新加坡、韩国为“五眼”间谍联盟伙伴国 协助监听亚洲海底通讯电缆

Singapore and South Korea are playing key roles helping the United States and Australia tap undersea telecommunications links across Asia, according to top secret documents leaked by former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden. New details have also been revealed about the involvement of Australia and New Zealand in the interception of global satellite communications.

A top secret United States National Security Agency map shows that the US and its “Five Eyes” intelligence partners tap high speed fibre optic cables at 20 locations worldwide. The interception operation involves cooperation with local governments and telecommunications companies or else through “covert, clandestine” operations.

The undersea cable interception operations are part of a global web that in the words of another leaked NSA planning document enables the “Five Eyes” partners – the US, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and New Zealand - to trace “anyone, anywhere, anytime” in what is described as “the golden age” signals intelligence.

The NSA map, published by Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad overnight, shows that the United States maintains a stranglehold on trans-Pacific communications channels with interception facilities on the West coast of the United States and at Hawaii and Guam, tapping all cable traffic across the Pacific Ocean as well as links between Australia and Japan.

The map confirms that Singapore, one of the world's most significant telecommunications hubs, is a key “third party” working with the “Five Eyes” intelligence partners.

In August Fairfax Media reported that Australia's electronic espionage agency, the Defence Signals Directorate, is in a partnership with Singaporean intelligence to tap the SEA-ME-WE-3 cable that runs from Japan, via Singapore, Djibouti, Suez and the Straits of Gibraltar to Northern Germany.

Australian intelligence sources told Fairfax that the highly secretive Security and Intelligence Division of Singapore's Ministry of Defence co-operates with DSD in accessing and sharing communications carried by the SEA-ME-WE-3 cable as well as the SEA-ME-WE-4 cable that runs from Singapore to the south of France.

Access to this major international telecommunications channel, facilitated by Singapore's government-owned operator SingTel, has been a key element in an expansion of Australian-Singaporean intelligence and defence ties over the past 15 years.

Majority owned by Temask Holdings, the investment arm of the Singapore Government, SingTel has close relations with Singapore's intelligence agencies. The Singapore Government is represented on the company's board by the head of Singapore's civil service, Peter Ong, who was previously responsible for national security and intelligence co-ordination in the Singapore Prime Minister's office.

Australian intelligence expert, Australian National University Professor Des Ball has described Singapore's signal's intelligence capability as “probably the most advanced” in South East Asia, having first been developed in cooperation with Australia in the mid-1970s and subsequently leveraging Singapore's position as a regional telecommunications hub.

Indonesia and Malaysia have been key targets for Australian and Singaporean intelligence collaboration since the 1970s. Much of Indonesia's telecommunications and Internet traffic is routed through Singapore.

The leaked NSA map also shows South Korea is another key interception point with cable landings at Pusan providing access to the external communications of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

South Korea's National Intelligence Service has long been a close collaborator with the US Central Intelligence Agency and the NSA, as well as the Australian intelligence agencies. The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation recently engaged in legal action in an unsuccessful effort to prevent publication of details of South Korean espionage in Australia. ASIO Director-General David Irvine told the Federal Court that Australian and South Korean intelligence agencies had been cooperating for “over 30 years” and that any public disclose of NIS activities would be “detrimental” to Australia's national security.

The NSA map and other documents leaked by Mr Snowden and published by the Brazilian O Globo newspaper also reveal new detail on the integration of Australian and New Zealand signals intelligence facilities in the interception of satellite communications traffic by the “Five Eyes” partners.

For the first time it is revealed that the DSD satellite interception facility at Kojarena near Geraldton in Western Australia is codenamed “STELLAR”. The New Zealand Government Communications Security Bureau facility at Waihopai on New Zealand's South Island is codenamed “IRONSAND”. The codename for DSD's facility at Shoal Bay near Darwin is not identified. However all three facilities are listed by the NSA as “primary FORNSAT (foreign satellite communications) collection operations”.

