By NICK PERRY and PAISLEY DODDS
Associated Press
Associated Press
Pine Gap satellite tracking station
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Britain needed U.S. intelligence to help thwart a major terror attack. New Zealand relied on it to send troops to Afghanistan. And Australia used it to help convict a would-be bomber.
All feats were the result of a spying alliance known as Five Eyes that groups together five English-speaking democracies, and they point to a vital lesson: American information is so valuable, experts say, that no amount of global outrage over secret U.S. surveillance powers would cause Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand to ditch the Five Eyes relationship.
The broader message is that the revelations from NSA leaker Edward Snowden are unlikely to stop or even slow the global growth of secret-hunting — an increasingly critical factor in the security and prosperity of nations.
“Information is like gold,” Bruce Ferguson, the former head of New Zealand’s foreign spy agency, the Government Communications Security Bureau, told The Associated Press. “If you don’t have it, you don’t survive.”
The Five Eyes arrangement underscores the value of this information — as well as the limitations of the information sharing.
The collaboration began during World War II when the allies were trying to crack German and Japanese naval codes and has endured for more than 70 years. The alliance helps avoid duplication in some instances and allows for greater penetration in others. The five nations have agreed not to spy on each other, and in many outposts around the world, Five Eyes agencies work side by side, allowing for information to be shared quickly.
But Richard Aldrich, who spent a decade researching a book on British surveillance, said some Five Eyes nations have spied on each other, violating their own rules.
The five countries “generally know what’s in each other’s underwear drawers so you don’t need to spy, but occasionally there will be issues when they don’t agree” — and when that happens they snoop, Aldrich said.
In Five Eyes, the U.S. boasts the most advanced technical abilities and the biggest budget. Britain is a leader in traditional spying, thanks in part to its reach into countries that were once part of the British Empire. Australia has excelled in gathering regional signals and intelligence, providing a window into the growing might of Asia. Canadians, Australians and New Zealanders can sometimes prove useful spies because they don’t come under the same scrutiny as their British and American counterparts.
“The United States doesn’t share information,” said Bob Ayers, a former CIA officer, “without an expectation of getting something in return.”
Britain is home to one of the world’s largest eavesdropping centers, located about 300 kilometers (186 miles) northwest of London at Menwith Hill. It’s run by the NSA but hundreds of British employees are employed there, including analysts from Britain’s eavesdropping agency, the Government Communications Headquarters — or GCHQ. Australia is home to Pine Gap, a sprawling satellite tracking station located in the remote center of the country, where NSA officials work side-by-side with scores of locals. The U.S. also posts three or four analysts at a time in New Zealand, home to the small Waihopai and Tangimoana spy stations.
“It is fair to say that Pine Gap has some fairly awesome capabilities when it comes to intelligence gathering,” said a former worker at Pine Gap who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about his work. “It’s hard to imagine, but I suppose that’s the nature of the game. It’s secretive.”
The intelligence-sharing relationship enabled American and British security and law enforcement officials to thwart a major terror attack in 2006 — the trans-Atlantic liquid bomb plot to blow up some 10 airliners.
The collaboration, sometimes called ECHELON, takes place within strict parameters. Two U.S. intelligence officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak about the program to the news media, said only U.S. intelligence officers can directly access their own vast database.
A Five Eyes ally can ask to cross-check, say, a suspicious phone number it has independently collected to see if there is any link to the U.S., the officials said. But the ally must first show the request is being made in response to a potential threat to Western interests.
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