MENWITH HILL - is listening ....
Menwith Hill is the largest electronic monitoring station in the world. It is run by the US National Security Agency (NSA), which monitors the world's communication for US intelligence. Menwith Hill employs 1,200 US civilians and servicemen to work around the clock inside "hardened" buildings intercepting and analysing communications mainly from Europe, Russia and the Middle East. Until a few years ago, the existence of the NSA was a secret and its charter and any mention of its duties are still classified. But, it does have a Web site) in which it describes itself as being responsible for the signals intelligence and communications security activities of the US government.
All telecommunications traffic to and from Europe and passing through Britain is intercepted at the base, including private telephone calls, faxes, emails and other communications. Much of the information is collected, processed and relayed back to the United States automatically. A great deal of this information comes from spy satellites and the base has a number of large white golfballs or "radomes" containing satellite receiving dishes.
The importance of MHS to US intelligence activities has recently been emphasised by the closure of other UK stations run by NSA, and by its new designation as a Regional Sigint Operations Centre (RSOC) which is responsible for running remote, automated intelligence-gathering sites.
MENWITH HILL - How it Operates
Menwith Hill was first established to intercept traditional radio signals, but this is now only a tiny part of
its activities. Current activities are conducted under two systems - SILKWORTH and MOONPENNY. Its primary
targets are Europe, northern Africa and western Asia. This is because satellites which are positioned to
provide communications in these regions are visible from Menwith Hill, but would not be visible from the
United States.
The SILKWORTH system, established in 1979, uses specially designed satellites stationed over target areas to intercept long distance microwave
radio communications. Apparently operated entirely from Menwith Hill using large satellites positioned over the Equator, SILKWORTH
intercepts long distance microwave radio relay links between cities in Eurasia and relays them back to Menwith Hill.
Operators at Menwith Hill can monitor messages and conversations passing between companies and individuals
within, say, Jordan or the Ukraine. Other international messages and conversations being conveyed by the
same route can also be intercepted. Satellites can be directed to intercept and relay selected links and
the received communications are then sorted and processed at Menwith Hill to select those that satisfy
specific criteria. All forms of communications are intercepted and processed. Menwith Hill controls 56
satellites and a series of radomes, known as the
RUNWAY running east
and west across the south edge of Menwith, are believed to be involved in downloading information
from the geosynchronous satellites known as VORTEX or MAGNUM and from larger, more advanced systems
such as those known as ORION. STEEPLEBUSH II, a subterranean, radiation-hardened facility, processes
information from the RUNWAY satellites.
The MOONPENNY system is the unauthorised reception of ordinary satellite communications used
by other countries. It consists of interception terminals placed so as to intercept the signals
broadcast to the earth's surface by national or international communication satellites. These may
include satellites launched by single nations, such as Russia or Israel, or by groups of nations,
such as ARABSAT, or by the international community as a whole (INTELSAT). Because the ordinary
function of these satellites is to broadcast their signals to earth, no special equipment needs to be
placed in space to intercept them.
The NSA aims to collect, examine and process all international (and many national) communications.
The scale of the collection system was described by the former Director of the NSA, Vice Admiral
William Studeman, in 1992. At that time the NSA's collection system generated about 2 million
intercepted messages per hour. Of these, all but about 13,000 an hour were discarded. Of
these about 2,000 met forwarding criteria, of which some 20 are selected by analysts, who
then write 2 reports for further distribution. Therefore, in 1992 MHS was intercepting 17.5 billion
messages a year. Of these some 17.5 million may have been studied for analysis.
Prior to extensive automation, sorting of messages was carried out by reference to a list of
targets, known as a "watch list". In the last decade, this list has evolved into a system
called project ECHELON.
In this system computers, known as DICTIONARY are used to select messages which may include
combinations of specific names, dates, places, subjects etc. DICTIONARY automatically searches
through intercepted messages looking for particular subjects and people from target lists.
Those matching particular criteria are sent for further processing by analysts.
Key words for message interception are numerically coded and include diplomatic messages as
well as regional communications.
ECHELON was first revealed by Duncan Campbell in 1988 in a New Statesman article
and detailed in Secret Power by Nicky Hagar in 1996.
The existence of the ECHELON system has been officially confirmed in a report commissioned by the Civil Liberties Committee of the European Parliament.
The report, titled "Assessing the Technologies of Political Control", also calls for calls for an investigation into the activities of the NSA at Menwith Hill.
A follow up report - "The state of the art in Communications Intelligence (COMINT) of automated processing for intelligence purposes of intercepted broadband multi-language leased or common carrier systems, and its applicability to COMINT targeting and selection, including speech recognition"
by Duncan Campbell describes the ECHELON system and the state of the art in COMINT in some detail.
Margaret Newsham helped to design the ECHELON system and has recently described her work in an interview with Ekstra Bladet. She said:
Recent articles in the media (see for example "Global Spy Network Revealed" by Andrew Bomford of the BBC 2/11/99 and "Critics Question NSA Reading Habits" by Vernon Loeb of the Washington Post 13/11/99) indicate that concern over the activities at Menwith Hill is growing.
In a recent article (14/11/99) James Bamford suggests that the rapid development of technology (as shown by, for example "New Technology for the NSA" by Suelette Dreyfus of "The Independent") has meant that new laws may be required to ensure proper control over these activities.
A recent US report (27/11/99) recently called for an "undisclosed amount" for upgrades to Menwith Hill but at the same time insisted that the NSA be made to account for its methods of intercepting electronic communications.
