Tag Archives: Central Intelligence Agency

The Intercept: The US Spy Hub in the Heart of Australia

(Source: The Intercept via Dan Robinson)

A SHORT DRIVE south of Alice Springs, the second largest population center in Australia’s Northern Territory, there is a high-security compound, code-named “RAINFALL.” The remote base, in the heart of the country’s barren outback, is one of the most important covert surveillance sites in the eastern hemisphere.

Hundreds of Australian and American employees come and go every day from Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap, as the base is formally known. The official “cover story,” as outlined in a secret U.S. intelligence document, is to “support the national security of both the U.S. and Australia. The [facility] contributes to verifying arms control and disarmament agreements and monitoring military developments.” But, at best, that is an economical version of the truth. Pine Gap has a far broader mission — and more powerful capabilities — than the Australian or American governments have ever publicly acknowledged.

An investigation, published Saturday by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in collaboration with The Intercept, punctures the wall of secrecy surrounding Pine Gap, revealing for the first time a wide range of details about its function. The base is an important ground station from which U.S. spy satellites are controlled and communications are monitored across several continents, according to classified documents obtained by The Intercept from the National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden.[…]

Continue reading at The Intercept…

Spread the radio love

CIA: A History of the Foreign Broadcast Information Service

I just stumbled upon this fascinating history of the CIA Foreign Broadcast Information Service and thought SWLing Post readers might enjoy browsing it as well. This  is a history of the early, pre-CIA, years of the Foreign Broadcast Information Service. It was published with a classification of “Confidential” in 1969 and fully released to the public by the CIA’s Historical Declassification Division in 2009.

Click here to go to the CIA website, or download each chapter via links below:

Spread the radio love