as posted here
September 8, 2009 - 12:41PM
Chinese telecommunications company Huawei Technologies has denied media reports that ASIO is investigating whether it is employing technicians in Australia with direct links to the People's Liberation Army.
The Australian newspaper reports, without citing anyone, that claims have been made by Huawei employees in Sydney and Melbourne who approached ASIO. Huawei, whose links have been the subject of scrutiny by US and British intelligence agencies, strongly denies that it has any connections with the PLA, the newspaper reports.
The PLA is the unified military organisation for China's land, sea and air forces. Concerns about its links to Huawei centre on fears that the Chinese Government uses the commercial arrangements of its state-owned businesses for espionage.
Huawei Technologies hasn't been contacted by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation about any investigation, the Chinese network-equipment maker said in an email today.
Huawei officials met with the ASIO in June to provide an introduction to the Chinese company, Ross Gan, a spokesman at Huawei, China's biggest telecommunications-equipment maker, said in the email. The meeting was a routine briefing Huawei provides to governments, the industry and customers, Gan said.
Huawei has been stymied in North America by security concerns. The company's $2.2 billion joint bid with Bain Capital LLC for the computer-gear maker 3Com was withdrawn amid US government concern that China would gain access to 3Com's anti-hacking technology used by the US Defense Department.
It's a “misconception” that Huawei is linked to the Chinese government, Tim Watkins, Huawei's vice president for western Europe, said in an interview in London last month.
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public news and things I spy ..
Tuesday 8 September 2009
Murrumbateman rejects ASIO waste
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The Yass Valley Council has rejected a proposal to dump asbestos waste from Canberra at the Murrumbateman landfill.
The council was considering an application to take 35,000 tonnes of asbestos waste from the site of the new Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) headquarters.
Work has started on clearing the site for the $600 million building on Constitution Avenue near the suburb of Campbell.
Yass Valley Council director of operations Simon Cassidy says the deal would have funded some projects in the Murrumbateman area.
"The proposal would have provided significant income to council which could have been used on a number of local projects out in the Murrumbateman area such as roadworks," he said.
"Unfortunately now that income won't be received by council so a lot of those projects won't proceed in the short term."
Murrumbateman Progress Association president Ray Cameron says residents will welcome the move.
"We're quite grateful and thankful that this isn't going ahead. We're very glad that we're received such prompt notice that the project will not proceed," he said.
"We're also glad that the landfill which is at Murrumbateman which is originally for all the people in the local government area of Yass Valley Council, isn't going to used by outsiders."
as posted here
The Yass Valley Council has rejected a proposal to dump asbestos waste from Canberra at the Murrumbateman landfill.
The council was considering an application to take 35,000 tonnes of asbestos waste from the site of the new Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) headquarters.
Work has started on clearing the site for the $600 million building on Constitution Avenue near the suburb of Campbell.
Yass Valley Council director of operations Simon Cassidy says the deal would have funded some projects in the Murrumbateman area.
"The proposal would have provided significant income to council which could have been used on a number of local projects out in the Murrumbateman area such as roadworks," he said.
"Unfortunately now that income won't be received by council so a lot of those projects won't proceed in the short term."
Murrumbateman Progress Association president Ray Cameron says residents will welcome the move.
"We're quite grateful and thankful that this isn't going ahead. We're very glad that we're received such prompt notice that the project will not proceed," he said.
"We're also glad that the landfill which is at Murrumbateman which is originally for all the people in the local government area of Yass Valley Council, isn't going to used by outsiders."
as posted here
Australians investigate Chinese telecom over suspected spy links
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By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), has admitted it is investigating an Australian-based subsidiary of a Chinese telecommunications firm because of its rumored links to China’s intelligence establishment. Several intelligence insiders see Huawei Technologies, based in Shenzen, China, as a covert arm of Chinese military intelligence. The company, which has business concerns in several countries around the world, has attracted the attention of American, Indian and British counterintelligence agencies, among others. As intelNews reported last December, in 2005 the government of India cancelled an initial investment of $60 million on its telecommunications superhighway by the Chinese company. In early 2008, the US government prohibited Huawei’s purchase of a significant amount of shares in US network security equipment maker 3Com, which supplies telecommunications hardware to the US Department of Defense. Later that year, Chinese networking investor Singtel Optus, a subsidiary of Huawei, placed a very competitive bid on the Australian government’s $15 billion project to build the country’s first unified national broadband network. Since then, however, ASIO says that some Australian workers in Huawei’s Sydney and Melbourne facilities approached Australian authorities and said they were suspicious of the company’s focus. In the past, Huawei has described such allegations as “ludicrous and inaccurate”.