Commenting on the report House, Rep. Porter Goss (R-Fla.) said: "We direct...the NSA to report in detail on the legal standards that it employs for the interception of communications."
Rep. Sanford Bishop Jr. (D-Ga.) said that although NSA is facing "tremendous challenges coping with the explosive development of commercial communications and computer technology...[the agency] has not demonstrated much prowess in coping with the challenge."
And things of course continue to move on - in a recent interview, Duncan Campbell has suggested that "The code name Echelon is only part of the entire system, and everything seems to indicate that they have switched codes. Last I heard it was 'Magistrand'."
(See also the European Parliament section of the Campaign page and there are more links to details of ECHELON on the WWW Links page.)
Euro MPs have asked the European Council of Ministers whether Menwith Hill is undermining
European jobs and businesses by selling European trade secrets to US companies. Selected
information is exchanged with the British listening post at GCHQ, Cheltenham and a number of
GCHQ staff also work at Menwith Hill. A recent report commissioned by the European Parliament has confirmed that Menwith Hill's role
in monitoring UK communications for the NSA and pressure is being applied by British MEPs in
the European Parliament to make Menwith Hill accountable See the page on Campaigning
The American authorities largely refuse to answer questions, give out information or allow
reporters, MPs or MEPs into the base. Answers are refused to many of the questions that MPs
ask about Menwith Hill in the House of Commons although many MPs have asked them in the past.
Among the most prolific questioners of the status and role of Menwith Hill was Bob Cryer, who
was MP for Bradford South until his tragic death in 1994. His
final speech to the House, in an adjournment debate, was a succinct rendering of the
questions at the heart of the campaign. Questions continue to be asked
in the House of Commons but satisfactory answers are very rare. See also,
page on Campaigning
There are no missiles at Menwith Hill but the base would play a crucial role in any nuclear strike
mounted by the United States. As such, it would be a prime nuclear target in the event of war.
Menwith Hill received an award for the part it played in "Desert Storm" during the Gulf War.
Despite being an American controlled facility, Menwith Hill was in 1996 designated a "RAF base".
Menwith's ongoing expansion
will also enable it to transmit and receive communications and photographic images from space.
This will help the US Space Command in its mission to "see" and "hear" everything on the planet and enable laser
weapons to be able to reach anywhere on the earth within a target area of about six feet.
The radomes for the Space Based Infra Red System (SBIRS) are now built.
General Howell M. Estes III (Commander in Chief, North American Aerospace Defense Command and US Space Command and Air Force Space Command, Commander)
has said in a speech urging the US Congress to "help fulfill the promise of space" that:
"Our SBIRS system consolidates DoD's non-imaging infrared systems that fulfill national security needs in areas of missile warning, missile defense, technical intelligence and battlespace characterization.
It consists of high and low components.
We need to get SBIRS High on-orbit first as a replacement for the Defense Support Program (DSP).
We're going to put four satellites up to replace four DSPs.
This will improve our location identification and tracking capabilities by better identifying the missile launch point, impact point and azimuth.
It will also give us another level of refinement in those areas as we work the missile defense issue.
The advantage of SBIRS Low is that it can track "cold bodies" in space.
SBIRS Low is important for the ballistic missile defense systems.
With SBIRS High, you can only track infrared signatures which means the rocket motor has to be burning.
These systems will significantly improve our ability to provide much more precise launch and impact point of theater missiles to forces in a theater of operations.
They are key to our ability to cue systems that we'll use for active defense as part of both theater and national missile defense."
On 14 October 1999 The Campaign for the Accountability of Amaerican Bases (CAAB) applied for and was issued a Claim (formally known in the English legal system as a Writ) in the High Court in London to seek an injunction to stop the building of two new radomes for SBIRS at Menwith Hill.
The construction began at the end of 1999 the system is due to come 'on-line' in February 2000.
CAAB believe that the siting of this system at Menwith Hill breaches local, national and international law, in particular the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty 1972 and 'Outer Space Treaty' of 1967.
Britain and America have ratified the Outer Space Treaty, while the ABM Treaty was agreed, and signed by, the US and Russia (USSR). Therefore, by allowing the land to be used for this purpose, Britain is in breach of one international law and aiding and abetting the US in breaching another.
The writ was withdrawn in September 2000 following the statement by President Clinton that he would defer the decision an whether or not to go ahead with NMD testing and deployment (see articles on CAAB website for more details).
More details of SBIRS can be obtained from the SBIRS web site.
Menwith is the largest regional signals intelligence station anywhere on earth and is fully involved in the US plans to dominate the space environment.
The main operational activity of Menwith Hill is the collection of signals intelligence from national
and international communications systems for the USA. Long distance national and international communications
are conveyed by cables, microwave radio links, and satellites. All forms of modern communications: telephony,
television, fax, computer links and the Internet are carried in this way. Companies such as BT install and
provide high capacity national and international links used for these purposes and each is subject to
interception. Some long distance communications are still conveyed by traditional high frequency (HF)
radio systems. Except for domestic mobile radio systems, this traffic is predominantly but not
exclusively military.
Steeplebush - Photo by Craig Stennett
... MENWITH HILL - ask no questions, get no answers ....
MENWITH HILL - prime nuclear target ... integral part of US star wars plans ....
Misleading sign - The RAF is NOT at Menwith Hill - photo by Craig Stennett
SBIRS radomes at Menwith Hill - photo by Craig Stennett
Back to home page