Harbour MSP negotiates data centre space

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Harbour MSP is negotiating a second suite in the GlobalSwitch Sydney data centre for "specific high density deployments" up to 14 kilowatts a rack.

The managed services provider, one of GlobalSwitch's largest customers, was one of five companies this week appointed to a panel to supply data centre facilities and services to the Federal Government.

Commercial director Andrew Hardy said Harbour MSP was eyeing a suite of 200 to 300 square metres.

It would be used for high-density services but Hardy said the it could double to service any Government business the company secured as part of its panel seat.

It already had a suite of 1000 to 1500 square metres in the same data centre.

"We're in negotiations with GlobalSwitch for additional space for a high-density deployment," Hardy said.

"We have the required space available already [to service any Government business we win through the panel] but we may [use our appointment to] negotiate a bigger suite."

Hardy did not foresee issues with bringing Harbour MSP's space up to the security standards often required by Federal Government deployments.

"It's possible to bring any of the suites up to ASIO T4 standards," he said.

But negotiating a larger, second suite and security upgrades depended on Harbour MSP securing any Government business from the panel.

The panel did not guarantee business; it was a shortlist of suppliers to Treasury.

Hardy said the services provider was looking to build its own data centre in Melbourne to grow its business.

It spent the past "few years talking to everybody in Melbourne" to secure quality, carrier-neutral space in the city.

"We're investigating data centres in Melbourne," Hardy said.

"We're looking at maybe trying to construct one in our own right".

An announcement was expected within six weeks.

And it was due to unveil services in Singapore on November 1.

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Counter-terrorism still needs to shape up

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Patrick Walters | August 08, 2009

Article from: The Australian

AUSTRALIA this week got another glimpse of the troubling global security paradigm that dominates discussions among the government's top counter-terrorism advisers.

The Melbourne-based Australians allegedly planning an attack on Holsworthy army base had links that stretched to Somalia and well beyond the Horn of Africa. It's a home-grown threat that is intimately linked to the global jihadist network.

The Howard and Rudd governments have spent more than $9 billion bolstering our national security since September 11, 2001. The Australian Intelligence Security Organisation, the Australian Secret Intelligence Service, the Australian Federal Police and defence intelligence agencies have been transformed and forced to learn new skills in the face of a protean threat that continues to evolve in unexpected ways.

The central issue facing national security planners in Western democracies is whether our spy agencies, founded in the Cold War era, and based on rigidly defined operational and legal boundaries, can be truly effective in countering threats in a borderless world.

It's not just Islamist terror but rapidly emerging issues such as cyber warfare and far more sophisticated transnational crime networks that are driving the rethink at the heart of the Rudd government.

The AFP and ASIO have come a long way in recent years. They have become far more closely linked with other intelligence agencies and tackle a range of wholly new cross-border challenges. But in the view of some of our top national security thinkers, inside and outside government, Australia's intelligence community needs to evolve even further if we are to thwart the emerging threat spectrum.

According to defence expert and close government adviser Ross Babbage, this should include the contentious removal of strict legal and operational constraints that apply to the Defence Signals Directorate , the country's main collector of signals intelligence. It could also include a renewed debate about whether ASIO and ASIS, Australia's secret external intelligence agency, should be merged.

Babbage argues that DSD's charter should be amended to allow it to assist ASIO and the AFP in an unrestricted way when it comes to tracking terrorists or criminals who move into Australia. At present, tight legislative provisions restrict DSD from spying on Australian citizens at home and abroad but it does provide technical assistance to ASIO and other agencies for specific operations.

DSD played the critical role in tracking down the Bali bombers across the Indonesian archipelago. Babbage argues DSD now needs to be able to monitor communications seamlessly at home or abroad and have the ability to work in cross-agency joint teams.

"The Australian Intelligence Community needs to be restructured to permit the full weight of technical and human resources to be applied against priority targets, whether they be international, domestic or both," Babbage tells Inquirer.

Australia's key intelligence agencies are structured to address either international threats or domestic threats when the terrorist, criminal and foreign intelligence service operations we confront show no respect for national boundaries.

"My biggest concern is not when you have already identified a target but what happens if you haven't identified a target. It's not just DSD, it's the whole panoply. What we need to be doing is reducing, maybe even removing, the constraints on effective teaming from detection right through to detailed observations and monitoring," Babbage says.

