ustralia has set up a new counter-espionage unit to track down foreign spies, notably Chinese agents who have surpassed Russians as the country's biggest espionage threat, the Australian newspaper reported yesterday.
The newspaper quoted senior government sources as saying foreign spies were as numerous and active in Australia today as at the height of the Cold War.
The biggest concern, they said, was a new push by China in recent years to gather intelligence on military-related technology and strategic policy secrets.
"China would be the biggest now by a fair way," said one source, who said Chinese spies now outnumbered Russian agents who were previously Australia's biggest espionage concern.
"They have built up their capabilities over the last 10 years and are more aggressive in their activities," the source was quoted as saying.
"Espionage is the forgotten side of the intelligence game but it remains alive and well," the source said.
The new counter-espionage unit has been set up within the Australian Security and Intelligence Organization (ASIO), the government's main intelligence agency, and is already operational, the Australian said.
The staff size and cost of the unit remain confidential, it said. Most of the spies worrying ASIO operate out of embassies under diplomatic cover, but some work undercover as businesspeople or other professionals, it said.
Attorney-general Philip Ruddock refused to comment directly, but said ASIO's budget was increased to ensure it could deal with counter-terrorism issues, as well as its traditional counter-espionage role.
"Counter-terrorism has been an important, recent role for it to fulfil," he told commercial radio.
"It has had an impact upon its ability to deal with counter-espionage, and we've ensured that it has the resources to do both tasks," he said.
China has one of the largest diplomatic corps in Australia, with 40 registered diplomats. Chinese-Australian ties were strained in 1995 by revelations that the embassy in Canberra had been bugged as part of a joint US-Australian operation.
In 1993, Australia expelled six Russian diplomats for spying, and late last year an Israeli diplomat, Amir Laty, was sent home, reportedly on the basis of ASIO reports into his activities in Australia.
‘THEY KILLED HOPE’: Four presidential candidates were killed in the 1980s and 1990s, and Miguel Uribe’s mother died during a police raid to free her from Pablo Escobar Colombian presidential candidate Miguel Uribe has died two months after being shot at a campaign rally, his family said on Monday, as the attack rekindled fears of a return to the nation’s violent past. The 39-year-old conservative senator, a grandson of former Colombian president Julio Cesar Turbay (1978-1982), was shot in the head and leg on June 7 at a rally in the capital, Bogota, by a suspected 15-year-old hitman. Despite signs of progress in the past few weeks, his doctors on Saturday announced he had a new brain hemorrhage. “To break up a family is the most horrific act of violence that
HISTORIC: After the arrest of Kim Keon-hee on financial and political funding charges, the country has for the first time a former president and former first lady behind bars South Korean prosecutors yesterday raided the headquarters of the former party of jailed former South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol to gather evidence in an election meddling case against his wife, a day after she was arrested on corruption and other charges. Former first lady Kim Keon-hee was arrested late on Tuesday on a range of charges including stock manipulation and corruption, prosecutors said. Her arrest came hours after the Seoul Central District Court reviewed prosecutors’ request for an arrest warrant against the 52-year-old. The court granted the warrant, citing the risk of tampering with evidence, after prosecutors submitted an 848-page opinion laying out
North Korean troops have started removing propaganda loudspeakers used to blare unsettling noises along the border, South Korea’s military said on Saturday, days after Seoul’s new administration dismantled ones on its side of the frontier. The two countries had already halted propaganda broadcasts along the demilitarized zone, Seoul’s military said in June after the election of South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, who is seeking to ease tensions with Pyongyang. The South Korean Ministry of National Defense on Monday last week said it had begun removing loudspeakers from its side of the border as “a practical measure aimed at helping ease
STAGNATION: Once a bastion of leftist politics, the Aymara stronghold of El Alto is showing signs of shifting right ahead of the presidential election A giant cruise ship dominates the skyline in the city of El Alto in landlocked Bolivia, a symbol of the transformation of an indigenous bastion keenly fought over in tomorrow’s presidential election. The “Titanic,” as the tallest building in the city is known, serves as the latest in a collection of uber-flamboyant neo-Andean “cholets” — a mix of chalet and “chola” or Indigenous woman — built by Bolivia’s Aymara bourgeoisie over the past two decades. Victor Choque Flores, a self-made 46-year-old businessman, forked out millions of US dollars for his “ship in a sea of bricks,” as he calls his futuristic 12-story
RSS