New Zealands Spy Base (waihopai)

New Zealand has a satellite monitoring station at Waihopai.




www.gssr.de...

www.gssr.de...



What does Waihopai actually do?



The electronic intelligence gathering base is located in the Waihopai Valley, near Blenheim. First announced in 1987, it is operated by New Zealand's Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB), in the interests of the foreign powers grouped together in the super-secret UKUSA Agreement (which shares global electronic and signals intelligence among the Intelligence agencies of the US, UK, Canada, Australia and NZ). Its two satellite interception dishes (shielded by giant domes) intercept a huge volume of satellite phone calls, including New Zealanders� international calls, plus telexes, faxes, e-mail and computer data communications. It gathers this data from our Asia/Pacific neighbours, and forwards it on to the major partners in the UKUSA Agreement, specifically the US National Security Agency. Its targets include international communications involving New Zealanders. The codename for this � Echelon � has become notorious worldwide. New Zealand is an integral, albeit junior, part of a global spying network, one that is ultimately accountable only to its own constituent agencies, not governments, and certainly not to citizens.


www.fas.org...

[Edited on 10-9-2003 by quaneeri]

Yeeeeeep.

That PMA site is NOT, repeat NOT, reliable.

Originally posted by DeltaNine
Yeeeeeep.

That PMA site is NOT, repeat NOT, reliable.

I didn't have a problem with the site. ?


But i have changed the link just in case.

While NZ may well have a listening station of some kind for Echelon, I doubt that it is as extensive an multi use as Pine Gap in Australia.

It is my understanding that NZ still enforces its nuclear free policy to any and all US aircraft/ships entering its territory, so I doubt that it could be a possible launch point for X Craft.

I would be very interested however to find out if it could be a secondary HAARP facility???

Any Kiwis with any possible local knowledge care to post???

Waihopai...shhhhh....its a secret

Yep, the base is well known down South...Some Southern Kiwis on the board might have better info on it than me tho'...

alien.

IP:...........

So now i know who has been hammering my firewall.

Im elsewhere, not down south myself.
Alien is right, its a very well known base. Mikey and Havoc managed to sneak in there one time. Baw ha ha hah haha that was funny.

At first i thought that theese spheres were radar towers but why the heck do they have two so close to eachother?
www.gssr.de...

Notice the USAF Starlifter on the last pic, what exactly are they carrying i wonder.





www.converge.org.nz...

Sign on outer fence of Waihopai spybase, near Blenheim, January 2003





www.converge.org.nz...

Main gate, Waihopai spybase protest, January 2003. Note electric fence and spikes





www.converge.org.nz...

US Air Force Starlifter, USAF base, Christchurch Airport, January 2003

in regards to the starlifter: any american teams going down to the southpole stop in at Christchurch airport to refuel and so forth, if the starlifter had cargo for the spy base then it would of been flown into blehniem itself, not to christchurch.

seedy_sid


Thanks.


That explains it.

Oh man... you do realize that this is one of the names on the NSA echelon list...

TheyWatchYouToo.



Yeah.


I did mention (Echelon) in my first paragraph of this post.




I was looking at the (Echelon list) posted yesterday, and saw that it was on there.

I guess that pretty well confirms it then.

Originally posted by seedy_sid
As for the nuke free policy, it is still active, and for an example of what can happen when nuke powered subs and ships try to cross into NZ waters, have a look somewhere on the US navy website, and you will find a small mention that a couple of years ago a US submarine surfaced for some unknown reason in NZ waters, after it surfaced NZ special forces took control of the submarine and took it out of NZ waters before returing control to the US Officer onboard.

...incursions into NZ territorial waters by American nuclear-powered and capable submarines are actually not that uncommon. My brother used to work as a Chief Radar Plotter/Operator in the Navy and they were quite accustomed to American (and other nations) submarines 'probing' into NZ waters. Perhaps it was just a friendly game of 'hide and seek', perhaps it was a more interesting game of 'test a country's defensive capabilities', find weakness' and possible entry routes into various harbours or possible landing points...as I do know these incursions weren't merely 'dipping their toe' into the outer limits of NZ territorial waters, but actual full incursions into waterways of largely populated cities.

That could well be termed an act of possible aggression/espionage to do so without authorisation or notification...NZ would have been well within its rights to defend its soveriegn territory with force. It is interesting though that the only act of terrorism NZ has suffered has been at the hands of the French Special Forces with the sinking of the Green Peace vessel, The Rainbow Warrior, and murder of a crew murder who was on board. What did we do there? Well...we basically let them go for a nice pay-out and they returned back to their country as relative 'heroes'...when we should have left them rot in Mt Eden Jail, or better yet strung them up from the then-existant 'One Tree Hill'.



Peace,
ALIEN

in regards to the Rainbow Warrior, considering the NZ goverment was funding green peace directly doesnt that constitute an attack on NZ?

i read somewhere that this facility was a major part of the NSA's echelon system. The NSA trained many of those that work there and they have this computer program called the "dictionary" that sorts through various forms of communication to look for key words. i think i also read that a huge portion of faxes, telephone calls and emails are relayed to the site to be passed through the "dictionary." im not just talking local phone calls and that sort of thing, but a huge chunk of global communications pass through there. it seems to be a very important part of the system.

Alien, In regards to submarines in major cities you think the waitemata harbour is deep enough for them? they were worried about japs and germans back in the day, thus the creation of the north head tunnel system, but a nuke powered sub? those things are huge. i think one passing through the harbour would be fairly noticable. like antenna's sticking up out of the water might tip people off. I have seen a sub in the hauraki gulf before, between coromandle and great barrier. i thought it was probably from the UK tho. I bet you could get a sub into wellington, that harbour is quite deep, but auckland? its quite muddy and shallow, i know this cause i used to read the depth sounder on my dads boat every time we berthed at westhaven.

oh yeah one more thing, i seriously doubt that a plane that big could land at blenheim, wellington doesnt even have an airport big enough for a 747. Christchurch and Auckland are the only big airports, which one is closer to blenheim? the one where this picture was snapped.

blehniem has a runway big enough for a 747, its bigger then runway 1 at chch international

No its not. They could barely get a 727 in there.