Spy Expert Says Australia Operating As "Listening Post" For US Agencies

First time accepted submitter ozduo writes in with news about Australia's alleged involvement with the ongoing NSA spying program. "Intelligence expert Professor Des Ball says the Australian Signals Directorate — formerly known as the Defense Signals Directorate — is sharing information with the National Security Agency (NSA). The NSA is the agency at the heart of whistleblower Edward Snowden's leaks, and has recently been accused of tapping into millions of phone calls of ordinary citizens in France, Germany and Spain. Mr Ball says Australia has been monitoring the Asia Pacific region for the US using local listening posts. 'You can't get into the information circuits and play information warfare successfully unless you're into the communications of the higher commands in [the] various countries in our neighborhood,' he told Lateline. Mr Ball says Australia has four key facilities that are part of the XKeyscore program, the NSA's controversial computer system that searches and analyses vast amounts of internet data. They include the jointly-run Pine Gap base near Alice Springs, a satellite station outside Geraldton in Western Australia, a facility at Shoal Bay, near Darwin, and a new center in Canberra."

lolwut?

[girlintraining]

"Intelligence expert Professor Des Ball says the Australian Signals Directorate â" formerly known as the Defense Signals Directorate â" is sharing information with the National Security Agency (NSA).

Let's rewrite that to be a bit more accurate and a bit less, er, leading:

One of America's closest allies and long-time member of ECHELON recently reminded the world that they haven't stopped sharing intelligence.

Re:Huge surprise.

[legoblocks]

Exactly. AKA Five Eyes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UKUSA_Agreement [wikipedia.org]

Re:lolwut?

[bill_mcgonigle]

ob. link [slashdot.org].

From the linked article [archive.org] there:

Together with the giant American National Security Agency (NSA) and its Canadian, British, and New Zealand counterparts, DSD operates a network of giant, highly automated tracking stations that illicitly pick up commercial satellite communications and examine every fax, telex, e-mail, phone call, or computer data message that the satellites carry. ...
According to the former Canadian agent Mike Frost, it would be "nave" for Australians to think that the Americans were not exploiting stations like Kojarena for economic intelligence purposes. ""They have been doing it for years," he says. ""Now that the Cold War is over, the focus is towards economic intelligence. Never ever over-exaggerate the power that these organisations have to abuse a system such as Echelon. Don't think it can't happen in Australia. It does."

My, how much progress we've made in fifteen years...

Re:Huge surprise.

[Anonymous Coward]

Australia found out during WW2 that due to geography, the US was a much more reliable guarantor of security than the UK.

Didn't really have much to do with geography -- more to do with the fact that GB was rather busy defending herself against the Germans (and then rebuilding, once they were defeated); whereas the US was already fighting the same Japan that threatened Australia.

Re:lolwut?

[s.petry]

Since when has free speech been squashed in the US?

Is this a serious question? Did you bother to stop and read any history at all, look at any recent laws at all, or read what I wrote above?

You do realize that we have "Free Speech Zones" in the US as of very recent laws, and those zones still require permits in most cases. Go find 100 other people to gather with you in protest and see what happens (No, I won't bail you out). You do know that at least 2 teenagers went to jail for posting on Facebook with the exact same terminology that young men have used as intimidating rhetoric for centuries. You do realize that there are countless News outlets that do not release any "Press" that the Government does not approve first (New York Post has had several whistle blowers which should be a quick Google start).

To claim that we are not as bad as another country does not change facts, it makes you look like an idiot. It's like a Chinese person arguing that China is better than North Korea because in China they only go to jail for life for protesting, they don't get killed for it. They are also squelching free speech, only the methods and punishments are different.

This pretty much describes anyone who is hyperventilating about this whole spying non-sense.

Then you go from a failure to think critically directly to an ad hominem and appeal to emotion. So far, I don't think very highly of your comments. You can't discount anything I claimed, you simply ignore it and slander anyone that does not agree.

The general public does a much better job than any government could ever do in this regard.

Idiocy! If the public is uninformed or intentionally mislead, that is not the public's fault. This is not an uncommon issue, and has happened time and time again through history when power gets entrenched in the same hands for too long.

And for the record the US constitution only applies to US citizens but everyone else is fair game.

That statement is a lie. Go read the US Constitution. You don't even have to study it, just read it.

Anyone wishing to have a meaningful discussion about the NSA also needs to factor in all the other countries who do the exact same thing

On that statement I will tell you that you are either a sock puppet or lack any critical thinking abilities. Don't bother to reply, either shill somewhere else or try and heal your broken head.