This week's events involving Somali-born Australians is a harbinger of the new challenges ahead. "We managed to pick this up. But in the area of terrorism and in the cyber area we are going to face more demanding international challenges. We can't afford to be tripping over each other or missing things," Babbage says.

New ASIO director-general David Irvine acknowledged last week in his first public speech that contemporary security challenges were provoking debate in Canberra about whether Australia's spy agencies were correctly positioned for the challenges ahead.

Irvine stressed the intelligence community had to move towards a "single federation, rather than a group of capability specific sites". Vital information also had to be shared more quickly and effectively inside and outside the key intelligence agencies.

"The concept of some separation of powers remains a valid element of the community today and I would advocate caution in tampering with it for no good reason," Irvine said, referring to the basic structure of the Australian Intelligence Community created as a result of the Hope royal commission more than 30 years ago.

Nevertheless, the contemporary security environment -- particularly with technological advances and the emergence of non-state actors as a first-tier threat -- has forced the AIC to come together in ways the Hope commission could not have predicted.

There's no doubt that the radical changes mooted by Babbage would encounter strong political opposition as well as a wall of bureaucratic resistance. A whole new legal and administrative edifice, including civil liberty safeguards, would have to be built. In Britain and the US, similar mooted changes have produced a powerful public backlash.

Senior government sources believe recent changes to the AIC, including Kevin Rudd's creation of the post of National Security Adviser and establishment of a National Intelligence Co-ordination Committee, preclude the need for further big structural reform. The argument inside the bureaucracy is that the key agencies have already developed the new collaborative, cross-jurisdictional relationships vital for our national security. As Irvine points out, the NICC is designed to set priorities as well as ensure optimal levels of sharing intelligence information and intelligence capability between agencies.

But the real debate about further structural change has yet to be had. Senior intelligence sources and security experts inside and outside the government agree on one thing: even closer co-operation will be needed in the future, from better co-ordination of intelligence collection at the national level to sharing of vital information right down to local police working in suburban communities.

The University of Sydney's Alan Dupont agrees with Babbage on the need for further overhaul of the AIC.

"DSD should be able to work closely with domestic agencies on national threats in a way that they can't at the moment. Our intelligence structures are still out of sync with today's threats even though we have made major improvements," Dupont says.

"If you getting national intelligence in Canberra, how are you getting that down to a local police force that has to respond in a way that protects sources and methods but allows them the latest information? We also still haven't closed the gap between national counter-terrorism responses and emergency management arrangements. Both are integral in responding to terrorist attacks."

Defence expert Allan Behm, who has worked for all four government departments covering Australia's intelligence community including the Prime Minister's, Attorney-General's and Defence departments, agrees ASIO and the AFP have done well since 2001. But he says the intelligence community must achieve greater efficiency, working outside the traditional "stove-pipes" as inter-agency teams, while understanding that some jurisdictional boundaries must always remain.

Behm also says Australia's counter-terrorism response must extend beyond good intelligence and tough border controls and embrace troubled communities such as the Somalis. "The problem has been with us for a while. Through inadequate policy over the (past) 10 years we have treated Islamic terrorism as though it had a legitimacy that it doesn't really have. It is a criminal act like any other form of terrorism. Governments have got to keep talking about Australia as an inclusive society, supporting the leadership within the Islamic community as a matter of public policy. We have got to keep talking about the fact this is a society built (on) mutual respect for each other."

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Call for licence to spy on citizens

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Patrick Walters, National security editor | August 08, 2009

Article from: The Australian

THE Defence Signals Directorate should be given new powers to spy on Australians at home or overseas to deal with evolving security threats including terrorism and cyber warfare, according to a leading national security expert.

Ross Babbage, an adviser to the Rudd government, says the DSD's charter, which strictly prohibits it from spying domestically on Australian citizens, should be changed to reflect the more fluid and dynamic outlook facing Australia.

His call for a change in the DSD's powers and a restructuring of the current tightly separated Australian intelligence community is backed by a number of senior government officials in Canberra.

Similar debates in Britain about extending the powers of GCHQ, Britain's main signals intelligence agency, and in the US, over the role of its National Security Agency, have sparked a political furore.

