Remembering November 11, 1975: Pine Gap, the CIA and the coup to remove Whitlam

As PM, Whitlam demanded to know if and why the CIA had a spy base at the “Joint Defence Space Research Facility” in Pine Gap, near Alice Springs, in the Northern Territory.

On paper, Pine Gap was meant to be a collaboration between the Australian Department of Defence and the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

In Nugan Hand: A tale of drugs, dirty money, the CIA and the ousting of the Whitlam government, activist and former state Labor parliamentarian Joan Coxsedge wrote that Whitlam was considering the idea of not renewing the US-Australia agreement on Pine Gap.

Coxsedge said: “The Pine Gap Treaty signed on December 9, 1966, stated that after an initial nine years, either party could terminate the agreement on one year’s notice, which would determine the fate of the CIA’s most valuable overseas base.

Related:

John Pilger: How Whitlam was brought down

AUSTRALIAN HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES NOVEMBER 20, 1986 — GRIEVANCE DEBATE

CIA ISSUE ENTERS AUSTRALIAN CRISIS