Pine Gap

CLOSE TO GOD’S EAR: NSA EAVESDROPPING MEMOIRS

By David Rosenberg

If you have ever wondered how the United States gathers crucial intelligence for military readiness and response, this book is for you. Currently Ukraine and Russia are gold mines of information from wireless transmissions (signals) such as radars and communication systems. One facility in particular, Pine Gap, is critical to achieving an intelligence advantage by collecting, analyzing and reporting these types of signals. In his memoir, David Rosenberg tells you how the United States has done this for over 50 years from the remote outback in Australia. Pine Gap is the first book of its kind - incredibly true stories of what happens within the secure walls of the NSA's most important satellite ground site. The book takes you into the 'nerve center' of Pine Gap - Operations, and exposes the NSA's mission in Australia, a task that required both the United States and Australian governments approval to publish. David is the first to speak out about this type of intelligence collection, providing an insider's account of the eavesdropping mission at Pine Gap and the partnership between the United States and Australia that has made Pine Gap the most important satellite ground site in the Intelligence Community. In 1966, the United States and Australia signed a treaty establishing a jointly-run satellite eavesdropping facility just south of Alice Springs known as Pine Gap. Since Pine Gap's first satellite launch on 19 June 1970, it has operated in a shroud of secrecy, enabling Pine Gap to remain virtually unknown around the world while collecting intelligence on weapons development and real-time communications in support of military operations. In this fascinating exposé into the top-secret world of military surveillance, you will also discover how the fallout of controversies such as the Edward Snowden leaks have made the ethics of government eavesdropping more important than ever.

From the inside cover: General Michael Hayden (Ret) was Director of the National Security Agency (NSA) from March 1999 to April 2005, Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence from April 2005 to May 2006 and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from May 2006 to February 2009. His knowledge of the expanse and inner workings of the intelligence community are unlikely to be surpassed. General Hayden could have begun his book, Playing To The Edge, with any of the hundreds of experiences he had witnessed, and indeed created during his tenure. It is noteworthy, then, that he chose his orientation inside Pine Gap as the starting point for his memoir, expressing to his Australian counterpart his thoughts: 'Wouldn't you love to be able to show people exactly what we do?' I was one of a handful of officers to give General Hayden a presentation on the capabilities of Pine Gap that day, specifically the collection and analysis of signals related to weapons development and testing. In my book, General Hayden's wish to 'show people exactly what we do' is finally realized.

In the middle of the Australian outback, 1000 miles from the closest city, the world’s most advanced satellite ground station quietly listens. Shrouded in mystery for more than 50 years, the Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap has been an enigma to those who have patiently waited to discover its secrets.

Pine Gap takes the reader on a compelling journey that tells of the facility’s central intelligence role during the transitions of three United States presidencies, four Australian Prime Ministers, and international conflicts spanning the end of the Cold War, two wars in Iraq, war in the Balkans, the ‘War On Terror’, and the emergence of North Korea as a nuclear-armed nation.

Now, Pine Gap provides an insider’s account of what really goes on behind the closed doors of one of the largest and most closely guarded intelligence collection facilities in the world. It is a true account of the author’s 23 year career with the NSA - including his 18 years in the Australian outback - and it marks the first time a long-serving former NSA officer with a Top Secret - Sensitive Compartmented Intelligence (SCI) security clearance and full access to Pine Gap’s operational areas has spoken out.