as posted here
By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), has admitted it is investigating an Australian-based subsidiary of a Chinese telecommunications firm because of its rumored links to China’s intelligence establishment. Several intelligence insiders see Huawei Technologies, based in Shenzen, China, as a covert arm of Chinese military intelligence. The company, which has business concerns in several countries around the world, has attracted the attention of American, Indian and British counterintelligence agencies, among others. As intelNews reported last December, in 2005 the government of India cancelled an initial investment of $60 million on its telecommunications superhighway by the Chinese company. In early 2008, the US government prohibited Huawei’s purchase of a significant amount of shares in US network security equipment maker 3Com, which supplies telecommunications hardware to the US Department of Defense. Later that year, Chinese networking investor Singtel Optus, a subsidiary of Huawei, placed a very competitive bid on the Australian government’s $15 billion project to build the country’s first unified national broadband network. Since then, however, ASIO says that some Australian workers in Huawei’s Sydney and Melbourne facilities approached Australian authorities and said they were suspicious of the company’s focus. In the past, Huawei has described such allegations as “ludicrous and inaccurate”.
as posted here
ASIO has ear on Chinese whispers
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ASIO is investigating claims that Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei is employing technicians in Australia with direct links to the People’s Liberation Army.
The claims have been made by Huawei employees in Sydney and Melbourne, who are understood to have approached ASIO with their concerns.
Huawei has been the subject of critical scrutiny by intelligence agencies in the US and Britain about its alleged links with the Chinese military and intelligence apparatus.
The company, which employs more than 100 people in Sydney and about 20 in Melbourne, was founded by former PLA officer Ren Zhengfei, but strongly denies that it does the bidding of the Chinese government or that it has links with the PLA.
It maintains that it is a legitimate telecom company, having been a part of the recent unsuccessful bid by Singtel Optus to build the $15 billion national broadband network.
The federal government, which has warned about the growing threat of cyber-espionage, has not made any public allegations against Huawei, which has been operating in Australia for four years.
But The Weekend Australian understands that ASIO officers have interviewed current and former Huawei employees – all Australian nationals – several times this year in Melbourne and Sydney.
The claims made to ASIO include:
* That Huawei employs Chinese nationals in Australia who have direct links with the PLA and with the Chinese government;
* That senior Huawei officials are summoned to frequent meetings with Chinese government officials at Chinese embassies and consulates in Canberra, Sydney and Melbourne;
* That Huawei has recently sacked several dozen of its Australian-born workforce, replacing them with Chinese nationals brought in from China;
* That Huawei employs a security controller whose full-time job is to monitor the emails and other communications of the company.
The Weekend Australian understands that ASIO has conducted a broad investigation into Huawei’s operations in Australia, but it is unclear what the spy probe has found.
A spokesman for Huawei yesterday described as “inaccurate and ungrounded” claims that the company had links to the Chinese military or the Chinese government.
“Huawei is 100 per cent employee-owned and no government or government agencies have any involvement or ownership in our operations,” the spokesman said.
“Our links to the government are no more than any links General Electric might have to the US government due to the fact that some members of its management team are military veterans and they sell products to the US military.”
He revealed that Huawei representatives met officers from ASIO in June for “a routine briefing” to “provide a brief introduction to Huawei”.
The company says about 30per cent of its workers in Australia are “Chinese expats” and that while there had been recent “adjustments to the allocation and structure of resources”, there had been no wholesale sacking of Australian staff.
A spokesman for Attorney-General Robert McClelland told The Weekend Australian: “ASIO has frequent contact with the telecommunications industry in Australia. In that context, ASIO contact with Huawei Telecommunications is unsurprising.
“Beyond that, and consistent with longstanding practice of the Australian government, it would be inappropriate to comment on the operational activities of the intelligence community.” In his first public speech as ASIO chief, David Irvine, a former ambassador to China, warned in July that cyber espionage was a growing threat for countries such as Australia.
“The explosion of electronic communications technology has expanded infinitely the opportunities for the covert acquisition of information by both state-sponsored and non-state actors,” he said.
