http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/policy/new-leaks-to-test-tony-a... Quote:New leaks to test Tony Abbott in Asia by: GREG SHERIDAN From: The Australian December 02, 2013 12:00AM NEW revelations from the stockpile of documents stolen by US security contractor Edward Snowden are expected to include evidence of Australian espionage against China and other Asian neighbours and expose the scale of surveillance by Australian agencies against their own citizens. The Abbott government is bracing for a new series of disclosures about Australian intelligence activity, which is likely to include fresh details on Indonesian spying that will further test the relationship with Jakarta.Snowden, a former US National Security Agency contractor, is also believed to have extensive material involving Australian intelligence efforts directed at China, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor, Thailand and The Philippines, as well as various South Pacific nations.One of the most controversial matters will be the disclosure of a much wider surveillance and listening program within Australia than previously known.It is believed that all Australian activities likely to be revealed will be legal, with senior figures confident that no Australian intelligence agency has broken any Australian laws. However, Australia has fewer restrictions on domestic spying than the US and has undertaken targeted but extensive surveillance, most related to terrorism threats. Senior figures in the US and Australia believe that the Snowden leaks are the single most damaging episode to hit the Western intelligence effort since World War II.Last month, The Guardian Australia and the ABC published documents from Snowden suggesting that Australia's Defence Signals Directorate had tapped the phones of Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, his wife and senior colleagues.The revelations triggered a diplomatic row with Jakarta.The government, which has expressed regret for the revelations but has stopped short of an apology, is braced for the release of more documents stolen by Snowden, who has sought asylum in Russia.Canberra does not know exactly what will emerge from the Snowden stockpile, but it does know the full range of matters that could be revealed.The US government has comprehensive knowledge of every document that Snowden accessed through his varied intelligence career, but particularly in his last months as a consultant, working as a systems administrator for the NSA.Washington has shared with Canberra any information relevant to Australia, even though US authorities are not sure that Snowden stole every document that he accessed.Previous reports have put the number of documents Snowden has already supplied to media outlets, mainly The Guardian, at more than 200,000.A large number of Western officials and security experts believe the Snowden revelations are devastating to American intelligence and its ability to operate effectively in the future.Several sources told The Australian they believed this was a greater blow to Western intelligence than the Aldrich Ames or Kim Philby affairs.Ames was a CIA officer who betrayed all US agents working in and against the Soviet Union in the 1980s, resulting in the deaths of at least 10 people.In the 60s, the Cambridge spy ring of Philby, Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean and Anthony Blunt infiltrated to the heart of British intelligence on behalf of the Soviet Union.Senior intelligence figures say the Snowden documents reveal a great deal of what the Americans and their allies, including Australia, know about a range of sensitive matters. They also reveal US and Australian techniques of intelligence-gathering, particularly technical matters, which will make defences against such efforts much stronger in the future.Sources also expressed concern that the historic leaks to the Soviet Union were at least restricted to the Soviet Union and in a few cases its closest allies; the Snowden leaks are going public worldwide and will be available to everybody.The latest leaks are also producing a great deal of tension between the US and many of its allies, such as Germany and Spain, and its friends, such as Brazil and Mexico. This effect will likely be replicated to some extent for Australia and a number of its friends in Asia.
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