Secret new US spy base to get green light (in Australia)

[sabra]

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/secret-new-us-spy-base-in-offing/2007/02/15/1171405303064.html

Secret new US spy base to get green light

AUSTRALIA'S close military alliance with the United States is to be further entrenched with the building of a high-tech communications base in Western Australia.

The Federal Government is about to approve the base after three years of secret negotiations with Washington.

The Age has been told the base, which will be built on defence land at Geraldton, will provide a crucial link for a new network of military satellites that will help the US's ability to fight wars in the Middle East and Asia. It will be the first big US military installation to be built in Australia in decades, and follows controversies over other big bases such as Pine Gap and North West Cape.

The deal has come to light amid heightened political debate over the alliance with the US and in the same week that the US finally told Australia it would not allow it to buy its best fighter aircraft, the F-22 Raptor.

The base, about 370 kilometres north of Perth, will control two of five geostationary satellites - those with the highest priority parked over the Indian Ocean to monitor the unstable Middle East. Building may start within months.

[IWantAChange]

1. I wonder what the Australian populace thinks of this??

[A HERETIC I AM]

2. My father worked at Pine Gap in the 70's

It is southwest of Alice Springs. I lived there in 1973 & '74. It was/is essentially a listening post and satellite tracking station. It tracks and communicates with the Shuttle when it passes over Australia as well.