Asio
United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wants people of conscience and goodwill to “stand together against violence, hate and division.” An admirable sentiment, but what exactly does the world’s most powerful woman mean by “stand together”.
What is clear is that religious fanaticism is now front and centre of Australia’s national security landscape.
Last weekend’s ugly violence outside the US Consulate in Sydney might have been an isolated incident fuelled by a few hot heads, but the grotesque images of children and hate sent shivers down the spines of most Australians and security experts around the nation.
Continue reading "The security threat in an international culture clash" »
Years ago, while visiting Leningrad, as St Petersburg was known in the Evil Empire days, I was approached by a svelte young Russian beauty who asked me if I would smuggle some of her private letters out of the Soviet Union to her friends in Western Europe.
Telegraph, telephone and the mail were closely monitored by the totalitarian state’s notorious KGB, especially when the addressee was in the decadent West.
Being a typical risk-taking undergraduate – I’d just swum in the half-frozen Neva River from the Peter and Paul Fortress on a dare – and eager to poke a stick in the Kremlin’s watchful eye, I happily obliged my lovely if oppressed new friend (and, yes, I would have done it even if she looked like a babushka instead of Natasha Poly; but it helped).
Continue reading "Big Brother is not just a reality television show" »
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LC says:
The amount of data they’d have to collect alone would eat up enormous amounts of space. Most people today have an internet connection, and we access dozens-to-hundreds of websites and open dozens of emails. The ISPs will need more sever space, Severs that contain information like this are potential identity… Read more »
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iansand says:
If you are honest why do you assume scientists are not? Your whole position is a farrago of assumptions. M - A report that contradicts your beliefs or desires is not corrupt. Can you say that speed has never been a contributing factor to an accident? Read more »
The government wants to be your Facebook friend, follow you on Twitter, read your emails and text messages, and know which websites you visit. It then wants to file all that information for up to two years in case you are found to be a terrorist, crime lord or paedophile. The government also wants your computer passwords and might even send you to jail if you refuse. Creepy.
These changes are under consideration by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, and if implemented, will substantially increase the powers the intelligence community has to spy on Australians in the name of national security. Many of the proposed changes are of dubious value and a direct attack on the civil liberties of all Australians.
Increased powers to intercept phone calls, emails and other communications are just the start of the government’s assault on basic freedoms. For example, the attorney-general may soon have the power to modify warrants after they have been issued, and the duration of search warrants may be doubled from 90 days to six months.
Continue reading "You’ve got mail. ASIO wants to read it. All of it." »
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Steven Johnes says:
People who say “f you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to worry about” are fools Just wait til your data leaks out to some criminal and uses it to frame you. Read more »
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Jennifer says:
I really MUST start sending my husband some deliciously titillating emails. It would make monitoring a boring middle class family like us a lot less boring Read more »
The United Nation’s World Refugee Day, celebrated yesterday, is an important opportunity to reflect upon the significant contribution refugees have made to the Australian community over many decades. The histories of so many Australian families are characterised by stories of courage and determination to make the journey to Australia to start a new, safe, secure and productive life.
It is also a time to reflect on the laws and policies that currently govern the way refugees are treated when they arrive in Australia and the processes that regulate whether and how they become members of our community.
Of particular concern are those people, of which there are more than 50 including families with children, who are caught in a form of legal limbo referred to as indefinite asylum.
Continue reading "ASIO’s veil of secrecy leaving human beings in limbo" »
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Rocksteady says:
Beebop - Give them first class. It’s still cheaper than sending Customs and Navy patrol boats out into the middle of the Indian ocean. Unless you happy to pay more tax then me to cover the extra cost, then I’m quite happy to go with your suggestion. Read more »
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David says:
What benefit is there for Australia if bleeding heart journalists expose the inner workings of our most secret and secure organisation? At the end of the day, ASIO are performing a task they have been directed to perform by the Government. If the task is wrong, blame the Government, not… Read more »
Since its inception in the 1990s, governments have long since recognized the democratising functions of the web.
But control has always seemed impossible, even for a tool created by government.
Attempts to curtail online freedoms have come off looking like a girdle on a Leviathan.
Continue reading "We’re killing the internet with our own triviality" »
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scott the realist says:
The reason our internet speed is because most serves are in the U.S.A and they give us bugga all bandwidth to work with. America is the most direct Terrorist nation on earth, they arm, fund and place groups into power when it suits then strategically or politically or for oil… Read more »
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plankybabe says:
Wikileaks is forcing change if nothing else! It forces Governments and Corporations to either find new ways to hide their ‘secrets’ or to come clean and behave in a more upstanding way….very doubtful any will do the latter but at least this gets all of their attention… what will come… Read more »
I’ve written before about how, at the age of 25, I discovered that my father was a very senior member of the British Secret Intelligence Service, MI6.
I was visiting him in Washington, where he was serving in what had once been Kim Philby’s job - as the SIS liaison with the CIA. One reason that he chose to tell me on that visit, I think, was that during my stay at his house in Washington, some of his colleagues from London would also be visiting.
He needed to know that I would not say or do anything untoward. I was, after all, a long-haired journalist working for the Sydney rock station Double-Jay. Not exactly prime security material.
Continue reading "How ASIO got it right during a time it got so much wrong" »
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PeterinBrisbane says:
People who criticise the efforts of the anti communist agencies would do well to consider that without doubt the most evil force the world has ever faced has been communism. Its’ aim was the destruction of every other society in the world by sabotaging their economies and subverting the weak… Read more »
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James Wheeldon says:
Mark Aarons is not reliable and his book is not to be trusted. He includes a bunch of discredited nonsense in his book, including the allegation that my father - the late Senator John Wheeldon - was a “secret member” of the Communist Party of Australia. Supposedly, Aarons knew my… Read more »
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