Posted on 06/08/2005 10:06:54 PM PDT by Crackingham
Suspicious packages turned up at four foreign missions and at Parliament House in Canberra today. The packages were received by the British high commission and the United States, Japanese and South Korean embassies. Each of the embassies that received the packages represents a country with troops in Iraq.
"We can confirm the commission received a suspicious package earlier this morning," a British high commission spokesman said. "We are following AFP [Australian Federal Police] guidelines at present."
The US embassy in Canberra has been closed.
"I can confirm that the US embassy did receive a suspicious package," a US embassy spokeswoman said. "The embassy is closed and we are working with the AFP and following the proper procedures for an incident such as this," she said.
"It was a suspicious envelope with white powder,'' another spokeswoman at the US embassy said.
The deputy chief of the Japanese mission, Jiro Kodera, said about 40 embassy staff were locked inside the mission's grounds waiting for emergency service workers to check the envelope and powder. He said staff there called the AFP after finding an envelope with white powder spilling out of it in the mail about 10am. "It's very disturbing and it's a very bad thing," he said. "Certainly we are not happy but we are not too worried."
The Embassy of the Republic of Korea was unavailable for comment.
A police spokesman said hazardous materials crews were at the missions.
"The packages have been secured following established protocols for these types of incidents," the spokesman said.
Lets see how the so-called "experts" that come on the MSM usuals tomorrow to "shed some light" on this.
It's Bush's fault!
Flour definitely needs to be regulated if not banned....
Once again....a brilliant concept on your part.
There's more white powder going around Canberra these days than at a Medellin Pool Party in the 1980's.
Defectors say China running 1,000 spies in Canada Last Updated Wed, 15 Jun 2005 23:59:15 EDT CBC News
Two Chinese defectors say the Chinese government has a network of more than 1,000 spies and informants in Canada. The two men were diplomats in Australia, where they are now seeking political asylum. They say Australia and other countries such as the United States have Chinese spy networks operating inside them too.
The defectors say the spies and informants have orders to disrupt the Falun Gong movement, which China calls "a dangerous cult," and to steal commercial and scientific secrets.
Chen Yongleen, the first secretary of the Chinese consulate in Sydney, defected two weeks ago. He was followed a short time later by How Fungjing, a low ranking Chinese intelligence officer.
Speaking to Australian journalists, Chen and How accused the Chinese government of maintaining a large network of spies in Australia primarily to harass Falun Gong members and steal commercial secrets.
"They were monitoring the activities and report back and they take some activities against the democracy movement and the Falun Gong people," said Chen.
The defectors went on to say that the spying network extends to countries with large Chinese immigrant populations, including the U.S. and Canada. How said he'd worked in a group in the Chinese Public Security Bureau known as the 610 office, a special unit created in 1999 to monitor and disrupt the activities of the Falun Gong overseas.
How says Canada has more spies operating in it than any other country.
Businessman Joe Wang is convinced he's already had a run-in with Chinese intelligence agents in Toronto. Wang is manager of NTDTV, a satellite television network that beams programming critical of the government directly into China.
Two months ago Wang says his Toronto office began receiving envelopes through the mail filled with a mysterious white powder. The outside of the envelopes were marked with the Chinese symbol for death and the words Falun Dafa. "I'm pretty sure the Chinese consulate is behind this," Wang said.
The envelopes were turned over to the police. The powder in the first turned out to be boric acid.
The Chinese embassy in Ottawa dismisses Wang's allegations and the allegation of the Chinese defectors in Australia as "pure fabrication."
However, former CSIS agent Michel Juneau-Katsuya, finds them credible. During the mid-1990s ,Juneau-Katsuya oversaw the CSIS Asian-Pacific desk. He says if Canadian intelligence agencies weren't preoccupied with Islamist terrorists these days they would realize the greatest threat to Canadian security comes from China. Particularly in the theft of scientific and commercial data.
"We estimated at CSIS that we were losing $1 billion a month, $12 billion a year, due to industrial espionage," he said.
But Juneau-Katsuya does find the allegation that there are over 1,000 Chinese spies in Canada hard to believe. He says it's more likely the majority are not trained spies but paid informants. But he says there's plenty of evidence to prove that Chinese intelligence agents use illegal methods to spy on and disrupt the Falun Gong.
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