Pine Gap spy base complicit in Israel’s genocide

Pine Gap is the largest and most important US spy base in Australia, and has been described as the US’s second most important surveillance base globally. It has played a key role in US surveillance and then military operations since its establishment in the late 1960s.

Pine Gap’s location in the centre of Australia, 18 km outside of Alice Springs, is strategic – not only does Pine Gap control the four geosynchronous US spy satellites that cover the Middle East, China, North Korea and parts of Russia, but it’s too far from shore for its signals to be intercepted by spy ships passing in international waters. Note that Pine Gap’s three westernmost spy satellites cover Gaza completely.

What it does

Pine Gap analysts collect and analyse four main types of signals: telemetry from advanced weapons development; radar signals; communications transmissions (phone, radio, internet and military); and microwave transmissions. These signals come from the satellites Pine Gap controls and as well as foreign satellite intercepts. Pine Gap also hosts a Relay Ground System, tracking infrared data from missile launches and aircraft movements.

Historically

In the 1960s, Pine Gap was used by the US to pinpoint targets for bombing in Cambodia as part of the Vietnam War.

During the 1973 Yom Kippur war, the US provided Israel with strategically significant Pine Gap-derived intelligence on the positions of Egyptian military forces pressing Israeli forces in the Sinai, enabling the Israel Defence Force (IDF) to break through Egyptian lines and encircle a substantial Egyptian force. The intelligence was passed on despite the Australian Government having declared a public policy of “strict neutrality and even handedness”.

In 1999 during the Kosovo war, Pine Gap helped track Serbian military communications.

Supporting the US and UK invasion of Afghanistan, in 2001 Pine Gap sent detailed intelligence and targeting information to ships, fighter jets and even to individual special operations units on the ground.

During the early stages of the 2003 invasion of Iraq by US, UK, Australian and other forces, the US National Security Agency (NSA) installed a data link to send early warning of any Iraqi missile launches detected directly to Israel’s Air Force headquarters, south of Tel Aviv.

Pine Gap has been used in the US program of drone assassination in countries including Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia and Yemen. Pine Gap operators tracked signals from individuals’ mobile phones and hand-held radios, combined this intelligence with imagery, then passed the resulting geolocation intelligence on for use by drones. Once a drone had killed a target, that target was no longer tracked.

Israel’s current genocide

A former Pine Gap employee told Declassified Australia “Pine Gap facility is monitoring the Gaza Strip and surrounding areas with all its resources, and gathering intelligence assessed to be useful to Israel”. This intelligence could include the location of individuals holding mobile phones, identification of remote rocket launch signals, and missile detection and tracking.

A secret memorandum expanding intelligence sharing between the US and Israel was drafted by the two countries after Israel launched its war against Gaza. Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari claimed in March 2024 that he had never experienced such a high level of intelligence cooperation between Israel and the US, and in May 2024 National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan confirmed the intelligence was being offered to Israel unconditionally and unstintingly: “We are not holding anything back. We are providing every asset, every tool, every capability.”

While the US says it has specified that the intelligence should exclusively be used for hostage recovery and the targeting of Hamas leaders, there has been no attempt to enforce this policy. Sarah Yager, the Washington director of Human Rights Watch, has argued that the memorandum “essentially opens up the entire US vault” and in practice there are no rules governing the disclosure of intelligence to Israel.

The Washington Post revealed for example that Israel’s 8 June raid on the Nuseirat refugee camp, in which four Israeli hostages were retrieved but 274 Palestinians killed, was made possible by US intelligence that an anonymous informant said included overhead imagery.

Risk to Australia

In the event of war with China, Pine Gap’s role would make it a prime target.

Pine Gap’s role in the detection and interception of any hostile missile launch means that it plays a key role in US and Japanese missile defence systems, designed to shield them from nuclear attack by China or Russia. Its role in missile targeting means it would also play a key role in planning US nuclear missile strikes.

Over the past four years Pine Gap has grown significantly, with additional satellite antennae and an expanded data centre to enable ever-more sophisticated signals intelligence collection and analysis. The 2022 shift in US nuclear policy from a sole purpose of deterrence to a fundamental purpose of deterrence raises the prospect that US nuclear weapons could be used in response to non-nuclear threats to the US, and Pine Gap implicates Australia in operating the US system of nuclear warfare.

As the Australian Government admitted in recently declassified documents, this creates the high likelihood of Pine Gap being a target for nuclear weapons, putting surrounding Aboriginal communities and the Alice Springs township in immediate danger.