Australian data-centres to serve US Techint

Written by: (Contributed) on 19 May 2026

(Source Wikimedia Commons)

NOTE: TECHINT is an umbrella term for the technical INTs: IMINT (Imagery Intelligence), SIGINT (Signals Intelligence) and MASINT (Measurement and Signature Intelligence). It is a section of US-led intelligence-gathering focussed upon scientific material concerned with spatial wave lengths, time dependence modulation and hydromagnetic data. It is data-mined through AI; it is, furthermore, central to Pentagon military planning and counter-insurgency and counter-intelligence provision.

In early May the NSW Liberal Party tabled a policy document which outlined making the state 'a safe haven for sensitive government information from Pacific nations and Five Eyes partners'. (1) The proposal is planned to make use of Australia as a dominant diplomatic player in the neighbouring region, and consolidate its role as a regional hub for 'US interests'.

Pine Gap, in Central Australia, together with other less well publicised military facilities, are already used extensively by the US for domestic, regional and global intelligence-gathering. The plan is now to systematically upgrade the facilities through routine on-line data-mining facilities and use of AI for profiling whole populations. (2) While Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act provides safeguards for US citizens, residents of other countries are not so fortunate; the US intelligence services are permitted to 'collect and analyse vast amounts of overseas communications without a warrant'. (3) And they do.

Declassified documents from the previous Cold War leave little to the imagination about US-led strategies in the present one with China. A preoccupation with US intelligence agencies recruiting criminals and their associates to assist with intelligence-gathering has been well recorded. They were, and remain, responsible for profiling whole populations onto black, grey or white lists, whereby adversary targets were identified and prioritised. (4)

The Liberal Party proposal has also planned 'digital embassies' which will operate under legal codes of 'diplomatic immunity'. (5) Namely, the data institutions will be above the law; there will be little, if any, accountability. The fact that the proposals also include Australia's Five Eyes four partners leaves little doubt the core of the initiative remains intelligence-gathering. Secrecy is both implicit and explicit.

The proposals, moreover, are not intended for localised usage; it noted the intention to make 'the data embassy concept a signal that NSW can be a leading location in the southern hemisphere for data'. (6)

Two important considerations, therefore, arise:

Firstly, Australia, as a regional hub for 'US interests' in the southern half of the region is linked to Japan as the northern hub. Recent high-level diplomatic initiatives between the two countries and the noted 'deepening security ties' have to be evaluated in that light. (7)

The main focus remains the vast Indo-Pacific region, which is regarded by the US as a potential theatre of war; sensitive island chains are used by the Pentagon as demarcation lines to restrict China's access and egress.

Recent high-level diplomatic initiatives between New Zealand, one of Australia's Five Eyes partners, and the Cook Islands, might be regarded as irrelevant to a casual observer. To the contrary, the Cook Islands sits on sensitive island chains and is also 'sitting on one of the most significant critical mineral reserves in the world, including billions of tonnes of cobalt, nickel, manganese and copper, all essential to modern defence technology'. (8)

Recent moves by the Cook Islands government to forge closer links with China were assessed by the Five Eyes as a major defence and security problem linked to neo-colonial ambitions. A high-level diplomatic stand-off took place within the corridors of power.

The Solomon Islands, likewise, is regarded as extremely sensitive: a highly volatile ethnic-based problem causing long-time political instability and governance problems and relations between certain local figures and China has been assessed along lines as 'leadership changes in the strategically located archipelago are closely watched by western diplomats'. (9)

The techniques used by western diplomatic officials were not specified in the official communique although they remain likely to be based in the monitoring of all telecommunications. Vast troves of intelligence are systematically analysed by AI, and then used for profiling and stored in computer banks for future use, if, and when, required.

The surveillance techniques deployed by the US follow decisions taken over a decade ago by the Pentagon's Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) to upgrade already existing facilities for a further 1,600 'collectors in positions around the world … US embassies typically have a set number of slots for intelligence operatives posing as diplomats'. (10) Data-centres?

Secondly, as the US strives to extend its three island chains to fourth and fifth counterparts across the Indian Ocean, they are systematically strengthening already existing chains; it is not coincidental that NSW exists on a straight line from the Kuril Islands of the
Frontier of the Northern Sphere, and Antarctica, the Frontier of the Southern Sphere. (11)
The third island chain, likewise, beginning with the Aleutian Islands and covering the Pacific Rim and Oceania, also uses Australia as a strategic reference point.

And the role of the NSW Liberal Party and 'US interests'?

It is highly significant to note the incoming US head of their Canberra embassy, Dr. David Brat, is not an ambassador but a special envoy, with wider diplomatic responsibilities for the Indo-Pacific region. (12) The US diplomatic position has also followed previous policies outlined in the Partners in the Blue Pacific initiatives, where 'Washington is renewing efforts to remain influential in the Pacific region with an increased diplomatic, security and economic presence … the initiative drew heavily upon … the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan, aiming to forge closer connections with pacific governments'. (13)

In conclusion, the Liberal Party policy proposal would appear in cahoots with US-led intelligence planning.

The legacy of the previous Cold War remains and hangs like a shackle upon the present one:

We need an independent foreign policy!

1. Libs plan 'digital embassies' for Pacific nations, Five Eyes allies, Australian, 8 May 2026.
2. Spy bill extended, Australian, 20 April 2026.
3. Ibid.
4. See: Secret army's war on the left, The Observer (London), 18 November 1990; and, Army's Project X had wider audience, The Washington Post, 6 March 1997; and, Lost History: Project X, The Consortium magazine, 31 March 1997.
5. Australian, op.cit., 8 May 2026.
6. Ibid.
7. Deepening security ties with Japan matter at 'severe' time, Editorial, Australian, 5 May 2026.
8. NZ resolves Cook Islands security 'family feud', The Weekend Australian, 11-12 April 2026.
9. PM's ousting ripples across Pacific, Australian, 8 May 2026.
10. Pentagon plays the spy game, The Guardian Weekly (U.K.), 7 December 2012.
11. Peter Projection, World Map, Actual Size; and, US to build anti-China missile network along first island chain, Nikkei, 5 March 2021; and, US Indo-Pacific Command proposes new missile capabilities to deter China, RFA., 5 March 2021.
12. Tea Party hero to be envoy Down Under, Australian, 29 April 2026.1
13. Solomon Islands deals a blow by refusing to sign Pacific Declaration: Report, Sputnik News, 20220928, 10 February 2022.