IT’S the top secret military facility in Central Australia that plays a key role in US intelligence and military operations around the world.


But rather than protecting us from a potential enemy attack, Pine Gap’s very existence makes us an ideal target.
That’s the view of Richard Tanter, a professor in the School of Political and Social Studies at the University of Melbourne, who told news.com.au the level of data collected from Pine Gap was beyond staggering.
Prof Tanter has conducted years of research into the facility with ANU colleague and leading authority on Pine Gap, Desmond Ball, and will next week deliver a keynote speech on the potential danger it brings to Australia.
Pine Gap will be just one of several topics discussed at the independent and Peaceful Australia Network (IPAN) national conference in Alice Springs on Saturday week.
Peace activists, academics and antimilitarism groups will all travel to the red centre to mark the 50th Anniversary of Pine Gap, aiming to illustrate the huge role it plays in US military activity.
Prof Tanter, a researcher with the Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainability, said Pine Gap remains one of the most important intelligence facilities outside of the United States today.

According to Prof Tanter, its importance to the US military is enough to make Australia a target in any major war our American ally is involved in.
He said Pine Gap allows access to satellites that could spy on every continent — except the Americas and Antarctica.

The data collected is used for drone attacks in places where Australia was not even at war, he said.
Pine Gap also plays a vital role in collecting a wide range of signals intelligence as well as providing information on early warning of ballistic missile launches.
Intelligence gathered here could be used to target nuclear weapons and is also used to support US and Japanese missile defence.

“In the centre of Australia we have Uluru and nearby its ‘evil twin’.”

Angry residents in a rural South Korean town threw eggs and water bottles at the prime minister and blocked him for more than six hours Friday to protest a plan to deploy an advanced U.S. missile defense system in their neighborhood.

Earlier this week, South Korea announced that the missile system called Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, will be placed in the southeastern farming town of Seongju by the end of next year to better cope with North Korean threats. Seongju residents launched protests, saying they fear possible health hazards from the missile system.

Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, accompanied by the defense minister and others, visited Seongju to try to explain the decision to residents but was immediately disrupted by jeers.

Some hurled eggs and water bottles, shouting "We oppose (the THAAD deployment) with our lives," according to TV footage.
A senior police officer was injured on his forehead.

Hwang didn't appear to be directly hit by any objects as security guards and aides used umbrellas and bags to protect him. But his suit jacket was tainted by eggs and he evacuated to a town hall office.

When he and the others came out of the building into a minibus, they were surrounded by hundreds of protesters, some using tractors. Hwang was held in the bus for more than six hours.

South Korean officials have dismissed as groundless a belief that THAAD radar systems emit electromagnetic waves that can cause health problems. Defense officials say the U.S. system is harmless if people stay at least 100 meters (yards) away from it.

The United States has about 28,500 troops in South Korea as deterrence against potential aggression from North Korea.

Seongju residents criticized the government for unilaterally deciding on the deployment without consulting them. About 200 Seongju residents made a protest visit to Seoul's Defense Ministry on Wednesday, and some wrote letters of complaint in blood. A group of 13 local leaders went on a hunger strike.

The Abbott government pushed for Washington to request that Australia expand its air strikes against the Islamic State terror group from Iraq to its more dangerous neighbour Syria, Fairfax Media has learnt.

Government sources say it was Mr Obama who raised Syria as a topic and then made the first suggestion of Australia's expanded role.

But it is widely known in government circles that Mr Abbott has long been keen to do more in the fight against the Islamic State, which has taken swaths of territory stretching across Syria and Iraq and established affiliates in Libya, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

from humanitarian air drops to begging master to let us off the leash, in 12 months.

In recent months, China has been challenging the Unites States’ security agenda with its territorial claims in the South China Sea. And now that Australia has basically teamed up with the US and its allies against China, it becomes more interesting

the North West Cape base in Western Australia is a key US “anti-satellite” facility, tracking Chinese as well as Russian satellites for destruction by unspecified weapons.

Therefore, deals signed between the US and Australia have paved the way to station US Marines in the northern Australian city of Darwin and thus provide broader access for US aircraft and warships to Australian military bases and ports.

That kind of ‘cooperation’ allows the US to take Australia to the war against China even without having a vote in the Australian parliament. Australia would immediately become a participating side of the conflict, with or without the wish to become one.

Australia should have learned from its involvement in Iraq that its interests are not served by following the USA into conflict

ALMOST 19,000 troops will be playing war games in the Territory and off the coast of Northern Australia in July as part of the Australian and US military exercise, Talisman Sabre.

The biennial event is the Australian Defence Force’s biggest combined military exercise.

Australian Army Brigadier Robert Brown said the Northern Territory part of Talisman Sabre had grown this year and would involve about 18,800 Navy, Army and Air Force personnel from Australia and the US.

“This year a larger portion of the exercise will be staged in the Top End,” he said.

“For 2015, the focus of the exercise, particularly air and maritime operations, will be in the North Australian Range Complex, Timor and Arafura seas however, a number of land activities will continue to be carried out at training areas in the East Australian Range Complex in Queensland.


“We continue to work with traditional owners to fine tune a staged beach landing at Fog Bay which will occur before the exercise moves into the vast Bradshaw Field Training Area on the Northern Territory and Western Australian border.”

A public open day will be held at the Darwin Showgrounds on July 5 and there will be heightened military activity in the Darwin region.

This year will be the sixth time the exercise has been conducted and will involve about 30,000 Australian and US participants with planning and military operations at sea, in the air, and on land.

The exercise will be run in the Northern Territory and Queensland from July 5 to 21.