Professor Ball, from the Australian National University in
Canberra, is a world authority on signals intelligence. A regular
visitor to Thailand and Southeast Asia, he has strong links with
the Thai military...
(Aussie)
Prof Ball said Australia went through a similar debate five years
ago when Singtel purchased the Optus mobile phone company. He was
one of a series of analysts who publicly opposed the takeover. The
Australian government eventually allowed the sale to go through,
partly to ensure continued close cooperation with the island state,
but Australia had to spend a huge sum on fibre-optic cables to
avoid use of the Optus satellite and ensure its defence
communications were secure.
Part of the problem, Ball said, was "Singapore have a track record
of taking advantage of information for commercial and political
purposes" - as did the US, and former Soviet Union.
Singapore had "listened to and photographed Australian military
facilities", which had created diplomatic rifts, he said.
"They have a history of abusing their access to training in other
facilities abroad.
"That is not what friends are supposed to do - they abused their
friendship," Ball said......
(Thailand)
Singapore already had an extensive array of satellite listening
facilities, from a major base on Sentosa Island to listening
equipment at the Thai Army base in Sai Yok - which Prof Ball said
appeared to be "primarily focused on Thailand" - judging by the
types of antennae he had seen there in recent years.
There were both HF (High Frequency) and VHF (Very High Frequency)
antennae at the Singaporean compound at RTA base in Sai Yok, but he
believed "the VHF is predominantly listening to Thailand" within a
radius of 100-150km. A priority target might be a military base
such as the Ninth Division and its associated units at
Kanchanaburi.
---http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/01/23/headlines/headlines_30024843.php
Professor Des Ball, also from the Strategic and Defence
Studies Centre at the Australian National University but
who gave evidence in his private capacity.Professor Ball has
published many articles and books on Defence related issues,
including a series of publications about Joint Defence Facilities
in Australia. His writings on the Joint Defence Facility at Pine
Gap are regarded as being authoritative.
--www.fas.org/irp/facility/Chapter3.htm
2.Lets see when opposition party in Aussie raise question
on SG spying on them!
3.SG MFA is really has a sense of humor!
We do not know what General Sonthi's remarks meant.
Domestic calls within Thailand are not routed through
Singapore. It does not make business or technical sense to
route domestic calls via another country. Doing so will incur
additional and unnecessary network resources (including costly
international bandwidth) and degrade the quality of
service.
--- 22/01/2007,SG MFA Spokesman's Comments on Council for
National Security Chief Sonthi Boonyaratglin's remarks about the
impact of foreign ownership of telecommunication industry on
national security
