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30 September 2002 |
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"In the event of hostilities against Iraq, Pine Gap will be deeply involved in monitoring Iraqi military operations and transmitting intelligence to US strike forces in real time. As a key enabler of US military operations, Pine Gap will make a much more important contribution to an attack on Iraq than any essentially token Australian Defence Force participation. Debate about Australia's involvement in any hostilities should take this into account. " Below is an excerpt of the article on Pine Gap as published in The Diplomat (which will be on the shelves at newsagents on Wednesday). THE DIPLOMAT, October-November 2002 This country is already more intimately involved in intelligence gathering for the US than many are aware - or remember - observes Philip Dorling. Public debate over whether or not Australia should join in an American attack on Iraq has so far omitted an important fact. Regardless of any Australian Defence Force participation, Australia will make a critical contribution to such an offensive through intelligence collection by the Joint Defence Facility at Pine Gap, near Alice Springs. Indeed Australia is already involved in providing intelligence support for the development of US war plans against Iraq. On 15 August, Senator Robert Hill paid his first visit to Pine Gap as Defence Minister. In a brief statement unreported by the media, he declared the Facility to be a central element of the ANZUS Alliance. "Pine Gap is an impressive demonstration of our close working relationship with the United States", he said. Pine Gap is certainly impressive. The high security Joint Facility is one of the largest satellite ground stations in the world. It receives intelligence from geostationary satellites that eavesdrop on a wide range of radio, radar and microwave signals. It also supports early warning satellites which detect ballistic missile launches. Pine Gap is a huge intelligence factory. There are no less than 26 satellite antennas located at the Pine Gap, 14 covered by the distinctive white domes. As at 1 March this year, 876 people were working at Pine Gap. 428 were Americans and 448 were Australians. Notwithstanding massive advances in information technology, this is twice the number of personnel employed at the Facility twenty years ago. While details of the US presence at Pine Gap remain classified, it is generally known that the key US agencies are the National Reconnaissance Office (responsible for the design, construction and operation of US intelligence collection satellites), the National Security Agency (the US signals intelligence organisation) and the Central Intelligence Agency. All arms of the US Armed Services have personnel working at Pine Gap. The Chief of the Pine Gap Facility is an American officer, Barbara Ely. The senior Australian officer is the Deputy Chief of Facility, John McCarthy, who is on a second tour of duty having served in the same role in 1988-1992. Contractor companies engaged at Pine Gap are the US aerospace systems suppliers Raytheon, TRW, and Boeing Constructors and the computer supplier Compaq Australia (a wholly owned subsidiary of Compaq US, recently merged with Hewlett-Packard). The Australian Communications Authority (which regulates radio frequency use in Australia) recently disclosed that Pine Gap receives communicates with three geostationary satellites positioned above the equator over the Indian Ocean. According to the Authority, a fourth satellite will be brought into operation over Indonesia later this year. These systems are only part, however, of the Joint Facility's connections with an immensely costly space-based surveillance and communications architecture. Senator Hill last month emphasised Pine Gap's role in providing intelligence relevant to monitoring arms control and non-proliferation agreements: "... the work done at the Joint Facility indicates how countries are complying with agreements not to proliferate weapons systems and capabilities, or showing when they are working against such agreements". While this is true, such activity is only part of Pine Gap's role. A more honest assessment would put much greater emphasis on what Senator Hill briefly alluded to as "the collection of intelligence on military developments of interest to Australia and the US". Thirty years ago, Soviet missile telemetry was the priority target for the first-generation of signals intelligence satellites - codenamed Ryholite - controlled by Pine Gap. The Facility certainly contributed to an environment of transparency in which nuclear arms control agreements could be negotiated. From the outset, however, Pine Gap was also involved in more general interception of radio and radar signals. The signal collection programs supported by the Facility provided an intelligence bonanza on Soviet and Chinese military activity including critical information for the targeting of US nuclear weapons. The end of the Cold War did not diminish Pine Gap's military importance. US signals intelligence satellites were directed towards an ever-wider range of targets. During the 1991 Gulf War, satellites controlled by Pine Gap intercepted Iraqi communications and radar signals. According to Professor Des Ball of the Australian National University, these satellites monitored the most critical communications channels within Iraq, including those used by the Iraqi military high command. Subsequent US military assessments placed great importance on space-based intelligence collection as a key force-multiplier for future military operations. The capabilities of US signals intelligence satellites continued to expand in the decade since the Gulf War. Equipped with enormous collection antenna, these systems now include advanced capabilities to pinpoint and track the location of mobile radio and radar transmitters. Equally important have been advances in the rapid processing of signals intelligence and its dissemination to military commanders and units in the field. This is reflected by the proliferation of satellite communications links at Pine Gap and the significant US military presence at the Joint Facility, including for example, cryptologic personnel from the US Naval Security Group Command. The close linkage between space-based intelligence collection and military operations was clearly spelt out in congressional testimony four years ago by the then Director of the National Reconnaissance Office: "In the future, US forces will rely upon space systems for global awareness of threats, swift orchestration of military operations, and precision use of smart weapons. ... Our goal is to detect, track and target anything of significance worldwide and to get the right information to the right people at the right time." The objective is indeed to enable the US military to deliver "precise military firepower anywhere in the world, day or night, in all weather". Intelligence collection is the foundation for war planning. Together with high-resolution satellite imagery, signals intelligence is vital to identify potential military targets in Iraq. Signals intelligence is especially important for identifying key Iraqi military command, control, communications and intelligence facilities that will be priority targets in any US offensive. The collection of this intelligence is taking place now. Australian personnel are intimately involved. They are involved at all levels of management at Pine Gap and in determining the day to day collection priorities and tasking of the surveillance satellites controlled by the Facility. As Senator Hill observed, "All activities at the Joint Facility are carried out with the full knowledge and concurrence of the Government." In the event of hostilities against Iraq, Pine Gap will be deeply involved in monitoring Iraqi military operations and transmitting intelligence to US strike forces in real time. As a key enabler of US military operations, Pine Gap will make a much more important contribution to an attack on Iraq than any essentially token Australian Defence Force participation. Debate about Australia's involvement in any hostilities should take this into account. Two years ago the Howard Government rejected calls by the Federal Parliament's Joint Committee on Treaties for a classified briefing on the purpose and operations of Pine Gap. The Facility is not subject to oversight by the new Joint Parliamentary Committee on Australia's intelligence services. There has been no debate about Pine Gap's direct support for US military operations. Pine Gap's role should be subject to much greater scrutiny. Dr Philip Dorling served as foreign policy adviser to the Labor Opposition from 1996 to 2002. He is writing a history of the United States-Australian Joint Facilities.
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