, with any of the hundreds of experiences he had witnessed, and indeed created during his tenure. It is noteworthy, then, that he chose his orientation inside Pine Gap as the starting point for his memoir, expressing to his Australian counterpart his thoughts: 'Wouldn't you love to be able to show people exactly what we do?'1 I was one of a handful of officers to give General Hayden a presentation on the capabilities of Pine Gap that day, specifically the collection and analysis of signals related to weapons development and testing. In my book, General Hayden's wish to 'show people exactly what we do' is finally realized. 'They will never let you write this book, let alone publish it.' So said colleagues, family and friends, and they were almost right, but how could I resist telling the story of my unique twenty-three-year career as an eavesdropping spy for the United States' most secretive spy agency, the National Security Agency (NSA)? If I had any idea of the censorship challenges I'd face, I might have thought twice. While I knew it would ruffle some feathers at the NSA, concern about what I might divulge eventually spread beyond my own agency to two other intelligence organizations. Apprehension about the sensitive information I might reveal even reached beyond the borders of the United States to the higher leadership of a close foreign ally that I'd become a citizen of in 2009: Australia. I had already been employed with the NSA at Ft Meade, Maryland, for more than four years when I decided to accept an initial two-year assignment at one of the most remote locations on Earth-the small outback town of Alice Springs in Central Australia. However, my two years stretched on to eighteen years until I voluntarily resigned at the end of my extended overseas tour to move to Sydney to live with my family, by which time I had been based at Pine Gap longer than any other NSA employee still stationed in Alice Springs. The year 2010 marked forty years since Pine Gap became operational2 and I believed it was timely to provide an insider's view of what really takes place behind its secure walls. I was also keen to correct some misperceptions and false claims that have been made throughout the years about 'the Base'. In this book I discuss in detail the various types of intelligence relevant to Pine Gap and provide an account of some of the intelligence successes and failures experienced by the Americans and Australians over the course of my eighteen years 'on the inside'. The partnership between the United States and Australia at Pine Gap has resulted in a closer alliance, one that has narrowed the gap between America's and Australia's technical capabilities and the Australian and American cultures in Alice Springs. My reflections, after twenty-three years as an eavesdropping spy, will debunk some of the myths and rumors surrounding Pine Gap, including concerns voiced by many anti-Pine Gap protest organizations a