Giving DSD broader powers to spy on domestic communications would require new civil-liberty safeguards and major change to the existing legal framework covering the intelligence realm.

"We now face increasingly innovative transnational criminal, terrorist and foreign intelligence service operations that show no respect for national boundaries and operate aggressively overseas and also within Australia," Professor Babbage told The Weekend Australian.

"Current intelligence structures and boundaries were set in the Cold War. Australia's key intelligence agencies are structured to address either international threats or domestic threats, but rarely both.

"There's a need to shift from the traditional 'need to know' to 'need to share' and to 'need to team'.

"The Australian intelligence community needs to be restructured to permit the full weight of technical and human resources to be applied against priority intelligence targets -- whether they be international or domestic or both."

Professor Babbage's views reflect an emerging debate behind closed doors in Canberra on how to deal with a rapidly evolving set of security threats, including Islamist terrorism. The central issue facing national security planners is whether Australia's spy agencies, founded in the Cold War era and based on rigidly defined operational and legal boundaries, can be effective in an increasingly borderless world.

The debate revolves around how best to improve not just intelligence gathering but also information flows between traditionally separate agencies, including ASIO, ASIS, DSD and the Defence Intelligence Organisation and police forces.

Professor Babbage argues the existing tight legal and administrative barriers separating Australia's intelligence agencies preclude the kind of co-operation essential to protect Australia over the next decade.

Professor Babbage's views were echoed by Sydney University's Alan Dupont. "DSD should be able to work closely with domestic agencies on national threats in a way that they can't at the moment. Our intelligence structures are still out of sync with today's threats, even though we have made major improvements," he said.

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Australias draconian sedition laws and the Australian Press Council

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Last Tuesday the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs held a hearing as part its Inquiry into the Anti-Terrorism Laws Reform Bill 2009.

This private members bill seeks to undo some of the harm done to freedom of speech by Howard Government anti-terrorism legislation, which was subsequently supported by a Rudd Government which has failed to address concerns since it came to office and virtually ignored the Australian Law Reform Commission report and recommendations to date.

Here is an extract from the Australian Press Council's submission to the inquiry:

Executive Summary
Consistent with its long held position that sedition laws are an impediment to freedom of expression and have the potential to have a 'chilling effect', the Australian Press Council support the removal of sedition offences in s80.2 of the Criminal Code Act in their entirety.
In view of the lack of precision in the definition of a "thing" in s101.4 of theCriminal Code Act, the Council is concerned that journalists could be exposed to being charged with a serious offence should they inadvertently come into possession of material in the course undertaking their role. Thecurrent provision is unsafe and the Council supports that proposal in theBill that the section be repealed.

Where it is practical to do so, the Council supports the proposed amendments to Division 102 of the Criminal Code Act that would bring the processes for proscribing a terrorist organisation in line with the requirements of administrative law. By ensuring publicity, public consultation,consideration of submissions by an independent advisory committee, notice and a right of appeal the proposed amendments increase transparency, public and media scrutiny and enhance the public right to know.

The Council supports proposed amendments to s102.7 of the Criminal Code Act to ensure that providing support to a terrorist organisation cannot be construed to apply merely to the publication of view favourable to a proscribed organisation.
Consistent with its earlier submissions, the Council express its concerns that this Division 3 Part III of the ASIO Act poses a threat to freedom of speech and has the potential to obstruct the ability of the media to ensure that government agencies are held to public account and that the questioningand detention practices of ASIO do not go beyond what is necessary to facilitate the investigation and prevention of terrorism.
Consistent with its earlier submissions, the Council holds the view that theNational Security Information (Criminal and Civil Proceedings) Act is a threat to freedom of the press and it potentially oppressive. The Council supports repeal of this legislation as proposed in the Bill.
Full PDF copy of Australian Press Council submission

List of submissions to the inquiry

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Police tied in terrorism red tape

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The chairman of the Haneef inquiry, John Clarke, QC, told a Canberra conference this week that the case of the Indian doctor on the Gold Coast charged with a terrorism offence in 2007 was "not a debacle", as it had been portrayed.

Despite the popular conception that the Australian Federal Police behaved like Keystone cops, Clarke told ABC radio they did "quite well" in an emergency situation, applying new and complex terrorism legislation, with most of the evidence overseas, constant leaks and undoubted political pressure.