Beijing has vigorously denied claims that it engages in human or cyber espionage in Australia, but in 2004, ASIO set up a new counter-espionage unit to combat the rising incidence of foreign espionage in Australia.
More recently, the government has boosted the electronic eavesdropping agency, Defence Signals Directorate, to combat what it believes is a concerted attempt by Chinese hackers to gain access to Australian government computer systems.
Huawei was the subject of a US investigation last year after legislators expressed concern about its alleged links to the Chinese military. Intelligence chiefs in the US, Britain and India have debated the legitimacy of Huawei; however, the company has been a commercial success.
In March, the propaganda chief of the Chinese Communist Party, Li Changchun, visited the company’s Australian headquarters in Sydney.
as posted here
ASIO is investigating claims that Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei is employing technicians in Australia with direct links to the People’s Liberation Army.
The claims have been made by Huawei employees in Sydney and Melbourne, who are understood to have approached ASIO with their concerns.
Huawei has been the subject of critical scrutiny by intelligence agencies in the US and Britain about its alleged links with the Chinese military and intelligence apparatus.
The company, which employs more than 100 people in Sydney and about 20 in Melbourne, was founded by former PLA officer Ren Zhengfei, but strongly denies that it does the bidding of the Chinese government or that it has links with the PLA.
It maintains that it is a legitimate telecom company, having been a part of the recent unsuccessful bid by Singtel Optus to build the $15 billion national broadband network.
The federal government, which has warned about the growing threat of cyber-espionage, has not made any public allegations against Huawei, which has been operating in Australia for four years.
But The Weekend Australian understands that ASIO officers have interviewed current and former Huawei employees – all Australian nationals – several times this year in Melbourne and Sydney.
The claims made to ASIO include:
* That Huawei employs Chinese nationals in Australia who have direct links with the PLA and with the Chinese government;
* That senior Huawei officials are summoned to frequent meetings with Chinese government officials at Chinese embassies and consulates in Canberra, Sydney and Melbourne;
* That Huawei has recently sacked several dozen of its Australian-born workforce, replacing them with Chinese nationals brought in from China;
* That Huawei employs a security controller whose full-time job is to monitor the emails and other communications of the company.
The Weekend Australian understands that ASIO has conducted a broad investigation into Huawei’s operations in Australia, but it is unclear what the spy probe has found.
A spokesman for Huawei yesterday described as “inaccurate and ungrounded” claims that the company had links to the Chinese military or the Chinese government.
“Huawei is 100 per cent employee-owned and no government or government agencies have any involvement or ownership in our operations,” the spokesman said.
“Our links to the government are no more than any links General Electric might have to the US government due to the fact that some members of its management team are military veterans and they sell products to the US military.”
He revealed that Huawei representatives met officers from ASIO in June for “a routine briefing” to “provide a brief introduction to Huawei”.
The company says about 30per cent of its workers in Australia are “Chinese expats” and that while there had been recent “adjustments to the allocation and structure of resources”, there had been no wholesale sacking of Australian staff.
A spokesman for Attorney-General Robert McClelland told The Weekend Australian: “ASIO has frequent contact with the telecommunications industry in Australia. In that context, ASIO contact with Huawei Telecommunications is unsurprising.
“Beyond that, and consistent with longstanding practice of the Australian government, it would be inappropriate to comment on the operational activities of the intelligence community.” In his first public speech as ASIO chief, David Irvine, a former ambassador to China, warned in July that cyber espionage was a growing threat for countries such as Australia.
“The explosion of electronic communications technology has expanded infinitely the opportunities for the covert acquisition of information by both state-sponsored and non-state actors,” he said.
Beijing has vigorously denied claims that it engages in human or cyber espionage in Australia, but in 2004, ASIO set up a new counter-espionage unit to combat the rising incidence of foreign espionage in Australia.
More recently, the government has boosted the electronic eavesdropping agency, Defence Signals Directorate, to combat what it believes is a concerted attempt by Chinese hackers to gain access to Australian government computer systems.
Huawei was the subject of a US investigation last year after legislators expressed concern about its alleged links to the Chinese military. Intelligence chiefs in the US, Britain and India have debated the legitimacy of Huawei; however, the company has been a commercial success.
In March, the propaganda chief of the Chinese Communist Party, Li Changchun, visited the company’s Australian headquarters in Sydney.
as posted here
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