That Greg Sammut, this country's most senior submariner, in charge of the "future " submarine project, would think this and then admit to it raises questions about his intellectual ability:
“Given the possibility that Mr Patrick could have come into possession of the information as a result of his privileged position as a contractor to provide training to the Malaysian navy, which operates Scorpene submarines, and uncertain of its provenance, I informed him that I was not the appropriate person to receive any such material and I said I would inform the proper authorities,” Admiral Sammut told The Australian.
He and all others involved int his debacle need to be demoted; the cost to taxpayers will run into the billions.
END
Defence closes ranks on French submarine data leak
- The Australian
Australia’s peak military intelligence agency has refused to explain why it failed to act on a tip-off that France’s submarine builder had suffered a massive leak of confidential data on India’s new submarines.
If the Defence Intelligence Organisation had acted on the tip-off in 2013, it could have prevented disclosure of the leaks that embarrassed the governments of Australia, France and India.
The Australian revealed in August that 22,400 pages of secret data disclosing the highly sensitive combat capabilities of the French-built Indian fleet of Scorpene submarines had been stolen from the French offices of the submarines’ builder, DCNS, which is designing Australia’s future submarines.
The disclosure has sparked ongoing investigations in France and India and has forced the Turnbull government to tighten information security requirements of Australia’s $50 billion future submarine project to prevent a similar security breach.
It has since emerged that a tip-off given to Defence in 2013 about the leaked submarine data was referred to the DIO for investigation but the intelligence agency failed to act on the information.
Rex Patrick, a former submariner and adviser to independent senator Nick Xenopohon, received the leaked submarine data by accident from a Malaysian company in 2013 and later that year tried to show some of it on his computer to Rear Admiral Greg Sammut, who is now the head of Defence’s Future Submarine Program.
Admiral Sammut has confirmed the short meeting with Mr Patrick in a room in Canberra’s Parliament House in May 2013 but said the exchange was not long enough for him to view the leaked information in any detail or determine its significance.
Even so, Admiral Sammut says he informed Defence of the exchange with Mr Patrick and the matter was referred to the then head of the DIO, Major General Paul Symon.
“Given the possibility that Mr Patrick could have come into possession of the information as a result of his privileged position as a contractor to provide training to the Malaysian navy, which operates Scorpene submarines, and uncertain of its provenance, I informed him that I was not the appropriate person to receive any such material and I said I would inform the proper authorities,” Admiral Sammut told The Australian.
“On the same day I spoke directly with the deputy secretary intelligence and security (then Steve Meekin), who arranged for me to speak with the director of the Defence Intelligence Organisation (General Symon).
“In my discussion with Major General Symon, it was agreed that his staff would take up the matter,” he said.
Mr Patrick said he was never contacted by any staff from the DIO in relation to the leaked information.
The Australian has submitted detailed questions to Defence about why the DIO took no action but a spokesman replied only that “Defence has no further comment on this matter”.
France’s Defence Minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, visited Australia last week and repeated claims that the leak was the work of malicious foreign or commercial rivals.
The French public prosecutor is investigating how the documents were taken from a supposedly secure DCNS site by a former DCNS sub-contractor in 2011.
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