"Inside Pine Gap" - new book alert

Dear readers

Winter rains have hit Adelaide today, so it's down to my local library to read science magazines.

The subject of today's post is a brand new Australian book titled "Inside Pine Gap" by a former NSA employee, David Rosenberg. Published by Hardie Grant books, Prahan, Victoria, Australia (click here) . ISBN 978-1-742-701-738.

Rosenberg spent 18 years in the operations area of the NSA, and this book is a little bit of dynamite for those of us who love reading about the work of US intelligence agencies. In this case their work at the legendary Pine Gap base ( click here) near Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia.

However, this post is not about the book in its entirety. Whenever I read a new book on intelligence agencies I quickly scan through it for anything on UFOs. When I scanned this book I didn't think there would be any material about UFOs, but I was wrong.

What Rosenberg has to say on Pine Gap and UFOs:

"One of the early rumours surrounding the construction of Pine Gap was a headline in 1967 that claimed flying saucers, or UFOs, might be attracted to the new facility that would become known as the Space Base. (The nickname itself likely encouraged the imagination of others to envisage visits by our extraterrestrial neighbours to the remote interior of Australia.)

"This belief was a likely source of the many UFO sightings near Alice Springs reported over the years. It amazes me that many people believe the isolated Pine Gap facility may serve as a friendly landing and resupply site for weary voyagers eager to catch up with their neighbours after travelling billions or trillions of kilometers.

"Obviously the Australians would make prefect hosts, offering a cold beer or a Bundy to our friends from nearby solar systems.

"For some UFO enthusiasts, Pine Gap is a logical choice to serve as the Earth's welcoming committee for our faraway friends. Alice Springs and Pine gap just happen to be relatively close to the "UFO capital of Australia", Wycliffe Well, only 380 kilometers away, where UFO sightings are considered to be so common that only an unlucky overnight tourist would miss out on an experience.

"Despite the countless stories involving UFOs and Pine Gap offered up by the Internet, the aliens must have kept a very low profile during my eighteen-year tenure in Operations, as I, like the unlucky Wycliffe Well tourist, never saw any evidence of aliens at or around Pine Gap." (pages 148-149.)