Clarke complained this week about lacking the power in his inquiry to investigate any political pressure that may have been applied. But he exonerated the police of wrongdoing. There were "significant and very bad mistakes" in the affair but the police were "very impressive, working hard and doing a good job".

The new terrorism legislation under which Mohamed Haneef was charged was "complex and difficult, even for a lawyer, and was being applied by police officers".

This was the "root of the early problems. [It's] not surprising there were mistakes … Neither the police nor the magistrates had any experience with it." It was an "extraordinary" emergency. "I think they did quite well in terms of that."

So there you have it.

Will anyone apologise to Mick Keelty, the recently retired AFP commissioner who bore the brunt of the criticism in the Haneef matter? Or to the chief investigator, Commander Ramzi Jabbour, then AFP's manager of domestic counter terrorism, who worked thankless hours from the moment he received a 4.50am phone call on July 2, 2007, from British authorities investigating terrorist incidents in London on June 29 - where two undetonated car bombs were found - and Glasgow airport on June 30, where there was a suicide car bomb attack?

The British police told him they had issued an arrest warrant for Haneef, a cousin of the Glasgow bomber, and wanted the AFP to find him urgently.

By 7.40am on July 2, Haneef's house was under surveillance.

But at 8.10pm Haneef was on his way to Brisbane airport with a one-way ticket to India - bought that day - where he later said he wanted to visit his wife and one-week-old daughter.

Jabbour and his superiors made the decision to detain Haneef before he boarded the plane to protect passengers. As it happened, no evidence was found against Haneef and all charges and investigations were dropped.

The Haneef affair cast a shadow over Keelty's successful reign at the AFP from April 2001 until his retirement three weeks ago.

While he is doing his best to slip quietly into obscurity, he told me last week: "I'm happy enough to cop the cuts over Haneef. But people forget we were at the beck and call of the Brits. It was their evidence …

"The advice I gave to the [Commonwealth Department of Public Prosecutions] at the time was I didn't think that there was enough evidence [to charge Haneef]. But I accepted the DPP decision …

"The expectations for not having a terrorist attack in this country are enormous … You have to do everything right."

And even then, it's not enough for some people. For instance, the "be alert but not alarmed" campaign to advertise the terrorism hotline was a subject of much mirth and derision among the chattering classes. Yet Keelty, 55, says it has been invaluable.

"Despite all the cynicism, I can confidently tell you there hasn't been a terrorism investigation that hasn't been reported to us on the hotline."

The hotline featured in the successful conviction last year of the Melbourne cleric Abdul Benbrika and six followers on terrorism charges.

"We have been successful with the ASIO and the state police in investigating the things we know," says Keelty. "I know people find it hard to understand but it is the things we don't know which are the ones to really worry about."

In Haneef's case there were a lot of unknowns, but in an era of terrorism, that is the area in which police are forced to work and it inevitably leads to mistakes.

Australian police suspected Haneef for various reasons, such as the fact his trip had been so hastily arranged, that he said he planned to return to Australia in a week when he had only a one-way ticket - which is almost twice as expensive as half-a-return ticket to India. His luggage contained original documents police felt were not necessary for a short visit to India.

An online conversation found on his laptop, discussing the British terrorist incidents with his brother, appeared suspicious. There was misinformation coming from the fluid British investigation.

Despite their suspicions, Jabbour and his team felt they did not have enough to charge Haneef. It was the DPP, reviewing the police brief under great time pressure, who decided they did.

"The AFP has … asserted that the [DPP] advice was 'the catalyst' for the decision to charge Haneef, and I accept that," wrote Clarke in his report.

Clarke described Jabbour as "an impressive, dedicated and capable police officer". Yet he was critical because Jabbour had "formed a strong opinion that Dr Haneef was implicated" and so was more "receptive" to the advice of the DPP that there was sufficient evidence to charge him over the provision of his SIM card to his cousin.

"It is my view that Jabbour had become suspicious about Dr Haneef and had lost objectivity."

The police can't win. When it comes to weighing the safety of the public versus the perhaps mistaken detention of a terrorism suspect it seems we don't want a seasoned police commander trusting his instincts, and erring on the side of caution.

It will be our own fault when we eventually get a police force of automatons, blocking every hunch with the dead hand of objectivity.

