00:01As the death toll rises in the Middle East, Alice brings residents with family there want
00:07to know what role intelligence facility Pine Gap may be playing in the war.
00:12If the Pine Gap has been involved in those incidents, I guess it's condemnable, I think
00:18I would say.
00:19And we should, as Australians, we should look into it.
00:21Mr Ali is from Pakistan, which borders Iran, and moved to Australia in 2014.
00:26He's horrified by the bombing of a school which killed more than 100 children, still
00:32under investigation by the US military.
00:34It's totally outrageous and unacceptable.
00:38Three weeks into the war, the Australian government says it won't comment on Pine Gap, but experts
00:43say they're convinced the spy base plays a crucial role.
00:47We are involved in, together with other parts of the American intelligence system, in collecting
00:53data which is extremely important to the Israeli conduct of the war, and now to the conduct
00:59of the war in Iran.
01:02Lebanese-Australian Eli Melke has called Alice Springs home for 26 years, now forced to cancel
01:09plans to visit his sick sister in their homeland.
01:12It's a life and death thing for my sister, and it's also a concern and a real worry for
01:17my family in Lebanon.
01:18Even so, Mr Melke supports the US-Australia alliance, as does defence expert Jennifer Parker.
01:25I actually do think that supporting the US, and certainly supporting the defence of Gulf
01:31States, is in Australia's interest.
01:33So too, the need for secrecy.
01:36Undermining that network by being specific about what Pine Gap may or may not collect on
01:42every day, would actually undermine our security.
01:45But that doesn't sit well with Mr Ali, who hopes bombs falling near his homeland aren't
01:52using target intelligence from just down the road.
01:55Alex Barwick, ABC News.
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