GCSB Waihopai
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New Zealand's Government Communications Security Bureau operates what it describes as a satellite communications monitoring facility in the Waihopai Valley.[1][2] First announced in 1987, the facility has been identified by MP Keith Locke[3] as part of ECHELON, the worldwide network of signals interception facilities run by the UKUSA consortium of intelligence agencies (which shares global electronic and signals intelligence among the Intelligence agencies of the US, UK, Canada, Australia and NZ).[4]
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[edit] Operations
It contains two satellite interception dishes (shielded by giant domes)[5]. Few details of the facility are known, but it is believed that it intercepts and processes all phone calls, faxes, e-mail and computer data communications. It is thought that this data is then sorted and shared with the other members of the UKUSA group.[citation needed]
The Waihopai station is a sister operation to a similar facility run at Tangimoana.
[edit] Protests and security breaches
The site is a regular target for protesters and activists who are attempting to have the base closed down. The Anti-Bases Campaign have had regular yearly protests at the base.
In 1996 Nicky Hager entered the base at night with John Campbell and a TV3 film crew, and managed to film the operations room through a window.
Hager returned in 1999 with Mikey Havoc and Jeremy Wells (as his "Newsboy" persona). They sneaked into the base and danced in front of cameras for a television show in which Havoc and Newsboy were starring.
In April 2008 Ploughshares Aotearoa[6] or Anzac Ploughshares breached three security fences to enter the base and then used a sickle to deflate the kevlar covering over one of the two satellite dishes.[7] Prime Minister Helen Clark condemned the attack on the spy base as a "senseless act of criminal vandalism".[8][9]
[edit] See also
- ECHELON
- Pine Gap
- Secret Power a book by Nicky Hager about ECHELON
[edit] References
- ^ About Us :: The Government Communications Security Bureau
- ^ Government Communications Security Bureau [GCSB] New Zealand - Intelligence Agencies
- ^ Speech in Parliament's General Debate, Wednesday, March 1, 3.55pm.
- ^ Submissions on the GCSB Bill
- ^ Eyeballing the Waihopai facility at Cryptome.org
- ^ Updates & Events « Ploughshares Aotearoa
- ^ "Three arrests after spybase attack", The Marlborough Express, 2008-04-30. Retrieved on 2008-04-30.
- ^ "Three arrested as activists attack Waihopai spy base domes, deflating one", TV3, 2008-04-30. Retrieved on 2008-04-30.
- ^ "Waihopai spy base attack 'senseless' - PM", New Zealand Herald, 2008-04-30. Retrieved on 2008-04-30.
