Spy base in our backyard

Nestled in a valley about 30km east of Geraldton sits one of Australia’s most potent and least known weapons in the fight against global terrorism.

Sheep graze in the shadows of its five 20m high white radomes, which resemble giant golf balls and protect the highly-sensitive intelligence gathering equipment housed within.

Tennis courts and a swimming pool offer the spies, IT experts and other staff employed at the Kojarena Australian Defence Satellite Communications Station some reprieve from their top-secret work.

Despite its 400ha operating area and significance in counterterrorism (Kojarena was used to monitor calls to and from Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan long before the September 11 attacks), the existence of the facility still comes as a surprise to many.

But earlier this year, when American computer security expert Edward Snowden leaked details about mass surveillance programs run by his former US employer, the National Security Agency, the role of the WA spy base was soon being mentioned in dispatches.

In 2001, Kojarena faced public scrutiny when it was named as one of five satellite monitoring stations that formed an international eavesdropping network codenamed Echelon. Overseen by the NSA, which jointly manages Kojarena with the Australian Defence Signals Directorate, Echelon intercepted tens of thousands of emails, telephone calls and faxes across the planet using a “keyword” search program, or “dictionary”.

Relevant information was then shared between US, Britain, New Zealand, Canadian and Australian intelligence services.

According to Mr Snowden — now living in Russia and wanted in the US for espionage — Echelon has been superseded by internet spying programs called XKeyscore and PRISM, which can access data stored by Google, Facebook and Microsoft.

Documents reveal that XKeyscore has operated from sites all over the world, including the base near Geraldton.

But Mr Snowden’s claim that the spying program can be used on anyone anywhere has been vehemently rejected by the NSA.

“XKeyscore is used as part of NSA’s lawful foreign signals intelligence collection system, ” the agency said.

“Allegations of widespread, unchecked analyst access to NSA collection data are simply not true.”

Mr Snowden, 29, leaked a top secret XKeyscore power point presentation in which the NSA boasted that the program’s capabilities led to the capture of more than 300 terrorists around the world.

The training material also suggested that intelligence analysts have at their fingertips the power to conduct sweeping internet searches without having a specific target or authorisation.

“Show me all the encrypted word documents from Iran, ” is an example under one heading of what XKeyscore can do.

“Show me all Microsoft Excel spreadsheets containing MAC addresses coming out of Iraq so I can perform network mapping, ” is another example.

XKeyscore can also “mine” a person’s internet browsing history, email content and online chats.

State and Federal governments have long played down the Kojarena spy base’s value to a terrorist cell, saying “softer” and more populated targets were preferred.

But in 2011, the City of Geraldton highlighted the importance and need to defend the base in a submission to the Federal Government.

“A high-readiness army force, with counterinsurgency and ground-to-air missile capabilities may be justified, ” the council submission read. “Kojarena is within a short distance of Geraldton Airport.”

Opened in 1993, the base was expanded in 2007 to include a US military mobile phone satellite communications system for its troops in the Middle East and Asia.

The Kojarena location, which was secured by the Commonwealth under land acquisition powers, allows for the interception of more than 100 geostationary satellites in orbit, including those controlled by Russia, China and Pakistan.

Similar stations in Britain, US and New Zealand ensure the world’s communications satellites are covered by an intelligence-sharing deal known as the UKUSA Agreement.

According to James Bamford, the best-selling author of two books about the NSA — The Puzzle Palace and Body of Secrets — the Kojarena base was built near the “scruffy port on the Indian Ocean” to replace a British-run spy base in Hong Kong that closed in 1994.

He said the WA base was used before 1998 to listen in on calls bin Laden made via an Inmarsat (marine satellite communications) phone. The terrorist stopped using the device when the US launched a cruise missile attack on his Afghanistan camp and it became abundantly clear his phone calls had been used to track his location.

In 2007, after the expansion to Kojarena was made public and Greens MP Giz Watson raised objections in the State Parliament, then Labor minister Kim Chance said “it would have been helpful” if the Commonwealth had consulted the local council and WA Government beforehand.

On Monday, heavily-censored documents obtained under Freedom of Information laws revealed there had been discussion within the Federal Government about the legalities of the PRISM program.

“Talking points” included appropriate government responses to any concerns about the way the wide-reaching surveillance programs might encroach on the National Broadband Network.

“The US Director of National Intelligence publicly clarified that the PRISM program is an internal government computer system used to facilitate the US government’s lawful collection of foreign intelligence information from electronic communication service providers under warrants issued, ” one background document read.

But WA Greens Senator Scott Ludlam doesn’t buy the “trust us” mantra surrounding the operations of bases such as the one near Geraldton.

“The base’s role is somewhat ambiguous, ” he said.

“The government refuses to make any comment at all about what that base does. What the Snowden revelations tell us is that the surveillance is indiscriminate. To track the needle in the haystack they’re tracking the entire haystack.”

Last year, Sen. Ludlam called on the attorney-general to make a statement about the way XKeyscore, PRISM and other US programs were used in Australia.

“To wield these powers there needs to be transparency, ” he said.

In response to the Senator’s questions the Federal Government said all communication intercepts conducted by Australian agencies were lawful.