jackovesk
25th June 2011, 03:55
The Spy who came in from the desert
Sydney Morning Herald
June 25, 2011.
http://images.smh.com.au/2011/06/24/2451623/ipad-art-wide-pine-gap-420x0.jpg
Fear of the unknown ... Pine Gap has been the site of many protests since its opening.
Australians are about to get a glimpse of life inside Pine Gap, writes Dylan Welch.
There are many secret, inscrutable things in the vastness of the Australian outback, but few are so determinedly and actively unknown as the small technical encampment more than a dozen kilometres outside Alice Springs called Pine Gap.
For 41 years, the joint US-Australian intelligence facility - officially known as the Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap - has remained protected by a seemingly impenetrable wall of government secrecy.
But in 2008, and after 18 years of service, one of the men who worked there walked out of the desert and set about writing a book detailing his time at the super secret base.
What makes the effort so remarkable is that not only was the American-born electrical engineer-turned-technical spy David Rosenberg one of the longest-serving and most experienced officers at Pine Gap, he is also a 23-year veteran of the US's most secretive intelligence agency, the National Security Agency.
http://images.smh.com.au/2011/06/24/2451632/art-353-pine-gap-2-200x0.jpg
Protesters at Pine Gap.
''They will never let you write this book, let alone publish it,'' were the comments Rosenberg received from his colleagues.
Three years later, Rosenberg has proved them all wrong. Despite a long and frustrating struggle with the NSA - whose function is so secret it is jokingly referred to as No Such Agency - over the contents of the book, in several days a description of life inside one of the world's most secretive spy bases will be available for sale.
Titled Inside Pine Gap: The Spy Who Came in From the Desert, Rosenberg's book discusses the role of Pine Gap from 1990 to 2008, and it details his life and work across four Australian prime ministers, three American presidents, numerous wars in the Middle East, Europe, Africa and Asia as well as the end of the Cold War and the 2001 terrorist attacks in the US.
Through all that, Rosenberg sat in a large dark room in the centre of Australia, watching and listening.
''We weren't publicised, our role was wasn't well known, and some of the stuff that we did at our facility and also what happens at other facilities was quite remarkable,'' Rosenberg says from his Sydney home. He became an Australian citizen after leaving Pine Gap and now works for a NSW government department.
He remains under a lifetime onus not to reveal classified details of his work, but he can say that he was trained as an analyst of ''ELINT'', or electronic intelligence.
''I was initially trained in the analysis of foreign radar emissions, electronic warfare, weapons testing methodologies for various military systems, and that included surface-to-air and ballistic missiles.''
When asked to describe what Pine Gap does, he points to a statement made by the former prime minister Bob Hawke in Parliament in 1988: ''Pine Gap is a satellite ground station, whose function is to collect intelligence data which supports the national security of both Australia and the US. Intelligence collected at Pine Gap contributes importantly to the verification of arms control and disarmament agreements.''
The chief role of Pine Gap is to monitor and report upon the existence and modification of weapons systems, particularly nuclear stockpiles and ballistic missiles, of countries of concern to the US and Australia. Via its satellites, Pine Gap absorbs a massive spectrum of communications, telemetry signals and radar emissions and funnels them to analysts on the operations floor for monitoring and examination.
For more than four decades it has played a vital role in the signals intelligence collection capability of Australia and the US. As Professor Des Ball, Australia's leading academic expert on the base, writes in his foreword to Rosenberg's book, ''Pine Gap is one of the largest, most important and most secret US intelligence collection stations in the world.'' Ball also describes being ''amazed'' that the NSA allowed Rosenberg to publish the book.
''He does not disclose technical detail … but he does relate a litany of activities that would previously have been regarded as being beyond 'top secret'.''
Ultimately, Ball writes, the book may have been allowed to be published because it is a ''great success story'' regarding the US-Australian partnership and the achievements its unassuming intelligence analysts have racked up since the base began operations in June 1970.
Rosenberg takes the reader into his first day inside Pine Gap's ''secure building'', past the entrance where a pair of Australian and US flags are displayed and into the open-plan operations floor.