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Al-Qa'ida-linked mum refused visa

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ASIO has refused to renew the passport of Sydney mother Rabiah Hutchinson, based on a new security assessment that says she continues to support politically motivated violence and would be likely to engage in activity that might "prejudice the security of Australia or another country" if she were to travel abroad.

The ASIO assessment follows an application by Ms Hutchinson in March to have her travel document restored so she can visit family members overseas.

Rejecting the application by Ms Hutchinson, who has past links with al-Qa'ida and Jemaah Islamiah figures, the agency advised: "ASIO reporting indicates Hutchinson continues to adhere to a hardline interpretation of Islam and demonstrates a willingness and capability to radicalise individuals to undertake politically motivated violence and support Islamic extremist causes overseas."

The assessment noted Ms Hutchinson "has not been directly involved in violence in the past and is unlikely to be directly involved in the future".

However, it said if she were to travel "she will again gravitate towards extremist elements and revert to her previous role of facilitator and radicalising influence". It said she could also be involved in "providing financial or other support for violent jihadist organisations, facilitate fundraising or act as a courier".

Ms Hutchinson rejected the assertions that she has had a radicalising influence.

"Show me one place where I have done that. I don't have to. Anywhere I have been, the people believe exactly the same as me," she said.

Since returning to Australia from Iran in 2003, Ms Hutchinson said she rarely leaves her home as she is under constant surveillance. She said the suggestion of her providing "financial or other support" to terrorists was "ridiculous".

"What's the 'other support'? Working in hospitals and building wells? (They say) what I was doing in Afghanistan was 'politically motivated violence' -- taking care of orphans and working in hospitals was 'politically motivated violence'. And what do you mean 'financial support?'

"That al-Qa'ida needs a couple of hundred dollars from me every three or four years to sustain itself?"

Her passport was first cancelled in 2004 because of her links to Islamic extremists, including senior members of al-Qa'ida, Jemaah Islamiah and the Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jemaah Association, a fundamentalist group led by Melbourne's Sheik Mohammed Omran.

Ms Hutchinson would not be drawn on whether she supports the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, saying she could be arrested for expressing her views. "You realise it's 25 years' jail now? To say you support the Afghans, it's part of support for terrorism."

She said the ASIO assessment showed the double standards of the West's "war on terror".

Ms Hutchinson is one of 43 Australians who have had their passports cancelled or denied on national security grounds since November 2001.

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India and Australia’s interests increasingly converging, says new envoy

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NEW DELHI - Australian High Commissioner to India Peter Varghese on Thursday said “Australia’s and India’s interests are increasingly converging and that Australia is committed to taking its relationship with India to the forefront of our bilateral partnerships.”


Speaking after presenting his credentials to President Pratibha Devisingh Patil, High Commissioner Varghese noted the strong people-to-people links between Australia and India.

“Over 200,000 people of Indian origin have made Australia their home. They live peacefully and harmoniously with migrant communities from different parts of the world,” he said.

“Australia also looks to work constructively with India on a range of multilateral issues including the G20, climate change and the Doha Round,” he added.

Varghese took up his position as Australian High Commissioner to India in August 2009.
Prior to his posting he was for five and half years the Director General of the Office of National Assessments (ONA) in Canberra. This is a Secretary-level statutory office reporting directly to the Australian Prime Minister. ONA provides the Prime Minister and the National Security Committee of Cabinet with assessments of international political, strategic and economic developments affecting Australia’s national interests. It is also responsible for coordinating and evaluating Australia’s foreign intelligence activities.

From June to December 2003, Varghese worked in the Prime Minister’s personal office as the senior foreign and defence policy adviser to then Prime Minister John Howard.

Varghese is a career officer of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade which he joined in 1979. He has served in Vienna (1980-83), Washington (1985-88), as Minister (Political) in Tokyo (1994) and as High Commissioner to Malaysia (2000-2002).

In Canberra, Varghese has held a wide range of positions, including Deputy Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs (2003) and several stints working on disarmament and arms control issues. In 1996 and 1997 he led the drafting team which produced Australia’s first ever White Paper on foreign affairs and trade. Varghese also headed the department’s personnel branch (1991-2). From 1998-99 he was seconded to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet as head of the international division.

