25 January 2008
Media Advisory
Green MP to speak at spy base protest this Saturday
Green Party MP Keith Locke will be speaking at this weekend's protest outside the Waihopai spy base, near Blenheim.
Mr Locke, who is the party's intelligence services spokesperson, said the protest "would help break down the wall of
secrecy that surrounds the operation of the spy base".
"Clearly, the Government doesn't want too much public attention on the base, because the main customer for the
electronic information intercepted is the US National Security Agency. It is not too popular to be spying for George
Bush, particularly when his domestic and foreign policy agenda is quite different from ours."
Waihopai is part of the US-run Echelon network that intercepts millions of phone calls and emails every day. The two
dishes at Waihopai draw down all the electronic communications passing through two communications satellites
geo-stationary over the Pacific Equator, and passes them on to partners (mainly the United States) according to
pre-determined key word combinations, phone numbers and email addresses.
ENDS