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 (JDFPG); 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 station is jointly run by the Australian Defence Force (Australian Signals Directorate), the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), US National Security Agency (NSA), and US National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and is a key contributor to the NSA's global interception/surveillance effort, which includes the ECHELON program. The classified NRO name for the Pine Gap base is Australian Mission Ground Station (AMGS), while the unclassified cover term for the NSA function of the facility is RAINFALL.Peter Cronau, The Base: Pine Gap's Role in US Warfighting , Background Briefing, ABC Radio National, 20 August 2017; Ryan Gallagher and Peter Cronau, The U.S. Spy Hub in the Heart of Australia , The Intercept, 20 August 2017.
Base
The facilities at the base consist of a massive super computer complex with 38 radomes protecting radio dishes and operates with over 800 employees. , 21 July 2013. Accessed 21 July 2013 Former NSA employee David Rosenberg indicated that the chief of the facility was a senior CIA officer at the time of his service there.Harris, Reg Legendary Territorians, Harris Nominees, Alice Springs, 2007, p 93, . Documents released by Edward Snowden stated that the role of chief of facility is always filled by a US citizen, who reports directly the US National Reconnaissance Office. A senior Australian Signals Directorate official acts as deputy.
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.Pilger 1992, p. 202.
Joint Defence Facility Nurrungar relayed warnings of Scud missile launches to the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) 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 drone programme, which has killed between 2500 and 3500 al-Qaeda and Taliban soldiers as well as 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.
Ball described the operational area as containing three sections: Satellite Station Keeping Section, Signals Processing Station and the Signals Analysis Section, from which Australians were barred until 1980. Each morning the Joint Reconnaissance Schedule Committee meets to determine what the satellites will monitor over the next 24 hours.
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.Coopes, Amy, Agence France-Presse/Jiji Press, "US eyes Asia from secret Australian base", Yahoo! News, 19 September 2011Japan Times, 19 September 2011, p. 1.
The Menwith Hill Station (MHS) 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, among 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 After the inexplicable March 2014 disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH 370, a Boeing 777 passenger jet, authorities suggested that Pine Gap or Jindalee (JORN) radar site might have data to help locate the missing aircraft.
Whitlam dismissal
Gough Whitlam, Prime Minister of Australia (between 1972 and 1975), 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, [and] a kind of Chile [coup] 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 (money required for the functions of the government) 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 organisations and was referred to as 'our man Kerr' by the agency.
Allegations of Christopher Boyce During his trial for espionage, US defence industry employee Christopher Boyce made a number of allegations related to the intelligence gathered at Pine Gap (including claiming that the CIA was involved in the Whitlam Dismissal). He stated that, despite the US agreeing to share intelligence from Pine Gap with Australia, he was told that the US did and would withhold some information from the Australians. Boyce also said that Pine Gap was monitoring telephone calls and telex messages to and from Australia of a political nature.Pilger 1992, p. 213-214.
Protests
On 11 November 1983 the Pine Gap Women's Peace Camp begun in which Aboriginal women led 700 other women to the Pine Gap gates where they fell silent for 11 minutes to commemorate Remembrance Day and the Greenham Common protest in Britain. This was the beginning of a two-week, women-only peace camp, organised under the auspices of "Women For Survival". The gathering was nonviolent but several women trespassed onto the military base. 111Pine Gap Protests - historical http://nautilus.org/publications/books/australian-forces-abroad/defence-facilities/pine-gap/pine-gap-protests/protests-hist/ and Kelham, Megg Waltz in P-Flat: The Pine Gap Women's Peace Protest in Hecate 1 January 2010 available on-line at http://www.readperiodicals.com/201001/2224850971.html#b women were arrested on one particular day and gave their names as Karen Silkwood, an American nuclear worker who died after campaigning for nuclear safety. There were allegations of police brutality and an Australian Human Rights Commission inquiry ensued. On 5–7 October 2002, a number of groups (including Quakers and the National Union of Students) gathered at the gates of Pine Gap to protest the use of the base in the then-impending Iraq war.