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Inside Pine Gap: The Spy Who Came In From The Desert Paperback – June 7, 2011

by David Rosenberg (Author)

20 customer reviews

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In 1966, Australia and the US signed a treaty that allowed the establishment of a jointly run satellite tracking station, just south of Alice Springs. For more than 40 years it has operated in a shroud of secrecy and been the target of much public and political controversy. For the first time, a US high-tech spy who worked at Pine Gap for 18 years speaks out to give an insider's account of what happens behind those locked gates in the middle of the Australian desert. The author details his career with an
American intelligence agency during a tumultuous period in history that covered the terms of three American Presidents, four Australian Prime Ministers, the end of the Cold War, a peace treaty between Israel and Jordan, two wars in Iraq, genocide in Rwanda, as well as the "War against Terror" and the emergence of North Korea as a nuclear-armed nation. This is a fascinating glimpse inside the top-secret world of military surveillance.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

David Rosenberg served as an American representative at the Joint Defense Facility Pine Gap in Alice Springs for 18 years (1990–2008). His background is in signals intelligence (primarily weapons-related signals such as radars), electronic warfare, and weapons-testing methodologies for various missiles and he has expert knowledge of how intelligence is collected, analyzed, processed, and reported. He became an Australian citizen in 2009, moving to Sydney to be with his new family.

Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Hardie Grant (June 7, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1742701736
ISBN-13: 978-1742701738
Product Dimensions: 6.2 x 0.8 x 9.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
Average Customer Review: 20 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,314,323 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #869 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Ethnic & National > Australian
- #1793 in Books > History > Australia & Oceania > Australia & New Zealand
- #3438 in Books > History > Military > Intelligence & Espionage

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Strath Steam

Pine Gap the "idle threat"

September 4, 2014

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

This book was quite interesting as Pine gap came into being when I was in my early teenage years and there was considerable publicity while it was built so many people was asking all sorts of questions about it generally. David Rosenberg tells the story well which was quite enlightening for me in some aspects as I went to Alice Springs a number of times for for my Easter holidays and we would roam around out in the desert in dune buggies and Pine Gap would pop up on the horizon occasionally looking all very mysterious and secretive.
Then in 1973 my newly married wife and I worked in Alice for a bit and she was a hairdresser with lots of American lady clients so yes a good read and good value.
Thanks David

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D. Pan

Nothing earth shaking but of interest to the uninitiated

October 4, 2012

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I bought the Kindle version of this book, and am not entirely satisfied by some of the errors in the text that I don't believe are in the original hardcopy version. Some of the abrupt sentence endings make no sense and distract from the reading experience.

I bought this book to see how much Mr. Rosenberg was allowed to say of his career at Pine Gap. Being an NSA employee, he had to clear everything in the book through the NSA pre-publication review board. One can be certain that the NSA intended nothing to appear in this book about its capabilities which hasn't already been published in other sources.

Mr. Rosenberg's narration is matter of fact and doesn't involve much contemplation of his involvement in the major episodes he describes, probably because of security concerns. It was quite dry and at time tedious. Also, his attempts to describe political events in the context of his participation in operations was not quite up to standards of other books, but works only to frame the feelings of the time when those events occurred.

It is an interesting read, but not the best of the genre. There aren't many books about what goes on in the NSA, so this book does contribute to the body of knowledge to the laymen. Just take the political analysis with a grain of salt.

2 people found this helpful

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Steve H

Worth a look, but not outstanding.

January 28, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Not a bad read, but it is more about the author than the site.
Interesting, but not brilliant.

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Miami Beach Native

One Star

July 27, 2017

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Out of date use Google! Author has a God complex!

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Michimasa Takai

Five Stars

October 19, 2014

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

very good!!

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Amazon Customer

More an autobiography

December 5, 2012

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

This book is primarily an autobiography, filled with many anecdotes about the town of Alice Springs. There's no "shocking revelations" about the activities of Pine Gap, if that's what you're looking for.

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Cee Salberg

If you want to understand the life of intelligence gathering read this.

March 3, 2012

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Since we are about to travel to Alice Springs in March I read this with great interest. Since I worked for the company that installed the first antenna and having spent 30+ years in the community supporting this effort from afar it is great to get the feel of the site. Thanks David.

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RedAmnesiac

Poorly Written

December 7, 2011

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I was quite looking forward to this book - however I was most disappointed with it once I started reading it. The book for a start is quite poorly written, it seems to float from topic to topic and then back to one we were talking about earlier, it just doesn't flow well. Also the author seems to breeze over some of the most interesting topics ie. Somalia, Balkan conflicts etc. Anything that could be considered fresh or enlightening has obviously been redacted from the book - I am sympathetic to the author on this point as he notes in the book the hoops he had to jump through to be allowed to publish the book, minus those edits it may been a more compelling read? As it was I got through about 75% and moved onto something more interesting. Overall this book is a bit like a big mac, sure it looks good from a distance but once you begin consuming it you realise how bad it is.

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Inside Pine Gap: The Spy Who Came In From The Desert Paperback – June 7, 2011

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Inside Pine Gap: The Spy Who Came In From The Desert Paperback – June 7, 2011

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