Varghese was born in Kenya in 1956 to Kerala-born parents who went to teach in Kenya soon after they married. He migrated to Australia as a young child. Varghese went to school in Brisbane and is a graduate and university medallist in history from the University of Queensland. He is married to Margaret, who is on leave from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. They have one son. (ANI)


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Petrov’s Skoda – realpolitix or mythica?

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As the story unfolds, so the plot thickens. As it should in any melodrama.


[more images available on the original posting]

The “real story” of Petrov’s accident on the Cooma road at dawn on Christmas Eve, 1953, is a truly unlikely tale according to the myriad of sources available to your iconophiliac. The police records, ASIO records, the numerous subsequent publications, plus the memories of local residents, are the very stuff of myth. On 23rd April 1954 the Canberra Times rewrote the events of Christamas Eve as a “murder attempt” – probably the source of the mythology that persists in the public memory to this day. Apart from the fact that it was the Christmas holidays, and that most of the police and ASIO officials were on leave when the accident occurred, the “official” accounts of what actually caused the accident, and what happened to Petrov subsequently, are as various as they are entertaining.

Frank Cain, in his ASIO: An Unofficial History (1994) gives a rollicking account of Petrov as a rather incompetent Walter Mittyesque figure, who was lured into in whisky smuggling and bawdy incidents in Kings Cross by ASIO counter-agents. On the story of the accident, Cain relates that Petrov was driving south “on a secret assignation” with a Madame Ollier, of the French Embassy. And that after the crash, battered and bruised, he left the car, hitched a lift to Cooma, and caught the train back to Canberra. No evidence of the truck which is said to have run him off the road was ever found. But on the evidence of the Royal Commission which followed his defection, Cain concludes that he was unlikely to have been a spy-master of any kind. The Royal Commission on Espionage, it is widely recognised, was as influential in Menzies’ re-election and Evatt’s political downfall as the visit of Her Royal Majesty in February and March 1954. Realpolitics in action.

...

In The Petrov Affair: Politics and Espionage (1987) Robert Manne wrote that Petrov knew he had been lucky to escape with his life. “He claimed he had been forced off the road by a truck, and not unnaturally given his present state of mind, wondered whether his Soviet colleagues were behind some attempt on his life. Inside the Soviet embassy he received little sympathy. Petrov had never renewed the insurance policy on the Skoda. Generalov demanded he pay for a replacement with his own money. When he eventually emerged from the Soviet embassy to speak to the Canberra police about the accident, he misled them on a number of points, at least partly because he wished to conceal from the the purpose of his trip to Cooma – a conspiratorial rendezvous with Madame Ollier of the French embassy. Only an unusually heavy evening in Sydney… to bring in the New Year could temporarily mask his growing despair.”

So where did the wreck of Petrov’s Skoda end up? John Goodall, who lives just downhill from the site in the old Royalla Post Office and phone exchange, which was run by his grandmother Gladys (”Gladdie”) Burke (nee Goodall) at the time of the accident, is the only person we met who knew anything about the event. From his house about a kilometer away, he pointed to the location on the hillside where he remembers the wreck of the Skoda had been laid to rest. Where is it now? According to John, it was brutally “buried by redneck road builders” when the road was moved 100m to the west in 1991. So there you are. On John’s authority, ever since 1991 you have passed over the ghost of Petrov’s Skoda as you headed south for the snow. By the time you caught sight of the tin cowboy, you were over it, literally…

For those who want to know more – we’re still searching for the pre-1991 aerial surveys – the GPS reference for the location of the buried Skoda is [Aus Geo 1984] 55K 0694889 6068431. And yes, the evidence needs further triangulation, but who wants to ruin a good fringe-urban myth? The FJ Holden which now serves as the symbolic “Petrov’s car” is to be found at [Aus Geo 1984] 0694700 6068433. Or see our Google Map here (with thanks to my collaborators-in-procrastination Annie Jay and Pammy Faye, for most of these arcane details).

Question for Ralph Nader: is it possible to roll a Skoda at 25 mph?

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Chinese blocked from Woomera mining venture

Chinese blocked from Woomera mining venture: "Western Plains Resources is upset the Defence Dept has rejected Chinese investment in a Woomera magnetite project."

7 envoys present credentials to President

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Seven new envoys, including Mr Peter Varghese, the new High Commissioner of Australia, presented their credentials to President Pratiba Patil at a ceremony in Rashtrapati Bhavan here today.


