Edward Snowden documents show Malaysia is an Australia, US intelligence target

Edward Snowden: Gained access to high-classified documents using a web crawler. Photo: Getty Images

Malaysias political leadership is a priority intelligence target for the United States and Australia, according to top secret documents published by Germanys Der Spiegel magazine.

Former Malaysian Abdullah bin Haji Ahmad Badawi, who served as Malaysian prime minister from October 2003 to April 2009, is listed in an extract from the US National Security Agencys "Target Knowledge Base", a database designed to build up complete profiles of high priority intelligence targets.

Abdullah Badawis name appears in a list of eleven heads of government, including Germanys Angela Merkel, Syrias Bashar al-Assad, Belaruss Alexander Lukashenko, and former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe. The top secret briefing, created in 2009, indicates that the full list of targeted heads of foreign governments contained 122 names. The final name on the list is Yulia Tymoshenko, who was Ukrainian prime minister at the time.

According to Der Spiegel a National Security Agency search program codenamed "Nymrod" enables intelligence analysis to search the database to "find information relating to targets that would otherwise be tough to track down". Nymrod sifts through signals intelligence reports based on intercepted communications as well as transcripts of faxes, phone calls, and data collected from computer networks. Each of the names in the database is considered a "SIGINT target" with automated data processing making it possible to manage more than 3 million entries.

Advertisement

Part of the trove of highly classified documents leaked by former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, the secret briefing published by Der Spiegel also shows that intelligence on foreign leaders is shared between all "5-eyes" intelligence partners the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Former members of the Australian Parliament's joint intelligence committee have confirmed to Fairfax Media that the Malaysian government, political leadership and defence force have been long been targeted by Australia's electronic spy agency, the Australian Signals Directorate, and by the Australian Secret Intelligence Service.

Australia bugged Malaysia Cabinet ministers

Fairfax Media has been told that in the early 1990s Australian intelligence successfully eavesdropped on Malaysian Cabinet talks, recording highly uncomplimentary remarks by then Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed about Indonesian President Suharto. A decade later parliamentary joint intelligence committee members were briefed on the Australian Signals Directorates access to Malaysian defence force communications, including interception of video conference channels used by Malaysia's defence chiefs.

More:
Edward Snowden documents show Malaysia is an Australia, US intelligence target