Posted on 02/16/2007 5:59:48 AM PST by MARKUSPRIME
CANBERRA (Reuters): The United States is to build a new military satellite communications base in Australia, the government said on Thursday, after three years of secret negotiations between the two allies.
The new base will relay signals and intelligence to U.S. forces in the Middle East and Asia from Geraldton, 400 km (248 miles) north of the West Australian state capital Perth.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told parliament the base, construction of which will start in months, would help underpin the close Australia-U.S. alliance.
But Greens lawmakers warned it would become a target for extremists.
"It will be hosted in the same basis as all other Australia-U.S. joint facilities and operate on the basis of our full knowledge and our full concurrence," Downer said.
The United States already has bases at Pine Gap, near Alice Spings, which provides early missile launch warning for Asia and the Middle East, and Northwest Cape in Western Australia, which carries signals to U.S. nuclear submarines in Asia and the Pacific.
There is another facility at Geraldton which intercepts mobile telephone signals and communications from Antarctica to Siberia, siphoning intelligence from Asian countries.
Greens Senator Rachel Siewert said the new base would be a prime target near one of Australia's major cities, Perth, which has a population of around one million.
"We're virtually talking about a Pine Gap on Perth's doorstep and I think the people of Perth and particularly the people of Geraldton should be very concerned," she said.
The minority Australian Democrats said the government was assisting a U.S. defence policy which was "deeply misguided and aggressive".
The alliance with the U.S. and the war in Iraq are shaping to be key issues in elections this year, with recent polls showing 62 percent of Australians oppose the government's handling of the war.
There are around 1,400 Australian soldiers in and around Iraq.
Defence Minister Brendan Nelson said Canberra was in discussion with the U.S. about other facilities, including a link to the US military weather satellite network.
The U.S. has also been given approval to store weapons and supplies in Australia's north for American forces based in Asia.
The best quote from 9/11 wasn't from the President, or Giuliani, but it was from Australia's PM John Howard: "Now is not the time to be an 80% ally".
Had a tour of NW Cape once, they didn't show us much !
About 10 years ago I had an exchange visit with an RAAF senior officer in which I asked him what would be considered Auistralia's defense policy.
Rather than some inane and trite mission and vision statements and pap, he came right back and said "to be a loyal and faithful ally and partner with the United States."
He went on to elaborate on how his nation's small population and large geography and proximity to potential trouble spots around the Indian Ocean mandated that Australia needed reliable (and powerful) friends. He continued that with shared values and cultures Australia had a duty to bear the burden in solving the world's problems along with the USA, and had been there with us in the World Wars, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf War, and Iraq. He also expressed the gratitude his parents had back in WW II when Australia was under Japanese attack along its north and east coasts and it was American forces that came and changed the course.
While there is a sizable contingent in Australia, mostly in the far left Laborites, that hate the United States, the adults know better. Thank God one of them is now in charge.
And aren't there any such stations in Japan, South Korea, Kuwait, or even Iraq or Afghanistan?
Yep but its called redundancy. Not to mention its closer to hawaii.
Pine Gap is the commonly used name for a satellite tracking station at 23.799 S, 133.737 E, near the city of Alice Springs in the heart of Australia that is operated by Australia and the U.S. It consists of a large computer complex with eight radomes protecting antennas, and has over 800 employees. It is officially called the Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap. It is believed to be one of the largest ECHELON ground stations and appears to be physically and operationally similar to the signals intelligence facilities at Buckley Air Force Base, Colorado and Menwith Hill, United Kingdom. US government personnel at Pine Gap are believed to be mostly from the National Security Agency and subordinate service-associated agencies, and the Central Intelligence Agency. While much of its operation is secret, Pine Gap is known to be involved in numerous military satellite operations. As a result, it is occasionally targeted for protests, most recently during the war in Afghanistan. In 1999, with the Australian Government refusing to give details to an Australian Senate committee on treaties, Intelligence expert Professor Des Ball from the Australian National University was called to give an outline of Pine Gap. According to Professor Ball, since 9 December 1966 when the Australian and US governments signed the Pine Gap treaty, Pine Gap has grown from the original two antennas to about a dozen and a half in 1999. The number of staff has also increased, from around 400 in the early 1970s, to 600 in the early 1990s, and then to an expected 1000 early this century. The biggest expansion occurred after the end of the Cold War. He described the CIA-run 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. He 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. Australians are now officially barred only from the National Cryptographic Room (similarly, Americans are barred from the Australian Cryptographic Room); however, this bar is not strictly adhered to. Each morning the Joint Reconnaissance Schedule Committee meets to determine what the satellites will monitor over the next 24 hours. With the closing of the Nurrungar base in 1999, an area in Pine Gap was set aside for the US Air Force's control station for infrared satellites that monitor heat emissions from missiles, giving first warning of ballistic missile launches. Pine Gap is also the subject of many UFO reports, part of what is sometimes called Australia's version of Area 51, the portion of the Nevada desert on which much of America's UFO interest is focused.
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