The others who presented their credentials were Mr Javier Manuel Paulinich Velarde, the Ambassador of Peru, Ms. Nafsika Chr Krousti, the High Commissioner of Cyprus, Ms. Terhi Hakala, the Ambassador of Finland, Mr. Janez Premoze, the Ambassador of Slovenia, Mr. Adli Shaban Hassan Sadeq, the Ambassador of Palestine and Mr. Sami Mohammad S M al-Sulaiman, the Ambassador of Kuwait.


In her interaction with them, Ms Patil welcomed the new envoys to India and conveyed to them India's desire to have good relations and to intensify bilateral ties with their countries.


The President said the international community should work unitedly and collectively to combat terrorism. She stated that terrorism hampered peace and harmony in societies and adversely affected the process of creating prosperity.


Referring to the global financial crises, the President emphasized the need for reform in international financial institutions.

The ceremony was attended by the senior members of the missions and senior officials of the Ministry of External Affairs and Rashtrapati Bhavan, an official press release added.


Mr Varghese, the new Australian High Commissioner, is an Indian-Australian and was the Director General of Australia's Office of National Assessments (ONA) until recently. He will be concurrently accredited to Bhutan.

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Image dented but remedial measures afoot, says new Australian envoy

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New Delhi, Sep 24 (Inditop.com) Brand Australia’s image has been dented by the wave of violence against Indian students in recent months, the country’s new envoy to India said Thursday, adding that corrective steps are under way to ensure zero tolerance to such incidents.

“Considering the intensity of the negative publicity that we have received, yes, I share Victoria state premier John Brumby’s feeling that the attacks have damaged our brand and the Australian brand in India,” said the country’s new high commissioner Peter Varghese addressing his first press conference after presenting his credentials to President Pratibha Patil.

“I hope we can restore some of that ground. Practical and effective steps are being undertaken so that these incidents don’t happen again. I am not here for damage control, I have a positive agenda,” said Varghese, 53, a diplomat of Indian origin who migrated to Australia as a child.

Brumby is currently in the capital to give safety assurances after similar high-profile trips in the last two months by Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Immigration and Citizenship Minister Chris Evans, Treasurer Wayne Swan and education group manager Colin Walters.

Spelling out some of the areas that he would like to focus on, Varghese said he wanted Australia to be a reliable partner for India’s energy security, work towards the conclusion of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and give high priority to the security dialogue.

“We are upgrading law and enforcement, increasing police resources and taking measures to strengthen the visa programme so that genuine students are not put in trouble,” he said.

“The attacks against international students are not motivated by embedded racism. Look, for a country that followed a White Australia policy many years back, there has been a huge transformation. Almost 40 percent of Australians have a parent born overseas.”

Varghese said the Indian media’s reporting of the attacks in Australia had been robust but he did not agree with all the issues raised by the coverage.

On energy security, Varghese pointed out that the focus was on coal and liquefied natural gas (LNG) and a long-term agreement with India for 20 years amounting to $20 billion had been concluded for LNG.

He said the Australian government’s position on sale of uranium was limited to those countries who were signatories of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and reiterated his country’s long-standing policy.

Refusing to name a time when the FTA would come to fruition, Varghese said a feasibility study had just been concluded and the same would go to the respective governments for consideration.

Prior to his current posting, Varghese was the director general of the Office of National Assessments (ONA) in Canberra, reporting directly to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

The ONA provides the prime minister and the National Security Committee of Cabinet with assessments of international political, strategic and economic developments affecting Australia’s national interests. It is also responsible for coordinating and evaluating Australia’s foreign intelligence activities.

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New CERT early 2010: McClelland

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Karen Dearne | September 24, 2009

THE new national Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) will be operational early next year, federal Attorney-General Robert McClelland said.

It was originally planned for mid-2010. No further details of the new entity have been revealed.

"The work done by GovCERT, in my department, to assist critical infrastructure and key businesses to protect themselves will be strengthened under the new arrangements," he said.

"The new CERT will complement the work of the Cyber Security Operations Centre (CSOC) to be established within the Defence Signals Directorate.

"CSOC will co-ordinate responses to cyber security incidents of national importance, and maintain a 24x7 watch on activities that might threaten our national security."

