Target Spotting for the Sheik.

[professor rat]

NZ spy base being used in US dirty tricks check says Locke

04.03.2003

The Waihopai spy base in Marlborough is being used as part of an alleged dirty tricks campaign by the United States to spy on fellow United Nations members, says Green MP Keith Locke.
"New Zealand could easily be helping the US National Security Agency (NSA) intercept communications between UN delegates and their home countries," Mr Locke said today.
Britain's Sunday Observer reported at the weekend that the US was spying on UN Security Council members in order to get support for a war against Iraq.
Waihopai is said to be part of the "Echelon" programme that globally intercepts electronic communications.
"The two satellite dishes at the Waihopai station near Blenheim pull down all the phones, faxes and e-mails passing through two communications satellites over the equator," Mr Locke said.
"These messages are filtered by the NSA for key words and sender and recipient details.
"Communications from 'swinging' Security Council members like Pakistan or Chile could well be forwarded from Waihopai to the NSA."
Once the NSA had the messages, they could be used by the US to get information on the negotiating positions of the six Security Council members undecided on a war in Iraq.
The council is to shortly consider a resolution drafted by the US and Britain supporting its case for an invasion of Iraq.
Mr Locke said it was wrong that the base run by the Government Communications Security Bureau was being run in the interests of US policy.
"It seriously compromises our independent foreign policy and the respect with which we are held in the world."
His comments came as Parliament debated the Government Communications Security Bureau Bill, which sets up the agency in law. It exists by Cabinet directive. The change will put it on the same basis as the Security Intelligence Service.
The bureau has often been criticised for its secretive nature, with regular protests outside the station. The bureau's head office is in Wellington. The prime minister is in charge of the GCSB.
Mr Locke said the law change would mean a "little bit more would be known about the GCSB, but not very much."
Government MPs criticised the Green MP's stance, saying the secret nature of work at Waihopai was essential to fight terrorist groups and other threats to national security.
Spying in NZ
* The Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) runs two intelligence collection stations.
* One is a high frequency radio interception and direction-finding station at Tangimoana, near Bulls. The other, at Waihopai, intercepts satellite communications.
* The bureau has a $20 million budget and employs about 220 staff.
- NZPA
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3198992&thesection=news&thesubsection=general