Japan plans protest over espionage report
Japan plans protest over espionage report
SYDNEY (AFP): The Japanese embassy said yesterday it plans an
official protest against an Australian newspaper over a
"groundless report" linking Japan with a hi-tech surveillance
operation of the Australian embassy in Jakarta.
Citing intelligence sources, yesterday's Sydney Morning Herald
said listening devices or evidence of espionage had been
uncovered in at least nine Australian diplomatic missions or
residences abroad.
The Herald highlighted in its report what it said was a video
recording of a Japanese eavesdropping operation against the
Australian embassy in Jakarta, before Australia's diplomats moved
to a new building in late 1993.
Naota Amaki, a senior official at the Japanese embassy in
Canberra, told AFP that the mission will be making a serious
protest against the newspaper.
"The allegations are utterly untrue and false," Amaki said.
"The embassy will be writing a letter of complaint and making
an official protest against the groundless report," he added.
According to the Herald, Australian counter-espionage experts
discovered that someone in the Japanese embassy in Jakarta was
directing an infra-red beam on to a window of the Australian
embassy 600 meters away.
The newspaper said the purpose of the beam was to detect
slight vibrations of the window pane from noise and conversations
inside the room.
The beam reflected from the glass could be used to transmit
the vibrations back to sensitive processors and filters which
could produce a clear reproduction of the conversations, it
reported.
Using a special infra-red sensitive lens, the Australian
experts noticed that the person inside the Japanese embassy was
directing the beam from different windows, but it was always
focused on a single window at the Australian embassy, the
newspaper said.
Former Australian ambassador to Indonesia Bill Morrison said
yesterday he was not surprised that espionage operations were
conducted against at least nine Australian diplomatic missions.
"One takes this sort of possibility as granted and acts
accordingly," Morrison, who served as the ambassador to Indonesia
between 1985 and 1988, as well as in Moscow, told ABC radio.
"One has to assume in any foreign post there is the potential
for surveillance and so one doesn't lightly make comments that
could be sensitive at any stage."
He did not believe Australian security would have been
breached by the Japanese infra-red device.
Asked whether Australia would be involved in similar
activities Morrison said: "This is a game that is played,
everybody plays it. Presumably some people are better at it than
others.
"But it is an assumption of international diplomacy that this
sort of thing goes on from all sides."
The Herald reported that other "bugged" embassies or
residences were in Beijing, Moscow, Ankara, Breezily, Belgrade,
Hanoi, Yangon and Warsaw.