The secret signals and surveillance facility at Pine Gap in Northern Australia, officially named the Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap, is billed as a joint affair between Australia and the United States. It is nothing of the sort.

Australian officials and the general public are not privy to any of the goings-on inside Pine Gap — apparently not even the Prime Minister and cabinet.

But this secrecy does, occasionally, make its way into court. For this, we can thank plucky protestors who have, over the years, sought to expose the role of the base in aiding US military operations against targets across the globe.

Two protestors, Carmen Escobar Robinson and Tommy Walker, brought attention to the base’s activities when they blocked Hatt Road, the main access route to Pine Gap, in October 2023.

On November 27, 2023, a second effort temporarily prevented some 100 Pine Gap employees from entering the facility. Robinson and Walker were part of a group of 50 activists, which included health workers, community members and the Arrernte Traditional Owners, acting under the umbrella group Mparntwe for Falastin.

The action had been enlivened by revelations from an ex-Pine Gap employee that intelligence from the base was finding its way to Israeli sources.

The revelations, published in Declassified Australia by Peter Cronau, came from David Rosenberg, a veteran of the US National Security Agency (NSA) who performed the role of “team........

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