Fed: ASIO enlists Chinese-speaking spies:report

AAP General News (Australia)
12-27-2006
Fed: ASIO enlists Chinese-speaking spies:report

SYDNEY, Dec 28 AAP - ASIO has more than doubled its spy recruitment from non-English-speaking
backgrounds in a bid to counter increasing numbers of Chinese spies operating in Australia
and Muslim extremists.

But the domestic spy agency is struggling to find Arabic speaking recruits it needs
to operate inside the Muslim community, The Australian reports today.

The paper says it understands that as part of the government's plan to expand ASIO,
it has hired 88 foreign-language-speaking spies since late 2004, many of them fluent in
Chinese.

However, there are fewer than a dozen Arabic speakers working full-time for intelligence
and security agencies monitoring the terrorist threat inside Australia, it says.

To make the problem worse, obtaining security clearance for Arabic speakers can take
a long time as ASIO must delve deep into their past, including time spent in the Middle
East.

Federal Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said the government was "committed to appropriately
resourcing our intelligence agencies".

"ASIO already has approximately 1,200 staff - double the number it had at the end of
2000-01," the paper quoted Mr Ruddock as saying.

"It has developed innovative recruitment campaigns to recruit high-quality staff with
a range of experience and backgrounds."

His spokesman confirmed the number of ASIO officers had risen from 78 to 166 since 2004.

China's denial that it had spies in Australia had been dismissed by security officials
who said they operated mostly under diplomatic cover and under the guise of businessmen,
the paper reported.

AAP sk/it/cdh

KEYWORD: ASIO

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