''The entire operations floor was dimly lit as the analysts needed low light to help them see details on their computer monitors,'' Rosenberg writes. ''I saw signs above the various work areas indicating the type of activities being performed by these highly specialised operators.''
Later: ''For an operator/analyst, a day on the operations floor was a mix of the routine and the sometimes surprising … Depending on world events at the time, Pine Gap focused on various 'hot spots' of military interest.''
Rosenberg describes - sometimes in frustratingly scant detail - searching for weapons systems before and during both American wars in Iraq, scanning for rebel leaders in Somalia, intercepting Serbian leaders communications during the 1998 Kosovo conflict, monitoring North Korea's emergent nuclear facilities and even hunting for Osama bin Laden.
''Because of the level of secrecy at the NSA, it's very, very difficult for anyone to conceive of writing a book,'' Rosenberg says. ''It's something that I had to consider when I was writing, because I knew that a lot of what I was going to write would be taken out.''
He was right. After spending six months writing the book, he submitted his manuscript to the NSA's pre-publication review board in 2009, hopeful he would get a response within 30 days.
In the end, it took more than a year, although Rosenberg was ultimately surprised by the amount of sensitive information the board allowed him to retain.
Those expecting revelations of malicious government spying will find the book a disappointment, however, as Rosenberg remains a committed advocate of the role he says the spy base plays in securing the interests of Australia and the US.
''Australians share the load at Pine Gap, they share the leadership and the information and Australian security interests are certainly addressed at Pine Gap,'' he says.
''It's one of the things that helps keep the Australian and American partnership working as well as it does and Australians should be aware it's also there to help keep Australian citizens safe.''
Inside Pine Gap is published on Monday by Hardie Grant Books...
http://www.smh.com.au/national/the-spy-who-came-in-from-the-desert-20110624-1gji5.html
PS - Looks like to me at least, this book is simply a surface picture of the Secret Base! What we all want to know is what happens Underground..? i.e. Jump Rooms, Submarine Chanels, UFO's, EBE's, etc...Wishfull thinking I know...
At least there is something coming out about Pine Gap in the MSM...It does'nt happen all that often!
Sydney Morning Herald
June 25, 2011.
http://images.smh.com.au/2011/06/24/2451623/ipad-art-wide-pine-gap-420x0.jpg
Fear of the unknown ... Pine Gap has been the site of many protests since its opening.
Australians are about to get a glimpse of life inside Pine Gap, writes Dylan Welch.
There are many secret, inscrutable things in the vastness of the Australian outback, but few are so determinedly and actively unknown as the small technical encampment more than a dozen kilometres outside Alice Springs called Pine Gap.
For 41 years, the joint US-Australian intelligence facility - officially known as the Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap - has remained protected by a seemingly impenetrable wall of government secrecy.
But in 2008, and after 18 years of service, one of the men who worked there walked out of the desert and set about writing a book detailing his time at the super secret base.
What makes the effort so remarkable is that not only was the American-born electrical engineer-turned-technical spy David Rosenberg one of the longest-serving and most experienced officers at Pine Gap, he is also a 23-year veteran of the US's most secretive intelligence agency, the National Security Agency.
http://images.smh.com.au/2011/06/24/2451632/art-353-pine-gap-2-200x0.jpg
Protesters at Pine Gap.
''They will never let you write this book, let alone publish it,'' were the comments Rosenberg received from his colleagues.
Three years later, Rosenberg has proved them all wrong. Despite a long and frustrating struggle with the NSA - whose function is so secret it is jokingly referred to as No Such Agency - over the contents of the book, in several days a description of life inside one of the world's most secretive spy bases will be available for sale.
Titled Inside Pine Gap: The Spy Who Came in From the Desert, Rosenberg's book discusses the role of Pine Gap from 1990 to 2008, and it details his life and work across four Australian prime ministers, three American presidents, numerous wars in the Middle East, Europe, Africa and Asia as well as the end of the Cold War and the 2001 terrorist attacks in the US.
Through all that, Rosenberg sat in a large dark room in the centre of Australia, watching and listening.
