Close Pine Gap protesters challenge Australia’s U.S. alliance

Protesters have renewed calls to close Pine Gap as criticism grows over the secret facility’s role in US-led military operations, writes Dr Binoy Kampmark.

It remains a thorny reminder that Australia is still a shy subject of power, beholden to the security interests of another state basking in imperialist and rapidly diminishing glory.

Pine GapMore technically known as Joint Defense Facility Pine Gap (JDFPG), it is a largely US-run effort based in Alice Springs in Central Australia. As the late academician of strategic studies Desmond Ball briefly drew attention in 1988 “it is an espionage operation. Veiled statements should not be allowed to overshadow this important point.”

The base has grown from a desire On behalf of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) establishing a remote ground control station for signals intelligence satellites in Australia in 1965. Land belonging to the Central Arrernte people was accordingly cut down for the site the following year. The decision was made in a typically rude manner, without consultation or discussion with local residents or Elders, for whom the American writer and geographer had become a secret. Trevor Paglen to want describe aspect “empty space on the map… erased from public record”.

Facility staff Approximately 800 personnel from the US National Security Agency (NSA), CIA, US National Reconnaissance Office (NCO) and Australian agencies Australian Signals Directorate And Australian Federal Police. Over the years the base became increasingly institutionalized, with a heavy American accent: raytheon, Northrop Grumman And General Dynamic, IBM’s And Hewlett Packard. A. only ten percent 10 percent of the staff created are said to be Australian Government employees.

The base periodically attracts strident and principled protesters; is appalled by the base’s role in providing targeting data for U.S. and allied drone and missile strikes in the Middle East and Africa. This year, the Near Pine Pass-Sacred Ground Retreat convergence featured Over three days (18-20 July) hundreds of participants gathered in Alice Springs to demand the closure of the facility through a series of workshops, panels and textiles. ‘Themes of anti-militarist and anti-colonial movements’.

A rally of 300 people on July 20 gathered Near the front of the spy base, the largest since 1987, they sport signs and flags and chant these platitudes: ‘turn it off’, ‘Close Pine Gap’ And ‘Always was, always will be Aboriginal land’. New South Wales Greens Senator David Shobridge was available, expression concern about him “Foreign military base established for the interests of a foreign soldier” in your service “right wing politics” and disrespect for international law.

The base was also a potential target for any enemy the United States might be willing to antagonize. “The danger is heading towards the heart of our country.”

Arrernte Apmereke-artweye traditional guardians Felicity, Wyonna and Jacquita Hayes offer voice, even if it disturbs logic. reported By Australian Associated Press: Pine Gap is located on a sacred site that not only defiled tradition but also served as a tool for waging foreign wars and carrying out genocide:

“We don’t want to constantly feel guilty when bad things happen to minors abroad. We’re not the ones who control that facility, but we feel guilty that it happened on our soil.”

Guards demanded the closure of the facility “So the next generation can be safe. We want to get compensation so we can buy a house in the Whitegate community.”. It is also surprising that to this day the residents of Whitegate remain deprived of basic services, including decent housing and drinking water. Water has to be brought by truck. There is no sewer.

Richard Tanter between Nautilus InstituteOne of Pine Gap’s most astute and impeccably detailed reviewers, Pine Gap has always proven reliable. remarkable HE:

“Unless Australia’s direct and indirect military involvement with Israel’s activities in the Gaza Strip is closely examined… it is impossible for the Australian Government to reassure Parliament and the Australian public that Australia is not complicit in acts of genocide.”

The Good Professor has managed to shed light on the facility’s broader purposes and discounts critics who fault claims that the facility is being used to fuel military efforts like Israel’s. (It may indicate at least three satellites capable of reaching the Gaza Strip.) For example, satellite intelligence from Pine Gap in October 1973 transferred to Israel during Yom Kippur WarA contribution that helped Israel break through Egyptian lines.

This is of little interest to clubland militarists in Canberra and think tanks such as the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI). former intelligence officer Patrick Winterwrites for ASPIs Strategistlaments the decline in site privacy and security, concerned that trends in signal technology are no longer fundamental ‘irreplaceable’. The advent of comprehensive encryption means satellite downlinks can be protected ‘almost everywhere. The distance that once hid the site from view no longer hides much.’.

Winter is emotional about relations with Washington:

‘We shared intelligence and expertise far beyond anything our own resources could produce. ‘We don’t have such satellites.’

That’s exactly why Canberra is bloodied by this complicity with an eager-to-please butler rather than an authoritarian landlord.

Pine Gap, then, acts as a symbol of highly distilled, triple-force colonization: a garrison outpost dominated by US imperium and personnel (a nudge in the eyes of Australian sovereignty), located on the indigenous lands it defiles (a nudge in the eyes of First Nations peoples), and also responsible for aiding the depredations of Washington’s allies – more recently the Israel Defense Forces in the cleansing conflict against the Palestinians.

Palestinian activist Remah Najirelated to Justice for Palestine Magan-djin, stated with the power of:

“I understand that the genocide against my people in Gaza was made possible by intelligence flowing directly to the Israeli occupation forces from the heart of this colony in Alice Springs.”

Shoe Bridge we agreed:

“I guess we’re letting them use our land, this prime real estate [to] commit some of the worst atrocities we have ever seen.

Aspect AUKUS Public Inquiry As we continue the various hearings on that terrible, inevitable security agreement between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, the Close Pine Gap campaign should be appreciated as a relevant and valuable extension.

The former’s proceedings often brutally reveal the wisdom of a deal that shows Australia is shamefully disadvantaged, its politicians grossly misled, and its strategic establishment impressionable and bankrupt. (This organization aims to bankrupt the Australian treasury for a whopping $368 billion through promised nuclear-powered submarines that will never arrive.)

While the Close Pine Gap protests are less well-reported, they are no less relevant and urgent in their aims.