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nuclear devices at the frozen poles. Controlled floods, hurricanes, earthquakes and droughts directed towards specific targets and cities were also discussed. There is speculation that US bases are heavily involved in research involving many of these 'new warfare ideas' as well as experimentation with the worldwide grid system. occurred through coincidence): * The Pine Gap transmitter sits very near the Tropic of Capricorn, and its antipode is very near the Tropic of Cancer on the centre of the Atlantic Ocean's great dividing ridge. * Pine Gap has what is believed to be the-deepest and straightest water bore in Australia drilled beneath it. * In September 1969, journalist Robert Cooksey (1969, p. 7) speculated that there was a nuclear power station at Pine Gap due to its high level of water consumption. * Exactly opposite Pine Gap, on the other side of the Earth, is the Menwith Hill Station at Harrogate, England (Bamford, 1992, p. 208). Menwith Hill Station, code-named Steeplebush, is an exact replica of Pine Gap. Opened in September 1960, Menwith Hill has a staff of 400 and, like Pine Gap, is free from electromag- Netic interference. Menwith Hill intercepts telephone and other communications to and from Europe and the United States. There is also a Circularly Disposed Antenna Array, and a four-element VHF intercept anten- na at Menwith Hill. * Reports that white discs, about 30 feet in diameter with US Air Force markings, have been ferried into Australia inside large mili- tary transports which have landed at one or other of the two air- ports servicing Pine Gap (Deyo, 1992, p. 24). MERINO The most important US installation in Australia is the Joint Defence Space Research Facility at Pine Gap, near Alice Springs. Code-named Merino, Australian External Affairs Minister Paul Hasluck signed the agreement for Pine Gap on 9th December 1966. Its official role is to control signals and readout from Rhyolite satellites stationed over the Pacific. Three US intelli- gence agencies—the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), the CIA and the NSA—are known to be centrally involved (Ball, 1980, p. 58). Pine Gap has a complex of radomes, a huge computer room and about 20 support buildings. A secret community of around 454 people live within the compound surrounded by a seven-square- mile buffer zone encircled by a double fence, complete with 24- hour-a-day patrols and a two-and-a-half-mile no-fly zone. Pine Gap is strictly under US control. Very few Australians are permitted in the top-secret sector of the facility. The Signals Analysis Section of the computer room is staffed exclusively by CIA and NSA analysts. In May 1974, an article in the now-defunct Australian newspa- per, The Nation Review, claimed that "The United States has been carrying out continuous research into electromagnetic propulsion (EMP) at Pine Gap since it was established in 1966" (Deyo, 1992, p. 24). Certainly, some features of Pine Gap are suspect (or have NORTH WEST CAPE The US defence facility at North West Cape has its own share of interesting features: * The North West Cape transmitter is just slightly north of the Tropic of Capricorn, and its antipode is directly in the middle of the Bermuda triangle. + It is almost certain that the earlier version of Pine Gap's Very Low Frequency Transceiver, which is located at North West Cape A view of the Joint Defence Space Research Facility, Pine Gap, near Alice Springs, NT, Australia, from one of the surrounding hills, showing all eight radomes. (Source: Department of Defence, Canberra, ACT, Australia) NEXUS © 13 AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 1995