New Zealands Spy Base (waihopai)

September 21, 2003

New Zealand has a satellite monitoring station at Waihopai.

http://www.gssr.de/MYSTISCHES/NewZealand_W...cholon/pic2.jpg

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.

http://www.fas.org/irp/eprint/sp/sp_c2.htm