GCSB Waihopai
Encyclopedia
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
's Government Communications Security Bureau
Government Communications Security Bureau
The Government Communications Security Bureau is an intelligence agency of the New Zealand government.The mission statement is given as:To contribute to the national security of New Zealand through:...
operates what it describes as a satellite
Satellite
In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavour. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....
communications monitoring
Espionage
Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...
facility in the Waihopai Valley. First announced in 1987, the facility has been identified by MP Keith Locke
Keith Locke
Keith James Locke is a current New Zealand MP representing the Green Party who was first elected to parliament in 1999. he is the Green Party spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, Defence, Ethnic Affairs, Pacific Affairs, Human Rights, Immigration, Police and Auckland Transport...
as part of ECHELON
ECHELON
ECHELON is a name used in global media and in popular culture to describe a signals intelligence collection and analysis network operated on behalf of the five signatory states to the UK–USA Security Agreement...
, the worldwide network of signals interception
SIGINT
Signals intelligence is intelligence-gathering by interception of signals, whether between people , whether involving electronic signals not directly used in communication , or combinations of the two...
facilities run by the UKUSA consortium of intelligence agencies (which shares global electronic and signals intelligence among the Intelligence agencies of the US, UK, Canada, Australia and NZ).
Operations
The new station on 30 hectares of stony ground suitable for grapes (some wit suggested that ‘the dish would not be needed as everything would come in on the grapevine’) was authorised by the Prime Minister David Lange
David Lange
David Russell Lange, ONZ, CH , served as the 32nd Prime Minister of New Zealand from 1984 to 1989. He headed New Zealand's fourth Labour Government, one of the most reforming administrations in his country's history, but one which did not always conform to traditional expectations of a...
and Finance Minister Roger Douglas
Roger Douglas
Sir Roger Owen Douglas , is a New Zealand politician who formerly served as a senior New Zealand Labour Party Cabinet minister. He became arguably best-known for his prominent role in the radical economic restructuring undertaken by the Fourth Labour Government during the 1980s...
in 1987. Gerald Hensley
Gerald Hensley
Gerald Hensley, CNZM is a former New Zealand Public Servant.He was educated at St Bede’s College and Canterbury University where he took an MA with first class honours in History....
comments that Lange:
- was ready to work with the Australians (as) .... international communications were shifting to satellites .... Lange was regularly briefed by me and despite his later claims knew exactly what was involved and why the station was needed. .... The Australians were building a similar one at Geraldton (Western Australia) and their Defence Minister explained to the PM why the two installations separated by five time zones would enhance the benefit to both countries.
The Waihopai station is a sister operation to a similar facility run at Tangimoana
GCSB Tangimoana
The New Zealand Government Communications Security Bureau operates what it describes as a radio communications interception facility at Tangimoana, 30 kilometres west of Palmerston North, in New Zealand....
, which is said to be a smaller version of Waihopai.
Protests and security breaches
Anti-Bases Campaign
Anti-Bases Campaign is an organisation campaigning to remove foreign military bases and intelligence installations from New Zealand, and to dismantle the Government Communications Security Bureau....
have had regular yearly protests at the base.
In 1996 Nicky Hager
Nicky Hager
Nicky Hager is an author and investigative journalist born in Levin, New Zealand and now resides in Wellington. He generally writes about issues involving intelligence networks, environmental issues and politics. He has degrees in physics and philosophy...
entered the base at night with John Campbell
John Campbell (broadcaster)
John Campbell is the presenter of Campbell Live, a primetime 7.00pm current affairs programme on TV3 in New Zealand.-Early career:...
and a TV3
TV3 (New Zealand)
TV3 is a New Zealand commercial television network, owned by MediaWorks New Zealand. Launched on 26 November 1989, the first private television network in New Zealand...
film crew, and managed to film the operations room through a window.
Hager returned in 1999 with Mikey Havoc
Mikey Havoc
Mikey Havoc , also known colloquially as Havo is a New Zealand media personality.-Music:Roberts was the lead singer of the New Zealand glam metal group Push Push, best known for its 1991 number one singles "What My Baby Likes" and "Trippin'". He is now a house music DJ...
and Jeremy Wells
Jeremy Wells
Jeremy "Newsboy" Wells is a New Zealand television personality, most famous as the host of TVNZ's satirical news show, Eating Media Lunch. He is also a co-host of The Saturday Special radio show with Steve Simpson on New Zealand radio station bFM.Wells was born in Auckland, New Zealand, the son of...
(as his "Newsboy" persona). They sneaked into the base and danced in front of cameras for a television show in which Havoc and Newsboy were starring.
In April 2008 three Ploughshares Aotearoa or Anzac Ploughshares activists breached three security fences to enter the base and then used a sickle to deflate the kevlar
Kevlar
Kevlar is the registered trademark for a para-aramid synthetic fiber, related to other aramids such as Nomex and Technora. Developed at DuPont in 1965, this high strength material was first commercially used in the early 1970s as a replacement for steel in racing tires...
covering over one of the two satellite dishes. Prime Minister
Prime Minister of New Zealand
The Prime Minister of New Zealand is New Zealand's head of government consequent on being the leader of the party or coalition with majority support in the Parliament of New Zealand...
Helen Clark
Helen Clark
Helen Elizabeth Clark, ONZ is a New Zealand political figure who was the 37th Prime Minister of New Zealand for three consecutive terms from 1999 to 2008...
condemned the attack on the spy base as a "senseless act of criminal vandalism". They waited there until they were arrested (form of protest) and charged with intentional damage and unlawful entry. They were tried in March 2010 where they readily admitted their actions in court but defended it as a "claim of right" to save human lives. The jury agreed and the three activists were acquitted on all charges. One of the protesters said "we broke a law to protect plastic to uphold a law to protect human life."
The New Zealand government is considering suing the trio for damages of $1.1 million toward the repair of the dome, which would otherwise be taxpayer-borne. With the publicity surrounding the base and this case, the GCSB directors took the "highly unusual" step of announcing that "The claims that the Waihopai station is 'a United States spybase in our midst', contributing to 'torture, war, and the use of weapons of mass destruction' and other 'unspeakable evil' cannot be left unchallenged ... It was not - and is not - contributing to 'unspeakable evil'. Quite the reverse."