Rick Halperin
Thu, 4 Dec 2008 16:03:15 -0600
Dec. 4 CHINA: China reveals evidence behind execution of missile spies China on Thursday revealed detailed evidence behind the conviction and execution of two Chinese men who spied for Taiwan and stole missile secrets. A cover story published in Global Times, owned by the People's Daily, quoted an exclusive and reliable source that Wo Weihan, who was executed last Friday after being convicted of leaking Chinese strategic missile data to Taiwan intelligence, had brought about an "extraordinary loss to national security". Although not identifying the source, the story said 60-year-oldWo was recruited by Taiwan intelligence agencies in Germany in October 1989 during a 5-year government paid study for doctoral degree in Munich. Wo neither came back to China nor continued his medical research after graduation, but started to develop his assets in the Chinese mainland and collect political, economic and military secrets under the cover of a businessman shuttling between Europe and China. >From the early 1990s to early this century, Wo acquired Chinese military secrets with Taiwan intelligence agencies' financial aid, including information on the People's Liberation Army's night combat equipment. The story also said the Wohua Biological Technology Company Ltd. that Wo registered in Beijing, and his title "company's chief scientist", were actually covers for his espionage. (source: Xinhua News) AUSTRALIA: Push to kill death penalty THERE is a bipartisan push for Australia to pass laws entrenching its opposition to the death penalty, in a bid to send a strong message to the region and stave off the executions of three members of the Bali 9. A cross-party working group against the death penalty was re-established in Parliament this week. On Tuesday it was briefed by Colin McDonald, QC, the barrister for Scott Rush, who is on death row in Indonesia. The group, which is being convened by the Labor backbencher Chris Hayes and the Liberal senator Gary Humphries, wants Parliament to enact legislation making it impossible for the states to reintroduce the death penalty. While it is abolished in all states and territories, there is nothing to stop them reviving it. Senator Humphries said: "Our main concern has been to try and get a situation occurring where we have a complete and final nailing of the coffin lid shut on the application of the death penalty in Australian law." Mr Hayes said he hoped to gain support for a law based on the Second Operational Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Such laws could be passed if the states referred their powers to the Commonwealth, or the Government used its constitutional external affairs powers. The Labor MP Melissa Parke, a member of the working group, will lodge a notice of motion in Parliament today calling on the Government to enact such laws. Mr McDonald told the group such a move would "send a firm and unequivocal message to Indonesia" about Australia's abhorrence of the death penalty. Mr McDonald told MPs the Government needed to change federal police guidelines concerning death penalty situations involving Australians overseas, because they allowed for "a repetition of the unfortunate circumstances concerning the Bali Nine and Scott Rush in particular". Three of the Bali Nine members are on death row but only Rush, whose parents alerted federal police to his plans in an attempt to prevent him travelling to Indonesia, was a drug mule. Mr McDonald called on the Foreign Minister, Stephen Smith, to advocate in the region for an agreement whereby citizens from abolitionist countries could apply to countries such as Indonesia to commute their death sentences. The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, will meet the Indonesian President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, at a democracy forum in Bali next week. (source: Sydney Morning Herald) ****************** Politicians move to kill off death penalty Politicians from both sides of the Federal Parliament are working towards new laws to prevent the return of the death penalty in Australia. A cross-party working group is seeking federal legislation to make it impossible for the states and territories to re-introduce capital punishment. The group has been briefed by a lawyer for Australian Scott Rush who is on death row in Indonesia. Liberal Senator Gary Humphries says entrenching Australia's opposition to the death penalty in new laws would send a message to the region. "The group's working not only to bring about an end to the death penalty in a legal sense in Australia but also to prevent its use overseas and to encourage those countries in the region - and there are quite a few unfortunately - to give up their resort to the death penalty," he said. "I was pleased a few weeks ago when we had the execution of the 3 Bali bombers that there were expressions by Australian politicians of opposition to the imposition of that penalty, notwithstanding that a lot of Australians would have cheered that on. "I think that's an appropriate thing to do because we do also face the prospect of those 3 Australians being executed in Indonesia." (source: ABC News)