Pine Gap suspected of key war role

aap/ninemsn ^ | 21 Mar 2003

[smpc]

The secretive Pine Gap communications station in the Australian outback was hailed as a probable linchpin in the first salvos against Iraq.

The US-controlled base outside Alice Springs could have picked up the information that led to the destruction on Thursday of a suspected bunker in southern Baghdad, said Professor Des Ball, of the Australian National University Strategic and Defence Studies Centre.

The United States had received information Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and other leaders were at the site before launching the attack.

"You could speculate that (Pine Gap) played a role in the particular intelligence coup which led to the initial strike," Prof Ball told reporters.

The controversial facility's likely dual roles so far had been intercepting Iraqi communications to pinpoint targets and relaying a satellite alert that Iraqi had unleashed a barrage of missiles.

US Patriot missiles managed to intercept two Scud missiles while others apparently landed in Kuwait without harm, the centre said.

The Australian Greens seized on Pine Gap's role, fearing it could be involved in breaching the Geneva Convention's ban on indiscriminate targeting.