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Leaked Documents Reveal Pine Gap Critical To U.S. Wars: Report

The top secret facility is outside Alice Springs.
An aerial view of Pine Gap on the outskirts of Alice Springs.
Will Burgess / Reuters
An aerial view of Pine Gap on the outskirts of Alice Springs.

The U.S. military is reportedly using Intelligence gathered at Australia's top secret Pine Gap facility to help wage its wars.

The ABC reports it has obtained leaked documents that reveal the U.S. is using geolocation intel from the base outside Alice Springs to locate targets, including for drone strikes and special forces operations.

The documents are said to have come from the huge trove of classified materials leaked by controversial NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Unmanned drones are typically used to attack enemies from the sky and have been extensively used in the fight against Islamic State.

The lethal aerial devices have been blamed for causing civilian deaths across countries like Yemen, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The revelations provide a rare glimpse into the secretive facility and illustrate why Pine Gap, established by the U.S. in 1966, is considered by some to be the most important United States intelligence facility outside America.

According to the Nautilus Institute, the base "plays a vital role in the collection of a very wide range of signals intelligence, providing early warning ballistic missile launches, targetting of nuclear weapons, providing battlefield intelligence data for United States armed forces".

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