'History of spying' hampers Singtel's bid

'History of spying' hampers Singtel's bid

SYDNEY (DPA): Pressure on the Australian government to block a
bid by government-owned Singapore Telecommunications to buy
Australia's second-largest phone company increased Thursday.

The A$14-billion (US$7-billion) offer by SingTel for Cable &
Wireless Optus was called into question by claims the Singaporean
government would monitor traffic on the defense satellite that
Optus manages for the Australian military.

Ross Babidge, former assistant secretary of the Ministry of
Defense, said the top brass are worried the political climate in
Singapore is such that SingTel executives would willingly spy for
their government.

"There are some people who have the view that the Singaporeans
almost can't help themselves in some agencies when they get in a
situation where they can collect some information - it's almost
congenital, they are inclined to do it anyway," Babidge told
Australia's ABC Radio.

Babidge said the predisposition of Singaporeans to snoop for
their country had made members of the Australian military
"uncomfortable in allowing routine access by Singaporeans to
defense bases and other installations".

Strategic analyst Des Ball, from the Australian National
University, also alleged that Singapore has a long history of
spying in Australia.

Ball claimed that Singapore spy planes have operated in
Australia and that a double agent was recruited at a sensitive
signals listening post.

"There had been earlier evidence going back to the early 1980s
that the Singaporeans had already recruited someone... a
particular army person was in fact arrested by the Australian
Army Intelligence Corp," Ball said.

No one was ever charged.

Defense Minister Peter Reith has declined to comment on what
he said are intelligence matters.

Singapore has sought to assure Australians its companies
picking up assets in Australia would only be interested in
running them for a profit.

In a statement last month, Singapore's Ministry of Finance
said the Singapore government "does not interfere in the
decisions of SingTel and Singapore Airlines".

The ministry was responding to a claim by Australian media
mogul Kerry Stokes, who warned that a program of purchases of
service companies like Optus by government-owned Singaporean
entities "would not be acceptable to the majority of
Australians".

Stokes, owner of the Seven television network, said the
Singapore government has been "both traditionally intrusive and
overseeing" in its approach to governing and is in "total
conflict" with Australia.