Beijing, July 9 (KCNA) — An official of the Press Secretariat of the Chinese Defense Ministry at a press conference on July 7 denounced Japan’s espionage.
He accused aircraft of the Japan Air “Self-Defense Force” of steadily expanding the scope of espionage against China in its East Sea and Japan’s warships and planes of monitoring and watching the normal activities of the Chinese side.
This may arouse misunderstanding and misjudgment of both sides, he said, urging Japan to stop such dangerous actions so that accidents might not occur in the seas and sky.
Adrian Chen
In the weeks before the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, the CIA had a prominent doctor organize a fake vaccination drive, in an attempt to secretly collect DNA from him and his family.
The CIA recruited a local surgeon to run the phony drive. (The doctor has since been arrested for his role.) From the Guardian:
The doctor went to Abbottabad in March, saying he had procured funds to give free vaccinations for hepatitis B. Bypassing the management of the Abbottabad health services, he paid generous sums to low-ranking local government health workers, who took part in the operation without knowing about the connection to Bin Laden. Health visitors in the area were among the few people who had gained access to the Bin Laden compound in the past, administering polio drops to some of the children
Apparently one nurse was able to gain access to the compound, though it’s unknown if she was actually able to get DNA. Authorities were after DNA in the United States, too: A report claimed agents actually subpoenaed OBL’s sister’s brain after she died in a Boston hospital. Pakistan, as you can imagine, is absolutely thrilled that the US has been snooping around their citizens’ genetic material without telling them.
“Tapping and bugging is order of the day in this government. The government is operating under the shadow of suspicion, doubt and conspiracy,” said BJP senior leader Ravi Shankar Prasad.
He said Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee “does not trust the Home Minister [ P Chidambaram] and he writes to the Prime Minister on this.”
After ten months the secret letter is released, said Prasad.
Read More
By Robert Merkel on July 5, 2011
Bernard Keane at Crikey – and, disappointingly, few others – have noted the Greens’ irresponsible and outrageous questioning of why ASIO should get a massively expanded remit without any serious attempt at justification. How unserious of them to suggest that when spies get additional powers, a reason should be provided! It’s the next generation of fairies at the bottom of the garden!
Apparently, ASIO’s role in economic espionage and counter-espionage is to be stretched so broadly that the catch-all of “national security” can no longer always be applied:
Read More
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain should not be “squeamish” about using espionage to protect its financial security, especially at times of economic crisis, a former spy chief said on Tuesday.
Richard Dearlove, chief of the Secret Intelligence Service from 1999 to 2004, said in a rare public speech that the Euro zone debt crisis and the possible harm it might do to Britain’s economy could be a subject for espionage, along with other emerging threats such as migration and organised crime.
In a speech exploring changing British intelligence priorities a decade after the September 11 attacks on U.S. targets, he said that while efficient UK central bankers should be able to handle economic turbulence “they might need help from time to time” on matters such as the Euro crisis.
“We should not be squeamish about using all the means at our disposal to protect ourselves in times of crisis,” he said. He added, in answer to questions: “I was thinking of currency issues.”
He noted that part of the mandate of SIS, also known as MI6, was to act in the interests of Britain’s economic wellbeing.
In a speech in October 2010, current SIS chief John Sawers made only a brief reference to economic spying when he said his staff had the task of gathering “long range strategic intelligence to track military and economic power…”
Dearlove said there was probably a role for British intelligence in tackling the illegal trafficking of toxic waste as well as in cyber security, migration and organised crime.
Counter-terrorism remained very important but it was possible al Qaeda was now “past its zenith.”
Russia and China would remain areas of interest for SIS because their decision-making processes “should be more transparent” and insight was needed on how they developed policies.
In China, there was more to understand about the relationship between civilian and military authorities.
While much of this work could be achieved by effective diplomacy, there had been a loss over the years of some of the previously “phenomenal” linguistic and general knowledge in the Foreign Office (Foreign Ministry).
This was “a great shame.” It was not realistic to expect Britain’s intelligence capacity to make up for this loss.
Britain’s coalition government has said it is determined that there would be no strategic shrinkage of Britain’s diplomatic influence overseas.
In May it said it planned to open new diplomatic missions in developing nations in a drive to boost influence in fast-growing emerging economies, while cutting costs in Europe.
(Reporting by William Maclean)
