THE Victorian Ombudsman has admitted he is unable to determine whether the Office of Police Integrity was justified in bugging the phones of former police deputy commissioner Ken Jones, concluding that no agency has the power to properly scrutinise its use of telephone intercepts.
Ombudsman George Brouwer yesterday confirmed that the OPI investigated an allegation of serious misconduct against Sir Ken and placed him under surveillance.
Mr Brouwer, who was the inaugural director of the OPI before his appointment as Ombudsman, said all details of the surveillance, including use of any telephone intercepts, were “blacked out” from documents passed to his office by the OPI, and that he had to rely on media reports to conduct his investigation.
He said he was informed by the OPI that the heavy redaction of surveillance documents was required by federal law.
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The Victorian government has backtracked on claims it would directly brief the new phone bugging and surveillance watchdog.
The minister responsible for the establishment of an anti-corruption commission, Andrew McIntosh, introduced a bill into parliament on Thursday to establish a body called the Public Interest Monitor (PIM).
The PIM will be made up of lawyers registered to appear in courts and tribunals to test the merits of applications from Victoria Police, the Office of Police Integrity (OPI) and the yet to be established Independent Broadbased Anti-Corruption Commission for permission use phone bugging and surveillance devices during investigations.
Mr McIntosh told reporters it would be the state government, probably himself, who would brief the PIMs.
“It will probably be, no doubt, the minister responsible for the establishment of the anti-corruption commission or it may be the department,” he told reporters.
“But the reality is, you know, it will be the government that will do the briefing of the person to appear on behalf of the public interest.”
Later, after the opposition accused him of politicising the new body, Mr McIntosh told parliament he had made a mistake during the heated press conference.
“The Public Interest Monitor will be completely independent of government,” he said.
“The fact is there will be no briefing … there will be absolutely no input from the government agency, minister or department whatsoever.”
Opposition anti-corruption commission spokeswoman Jill Hennessy seized on Mr McIntosh’s gaffe.
“We have to remember so-called independent bodies may indeed have to investigate their masters, that is the government,” she told reporters.
“It’s quite extraordinary for a minister to suggest that it would be he who would be issuing the instructions to a so-called independent body.”
A spokesman for Mr McIntosh said PIMs would have access to documents presented to the court or tribunal by the police or integrity body in their application.
They will be bound by confidentiality rules and could be jailed for a year for breaching those obligations.
Mr McIntosh rejected suggestions the government did not trust judges to properly take into account the public interest when deciding whether or not to grant phone tap and surveillance device warrant applications.
But he said none of the 424 applications made by Victoria Police and the OPI for telephone intercept warrants were rejected in 2009-10, and only two of 141 applications for surveillance device warrants were knocked back.
Mr McIntosh continued to refuse to reveal when he expected the IBAC would be operational, only saying the legislation would be introduced into parliament before Christmas.
Before winning office, the Baillieu government promised the IBAC would be operational by July this year.
A day after a top American lawmaker accused China of exercising “an intolerable level” of espionage in the U.S., Russia’s spy service announced it has detained a Chinese national for allegedly attempting to steal secrets about a Russian missile system.
While the accusations out of the U.S. primarily refer to cyber intrusions of American corporations, the Russian government is accusing China of an old standby in the tradecraft playbook: outright bribery.
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The engineer and former American Superconductor Corp. employee who is at the center of AMSC’s claims of corporate espionage by Sinovel Wind Group Co. Ltd. has pleaded guilty on charges of passing AMSC secrets to the Chinese company.
Dejan Karabasevic, 38, was sentenced to one year in jail and two years probation. Formerly employed by AMSC’s Austrian subsidiary, Karabasevic also was ordered by the court in Klagenfurt, Austria, to pay roughly $270,000 in damages to AMSC.
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Walk into a NASCAR garage on any given Friday at the racetrack and it’s sure to be teeming with fans clad in T-shirts and ball caps supporting their favorite driver. As crews work on cars, the fans mill about, seeking autographs and taking pictures of anything and everything. If they want, they’re free to walk up to their favorite driver’s car and snap photo after photo.
It’s part of NASCAR’s effort to bring fans closer to the sport. Inadvertently, it allows teams to go undercover and gain an edge.
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