Australia involved in US spy scandal

ONE of Australia's leading security experts claims that the government is spying on behalf of the US via five 'listening posts' around the country.

Professor Des Bell says Australia is involved in the US's PRISM spy program.

ONE of Australia's most respected security experts claims Australia is spying on the Asia Pacific region on behalf of the US government.

Professor Des Bell says the Australian Signals Directorate is sharing intelligence information with the National Security Agency.

Whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed the NSA had been running an online surveillance program called PRISM. Companies like Google and Facebook were made immune from prosecution for sharing information on its customers. And over the last week it has been revealed that the US was also spying on foreign governments.

Professor Bell claims Australia has been monitoring the Asia Pacific Region via local "listening posts" located at the Pine Gap base near Alice Springs, a satellite station outside Geraldton in WA, a Shoal Bay facility and a facility in Canberra.

"At the top of (the list of priorities) you're going to find communications relating to terrorist activities, particularly if there's alerts about particular incidents," Mr Ball told the ABC.

He referred to an Australian spy program dubbed "Reprieve" whereby local embassies are used to record phone conversations and relay them back to the US.

"The fact that the United States has special collection elements that are doing this today is no different from what many other countries are doing today. It's not unusual," Prof Bell said.

A secret map leaked by Snowden also revealed that the US had set up surveillance posts in Beijing, Jakarta, Phnom Penh, Bangkok, Yangon, Manila, Tapei, Hong Kong and Shanghai.