Coverage of satellite communications across Asia and the Middle East is also supported by NSA facilities at the United States Air Force base at Misawa in Japan, US diplomatic premises in Thailand and India, and British Government Communications Headquarters facilities in Oman, Nairobi in Kenya and at the British military base in Cyprus.

The leaked NSA map also shows that undersea cables are accessed by the NSA and the British GCHQ through military facilities in Djibouti and Oman, thereby ensuring maximum coverage of Middle East and South Asian communications.

据澳大利亚《悉尼先驱晨报》11月25日报道，美国国家安全局（NSA）前雇员爱德华•斯诺登最新公布的一份机密文件显示，新加坡和韩国是美国主导的“五眼”（Five Eyes）间谍联盟在亚洲的伙伴国，在协助美国和澳大利亚在亚洲铺设海底通讯电缆一事上立下“汗马功劳”。

***美国攥住跨太平洋通讯命脉

24日晚，荷兰《新鹿特丹商报》登载了一张美国国安局的绝密地图，地图上清楚标明美国及其“五眼”间谍联盟伙伴国在世界各地铺设了20处高速光纤电缆。至于其信息拦截行动，则需寻求电缆所在地的政府和通讯公司提供“隐蔽的、偷偷摸摸的”帮助。

根据斯诺登此前披露的文件，“五眼”间谍联盟即美国、英国、加拿大、澳大利亚和新西兰。该联盟将全球划分为五大监听区域，五国分别监听并资源共享，以实现在“任何时间、任何地点、（追踪）任何人”的目标。有人认为，“五眼”间谍联盟创造了通信情报界的“黄金时代”。

而海底电缆拦截信息行动是“五眼”间谍联盟构建的全球监听网络的一个重要组成部分。这张地图显示，通过在该国西海岸、夏威夷岛和关岛设立拦截设施、窃听太平洋底所有通讯电缆以及连接澳大利亚和日本的电缆，美国已把跨太平洋的通讯渠道牢牢攥在手中。

***新加坡为“五眼”联盟合作方

与此同时，该地图还证实，作为世界上最为重要的通信枢纽之一，新加坡也被美国收归麾下，成为与“五眼”间谍联盟紧密合作的“第三方”。

今年8月，有媒体报道称，澳大利亚电子间谍机构国防信号局（DSD）与新加坡情报机构展开合作，共同窃听SEA-ME-WE-3电缆。该电缆始于日本，经新加坡、吉布提、埃及苏伊士、直布罗陀海峡通往德国北部，是一条极其重要的国际电信通道，由新加坡国有运营商新加坡电信（SingTel）协助铺设。

另有澳大利亚情报人士透露，连接新加坡和法国南部的SEA-ME-WE-4电缆同为新加坡和澳大利亚两国情报机构监听的目标，两国拦截电缆通讯并共享资源。

澳大利亚情报专家、澳大利亚国立大学教授德斯•波尔认为，新加坡的信号情报能力“可能是南亚地区最为先进的”。新加坡和澳大利亚的合作始于20世纪70年代中期，在过去15年里，有权获取经由SEA-ME-WE-3电缆传输的通讯信息成为两国情报及国防关系日趋密切重要推动因素，而印度尼西亚和马来西亚是其主要监听目标。

***韩澳保持逾30年情报合作

除新加坡外，韩国成为“五眼”间谍联盟设在亚洲的另外一个重要信息拦截据点。借由铺设在太平洋港口城市釜山附近海域的海底电缆，“五眼”间谍联盟可获取中国大陆、香港和台湾等地的外部通讯信息。

长期以来，韩国国家情报院一直是美国中央情报局和国安局，以及澳大利亚情报机构的亲密合作伙伴。

前不久，澳大利亚安全情报组织（ASIO）卷入一场法律纠纷，试图阻止有关机构公开韩国在澳间谍行动。该组织负责人大卫•尔文在联邦法院上辩称，澳大利亚和韩国的情报合作已持续“超过30年”，任何公开披露韩国情报活动的行为将“损害”澳大利亚的国家安全。但是，上述努力还是以失败告终。