Chatter
Chapter One
Radomes in the Desert, Radomes on the Moor
The Invisible Architecture of Echelon
You cannot help but note the juxtaposition. Here, away from the world, amid
rolling pastures, on a tract of land where the air is redolent of cow dung,
lies the most sophisticated eavesdropping station on the planet. England's
North Yorkshire moors are, after all, cow country. Leaving the elegant
Victorian spa town of Harrogate, my taxi winds west through eight miles of
verdant countryside. Just outside the city, the traffic thins, and what cars we
pass seem to go much slower than they need to-a deliberate, agrarian
pace. Fields are set off by a network of hedges beneath a panoramic, cloudless
sky. Sheep congregate here and there, and dozens of cows lounge by crumbling
stone walls, some gazing as we whiz by, others chewing their cuds, oblivious.
I have been warned, seen photos-I know what to expect. But as the first
dome hovers into sight, I catch my breath. The bucolic road winds and rises and
falls, and as we dip and rise again and crest a hill the tip of a great white
sphere, shimmering i ... read full excerpt from: Chatter ebook
