A

ustralia is just one of the five countries accused of carrying out wiretapping. The question is, will Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa meet with his US counterpart regarding Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono'€™s six-point road map?

Things like the following have been in the media and the US has been listening to phone conversations of quite a number of countries leaders around the world, even ally Germany'€™s chancellor.

On 11 July, whistleblower Edward Snowden also revealed documents showing that Joint Defense Facility Pine Gap, among three other locations in Australia and one in New Zealand, is among those used in the PRISM surveillance program conducted by various US intelligence agencies. Pine Gap remains an enduring symbol of the unshakeable bond between Australian and US intelligence services.

It'€™s a piece of America. At least that'€™s the vibe in the large cafeteria at the top-secret Joint Defense Facility at Pine Gap near Alice Springs. Half of the intelligence base'€™s personnel are Australian, but American tastes dominate the menu according to those who have dined there '€” burgers, hot dogs, donuts, pork ribs, french fries and milkshakes. '€˜'€™You'€™d really have to watch your cholesterol levels,'€™'€™ one Australian parliamentarian observed after spending a day at the facility.

There'€™s also a souvenir and gift shop, arguably Australia'€™s most exclusive, since one effectively needs top security clearance to visit. For American visitors, there are the standard Australian items '€” marsupial soft toys, boomerangs, pictures of Uluru. There are also mementos of the facility '€” coffee and beer mugs, shot glasses, wall plaques, T-shirts and baseball caps bearing the Pine Gap'€™s motif of satellite orbits over Australia and motto '€˜'€™unitas est fortitas'€™'€™ (unity is strength).

Australia and the US are certainly united at Pine Gap. It'€™s the crux of an electronic espionage alliance that'€™s nearly five decades old. It'€™s also the most secret place in Australia. In a rare statement about Pine Gap to parliament last month, former defense minister Stephen Smith declared the Joint Defense Facility to be '€˜'€™a central element of Australia'€™s security and intelligence relationship with the United States'€™'€™.

Pine Gap is certainly impressive. The high-security facility is one of the largest satellite ground stations in the world. It controls and receives data from geostationary satellites that eavesdrop on a wide range of radio, radar and microwave signals. It also supports early warning satellites that detect ballistic missile launches.

There are no fewer than 33 satellite antennas at Pine Gap, 18 covered by distinctive white domes. The number of domes and dishes has grown over the past decade and there has been a major program under way over the past three years to refurbish and expand what is referred to as the '€˜'€™antenna farm'€™'€™. Some 800 people work at this intelligence factory.

Thanks to technological change and automation, this number is down from the more than 870 personnel a decade ago, but it'€™s still twice the number of personnel employed at Pine Gap two decades before that.

Eddy Saf
Australia