http://smh.com.au/news/0203/18/national/national8.html The buggers may be spying on us: Crean By Mark Metherell The Government scrambled yesterday to deny it considered bugging a Labor MP's office but the Opposition Leader, Simon Crean, was not so confident that it would not resort to spying on politicians. The office of the Attorney-General, Daryl Williams, confirmed that a Defence Department official had broached the idea of bugging the office of Labor's Laurie Brereton after a series of embarrassing leaks of defence intelligence concerning East Timor. But Mr Williams's spokeswoman said the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation had ruled it out. When reports on the issue surfaced recently, the Government gave a classified briefing to Mr Crean and Mr Brereton. The Government was now concerned that the briefing on an issue of national security given to the Opposition on a confidential basis had become public, the spokeswoman said. When Mr Crean was asked yesterday if he was confident Mr Brereton's office was not bugged, he said: "Well, I don't think that we can be clear on that front.'' Mr Crean said the leaked reports that the Government had ignored internal advice about the situation in East Timor was a cause for concern. There was growing evidence the Government had "thrown standards overboard".More... http://smh.com.au/news/0203/18/national/national8.html
