TEMPO.CO, Canberra - Singapore and South Korea have been 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 fiber optic cables at 20 locations worldwide. The interception operation involves cooperation with local governments and telecommunications companies or through "covert, clandestine" operations.
These "Five Eyes" partners include the US, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, who work together to trace "anyone, anywhere, anytime" in what is described as "the golden age" of signals intelligence.
The NSA map, published by Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad, shows that the US maintains a stranglehold on trans-Pacific communications channels with interception facilities on the West coast of the US and at Hawaii and Guam, tapping all cable traffic across the Pacific Ocean as well as links between Australia and Japan.
Indonesia and Malaysia were said to 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.
SYDNEY MORNING HERALD | TRIP B
