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Dutch National Sigint Organisation building plans [1 march 2005, Amsterdam, the Netherlands] Bits of Freedom is publishing four building plans for the new Dutch National Sigint Organisation (NSO). The NSO was started in 2003 with the purpose to expand satellite sigint capabilities for Dutch intel. Until now satellite sigint is done through a two dish facility at Zoutkamp, the Netherlands, operated by the military intel service (MIVD). The NSO will become the third intel service in the Netherlands next to the military MIVD and the civilian AIVD. The ministry of Defence first tried to expand the existing location at Zoutkamp but was blocked in court by people living close to it. The court ruled that provisions in the municipal land-use plan would conflict with such a large military installation. The ministry could also not counter safety concerns. At the end of 2004 the ministry of Defence found a new location at Burum which is about 10 km from Zoutkamp. This is actually a satellite ground station operated by Xantic in which Dutch telco KPN has a 65% share. The satellite ground station (aerial photo) was build in the seventies by the then state-owned PTT of which KPN is the successor. The ministry of Defence is buying part of the Xantic site to build its new sigint installation. Later this year the ministry of Defence will tear down two large existing dishes at the Xantic site and then build 2 large and 13 smaller dishes. The building maps show on which part of the Xantic site the NSO will build its sigint installation. The building map of the dishes has the title 'SMPS project, Antenna plan'.  NSO ground station borders( hi-res) Gives an overview of the whole Xantic facility and shows what part is going to be used by the NSO.  Burum site reserve positions en mobile positions( hi-res) Shows a plan to position the different dishes, including mobile positions  Building plan dishes 1 - 6 (hi-res) Shows technical details of dishes 1 - 6  Building plan dishes 7 - 13 (hi-res) Shows technical details of dishes 7 -13 and the interim building The maps also mention which satellites the NSO dishes will intercept: 7 for Intelsat and 8 for Inmarsat. Besides that the maps have some technical information about position and type of the dishes. There is also an 'interim building' on the map which is an indication of the hurry the NSO is in to get everything working. But not all is settled yet as the map also says 'cables to HQ to be defined'. The Xantic location in Burum is already connected to the Netherlands armed forces integrated network (Nafin): the army is a Xantic costumer. The strange symbioses between Xantic and the NSO will result into the Xantic dishes handling Intelsat and Inmarsat traffic and a few meters away the NSO dishes picking up that same traffic. In other words Xantic is selling part of its facility to have its own costumers bugged. Xantic has no legal obligation to assist in this way. In the Dutch parliament there has been little discussion about the expansion of satellite snooping. According to the ministry of defence the Netherlands need the extra dishes to combat terrorism and support Dutch troops overseas. But in answers to questions from the parliament's defence committee the minister of defence also acknowledged that the large facility will give the Netherlands a very good position to trade intelligence with allied intelligence services. This argument explains why the Netherlands are expanding their modest snooping operation into one of the biggest facilities in Europe. Dutch intelligence services are allowed by law to intercept any wireless communication without prior approval of a judge or minister (rules for non-wireless communication are more strict; tapping a land-line telephone will require permission from a minister). The intelligence services can freely search the airwaves for interesting communications. A 'word-list' to search certain words and names in wireless communication requires the once-a-year approval of the entire list by the minister of Interior. All pictures can also be downloaded from a html zip file. |