The nation's electronic espionage agency, the Australian Signals
Directorate, is in a partnership with British, American and Singaporean
intelligence agencies to tap undersea fibre optic telecommunications
cables that link Asia, the Middle East and Europe and carry much of
Australia's international phone and internet traffic.
Secret information disclosed by United States intelligence
whistleblower Edward Snowden has revealed that the British Government
Communications Headquarters is collecting all data transmitted to and
from the United Kingdom and Northern Europe via the SEA-ME-WE-3 cable
that runs from Japan, via Singapore, Djibouti, Suez and the Straits of
Gibraltar to Northern Germany.
Australia is connected to SEA-ME-WE-3 by a link from
Singapore to Perth, and GCHQ's bulk interception includes much of
Australia's telecommunications and internet traffic with Europe.
Australian intelligence sources have also told Fairfax Media
that Singaporean intelligence co-operates with Australia in accessing
and sharing communications carried by the SEA-ME-WE-3 cable which lands
at Tuas on the western side of Singapore Island.
Access to this major international telecommunications channel via
Singapore's government-owned operator SingTel and the country's Defence
Ministry has been a key element in an expansion of
Australian-Singaporean intelligence and defence ties over the past 15
years.
It also underpinned the former Howard government's approval
of SingTel's takeover of Australia's second largest telecommunications
company, Optus, in 2001.
Commissioned in 2000, the 39,000 kilometre long SEA-ME-WE-3
cable is owned by an international consortium that includes British
Telecom, SingTel Optus, Telstra and other telecommunications companies
across Asia, the Middle East and Europe.
Telstra has an 80 per cent stake in the southern segment that
covers the 5000 kilometres between Singapore and Western Australia.
The Australian Signals Directorate also accesses the SEA-ME-WE-3 cable traffic from the cable's landing in Perth.
Australian intelligence expert and Australian National
University professor Des Ball said that intelligence collection from
fibre optic cables had become "extremely important" since the late 1990s
because such communications channels now carry more than 95 per cent of
long distance international telecommunications traffic.
"Fibre optic cables are much more difficult to intercept than
satellite communications," Professor Ball said. Australia's undersea
cable links carry both international and domestic traffic because
internal Australian communications are often routed overseas depending
on traffic loads.
One former Australian Defence intelligence officer told
Fairfax Media that access to submarine fibre optic cable traffic ''gives
the 5-eyes [intelligence alliance] and our partners like Singapore a
stranglehold on communications across the Eastern Hemisphere''.
In June
The Guardian newspaper published details
from top secret documents leaked by Mr Snowden of a major GCHQ
interception program, codenamed Tempora, that involves harvesting all
data, emails sent and received, instant messages, calls, passwords and
more, entering and exiting Britain via undersea fibre-optic cables.
Details of telecommunications companies including British
Telecom, Verizon Business sand Vodafone Cable involved in the British
interception program were subsequently published by German newspaper
Sü¨ddeutsche Zeitung which also gained access to some of Mr Snowden's
information.
Further information obtained via Sü¨ddeutsche Zeitung has now
confirmed that the SEA-ME-WE-3 is one of the most important undersea
cables accessed by GCHQ and the US National Security Agency.
Australian intelligence sources have separately confirmed
that the Australian Signals Directorate and the highly secretive
Security and Intelligence Division of Singapore's Ministry of Defence
also play key roles in intercepting communications traffic through Asia.
Professor Ball says the Australian Signals Directorate has a
long history of co-operation with Singapore which has "probably the most
advanced" signals intelligence capabilities in South East Asia.
Significantly SingTel also has close relations with
Singapore's intelligence agencies. In August 2001, the former Howard
government approved SingTel's $17 billion takeover bid for Optus in a
deal that raised widespread comment on security and privacy issues.
Then Treasurer Peter Costello said the deal was in
Australia's national interest after SingTel entered into deeds of
agreement with the Defence Department and ASIO.
These agreements dealt with the security of Australian
telecommunications systems and the operation of interception facilities
for ASIO and Australian law enforcement agencies. Mr Costello said that
Australian national security interests were protected and that "full
privacy laws in Australia [would] apply" to Australians' phone calls and
internet communication.
However, former Australian Defence intelligence officers said
the Howard government's approval of SingTel's purchase of Optus also
took into account growing Singaporean-Australian intelligence
co-operation which in turn rested on Singapore's access to the
SEA-MEA-WE-3 cable, as well as the later SEA-ME-WE-4 cable from
Singapore to the south of France.
The office of former prime minister John Howard did not respond to a request for comment.
theage.com.au 29 Aug 2013