''We weren't publicised, our role was wasn't well known, and some of the stuff that we did at our facility and also what happens at other facilities was quite remarkable,'' Rosenberg says from his Sydney home. He became an Australian citizen after leaving Pine Gap and now works for a NSW government department.
He remains under a lifetime onus not to reveal classified details of his work, but he can say that he was trained as an analyst of ''ELINT'', or electronic intelligence.
''I was initially trained in the analysis of foreign radar emissions, electronic warfare, weapons testing methodologies for various military systems, and that included surface-to-air and ballistic missiles.''
When asked to describe what Pine Gap does, he points to a statement made by the former prime minister Bob Hawke in Parliament in 1988: ''Pine Gap is a satellite ground station, whose function is to collect intelligence data which supports the national security of both Australia and the US. Intelligence collected at Pine Gap contributes importantly to the verification of arms control and disarmament agreements.''
The chief role of Pine Gap is to monitor and report upon the existence and modification of weapons systems, particularly nuclear stockpiles and ballistic missiles, of countries of concern to the US and Australia. Via its satellites, Pine Gap absorbs a massive spectrum of communications, telemetry signals and radar emissions and funnels them to analysts on the operations floor for monitoring and examination.
For more than four decades it has played a vital role in the signals intelligence collection capability of Australia and the US. As Professor Des Ball, Australia's leading academic expert on the base, writes in his foreword to Rosenberg's book, ''Pine Gap is one of the largest, most important and most secret US intelligence collection stations in the world.'' Ball also describes being ''amazed'' that the NSA allowed Rosenberg to publish the book.
''He does not disclose technical detail … but he does relate a litany of activities that would previously have been regarded as being beyond 'top secret'.''
Ultimately, Ball writes, the book may have been allowed to be published because it is a ''great success story'' regarding the US-Australian partnership and the achievements its unassuming intelligence analysts have racked up since the base began operations in June 1970.
Rosenberg takes the reader into his first day inside Pine Gap's ''secure building'', past the entrance where a pair of Australian and US flags are displayed and into the open-plan operations floor.
''The entire operations floor was dimly lit as the analysts needed low light to help them see details on their computer monitors,'' Rosenberg writes. ''I saw signs above the various work areas indicating the type of activities being performed by these highly specialised operators.''
Later: ''For an operator/analyst, a day on the operations floor was a mix of the routine and the sometimes surprising … Depending on world events at the time, Pine Gap focused on various 'hot spots' of military interest.''
Rosenberg describes - sometimes in frustratingly scant detail - searching for weapons systems before and during both American wars in Iraq, scanning for rebel leaders in Somalia, intercepting Serbian leaders communications during the 1998 Kosovo conflict, monitoring North Korea's emergent nuclear facilities and even hunting for Osama bin Laden.
''Because of the level of secrecy at the NSA, it's very, very difficult for anyone to conceive of writing a book,'' Rosenberg says. ''It's something that I had to consider when I was writing, because I knew that a lot of what I was going to write would be taken out.''
He was right. After spending six months writing the book, he submitted his manuscript to the NSA's pre-publication review board in 2009, hopeful he would get a response within 30 days.
In the end, it took more than a year, although Rosenberg was ultimately surprised by the amount of sensitive information the board allowed him to retain.
Those expecting revelations of malicious government spying will find the book a disappointment, however, as Rosenberg remains a committed advocate of the role he says the spy base plays in securing the interests of Australia and the US.
''Australians share the load at Pine Gap, they share the leadership and the information and Australian security interests are certainly addressed at Pine Gap,'' he says.
''It's one of the things that helps keep the Australian and American partnership working as well as it does and Australians should be aware it's also there to help keep Australian citizens safe.''
Inside Pine Gap is published on Monday by Hardie Grant Books...
http://www.smh.com.au/national/the-spy-who-came-in-from-the-desert-20110624-1gji5.html
PS - Looks like to me at least, this book is simply a surface picture of the Secret Base! What we all want to know is what happens Underground..? i.e. Jump Rooms, Submarine Chanels, UFO's, EBE's, etc...Wishfull thinking I know...
At least there is something coming out about Pine Gap in the MSM...It does'nt happen all that often!