Monday, December 09, 2013

Is Singapore western intelligence's 6th. eye?

Singapore is an anomaly in Southeast Asia. It has staunch connections with the US and Israel and a network of varied corporate interests all around the world. It is a small, primarily non-Muslim city-state surrounded by much larger, occasionally antipathetic Muslim countries. Sovereignty disputes on the South China Sea are continuing, and unpredictable events like Sulu militants invading Lahad Datu in Sabah continue to occur. Singapore's security is of prime domestic importance.

The potency and effectiveness of Singapore's intelligence services was seen in the 1990s with the successful recruitment of Australian intelligence officers to pass on sensitive information to Singaporean intelligence at the DSD (now Australian Signals Directorate) listening station at Cabarlah, near Toowoomba, Queensland.

Even though Singapore has initiated a number of security programs like the Eyes-in-the-Sky (EiS) program with Malaysia and Indonesia to protect the Melaka Straits, and undertakes joint surveillance of the South China Sea with Malaysia, using land, sea, and air based assets, Malaysia and Indonesia are still very suspicious of Singapore's intentions.

In particular, Indonesia is very concerned that Singapore has been colluding with Australia and the United States with spying activities within Indonesia, recently calling the Singapore Ambassador to Jakarta for an explanation. The majority of Indonesia's international telephone and internet traffic is routed through Singapore, which leaves the country very vulnerable to Singapore's SIGINT programs. Full story...

Related posts:
  1. Malaysia summons Singapore envoy over spying claims...
  2. Singapore an advanced surveillance state, but citizens don’t mind...
  3. Australia's reputation in Indonesia hits new low...
  4. How to erase yourself from the Internet...
  5. Where does Facebook stop and the NSA begin?
  6. Germany, Brazil enlist 19 more countries for anti-NSA UN resolution...

No comments:

Post a Comment