The federal government will pay for 30 private and public sector personnel to attend a US Homeland Security advanced workshop on securing control systems, such as the supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems used by energy and water utilities to monitor and control the delivery of essential services.

The government is also pushing for consistent security standards across departmental systems and will cut the number of internet gateways used by agencies to improve the protection of public data.

"The government has a special responsibility to protect the information it is entrusted with," Mr McClelland told the E-Security for Government 2009 conference in Melbourne.

"The decentralised approach to ICT planning and procurement of the past has produced disjointed systems across levels of government, and focused primarily on the protection of information within individual agencies instead of how information can be securely and reliably shared between agencies.

"We must strive for consistent standards to facilitate more efficient cross-government communications, including the protection of citizens' personal information when they are transacting with agencies online," Mr McClelland said.

He said the government would look at options to reduce the number of internet gateways to maximise efficiency and reliability.

As reported earlier this month, the Department of Finance and Deregulation invited companies to attend a tender briefing for a contract to undertake a review of the government's estimated 100 internet gateways.

To support critical infrastructure businesses in the communications, finance and utilities sectors, the government had established information exchanges as a means of quickly sharing specific technical information in a trusted manner, he said.

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Cleric says Somalis trained by Al-Shabab back in Australia

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In an interview with Australian radio a religious scholar says young Somali-Australians who have gone to Somalia to fight with the terrorist group Al-Shabab have returned and are living in Australia. The terrorism raids in Melbourne last month focused attention on the issue of radicalization in the Somali community.
Islamic scholar Dr Hersi Hilole says Somali community leaders are worried about the situation and their children. National security correspondent Matt Brown reports.
[Brown] When the federal government added the Somali Islamist group Al-Shabab to its list of banned terrorist organizations last month, it cited a string of bombings in East Africa and alleged links to Al-Qa’idah. Usamah Bin-Ladin has even called on Muslims from around the world to join Al-Shabab’s fight against Somalia’s Western-backed government.
[Hilole] Al-Shabab is well known terrorist organization. Anyone who joins them can’t get out from them and whoever tries to get out from them will be killed.
[Brown] Somali-born Islamic scholar Hersi Hilole has been monitoring perceptions of Al-Shabab in the Australian Somali community. He says he has spoken to the parents of young men who have gone to fight in Somalia and who have come home to live in Australia.
[Hilole] Some of the parents told me that some young people came back from Somalia.
[Brown] Dr Hilole says these parents don’t know what to do about their ongoing concerns about their own offspring.
[Hilole] Some of them are worried because they think if the government knows this they will be persecuted, maybe. And some others think well they may also still be associated with these extremist groups.
[Brown] So even their parents aren’t sure?
[Hilole] Yes, even their parents aren’t sure the future of these young people.
[Brown] Hersi Hilole first raised the alarm about the radicalization of young Somali Australians back in 2007 when he was head of the Somali Community Council of Australia.
[Hilole] Because these young people dropped from the school, they are not working, so these religious people or religious teachers encourage them to go to war, rather than spending their time here.
[Brown] There are even suspicions these preachers are actually facilitators who smooth the path to jihad.
[Hilole] Sometimes they encourage them and provide them money and some other facilities that helps them to travel from here and there and so on.
[Brown] The claims against the alleged Melbourne terror cell are yet to be tested in court, but the episode has focused attention on broader concern in the Somali community that a small number of young men, brought up in families fractured by conflict, have lost their way.
[Hilole] They are worried about their sons because these young people are free now. Parents, especially mothers, do not have any control on them. Australian law provides freedom [for] these young people.
[Brown] Federal Police agents have had background contacts with the community and ASIO [Australian Security Intelligence Organization] has a close eye on several mosques. But the government didn’t comment about concerns that young men who may still be allied to Al-Shabab have returned from Somalia to Australia.

By Abdinasir Mohamed
Email: abdinasir4@gmail.com
Somalilandpress
Mogadishu-Somalia

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Al-Shabaab terrorists 'living in Australia'

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A Somali religious scholar claims young Somali-Australians who have gone to Somalia to fight with terrorist group Al-Shabaab have returned and are living in Australia.

When the Federal Government added the Somali Islamist group to its list of banned terrorist organisations last month it cited a string of bombings in east Africa and alleged links to Al Qaeda.

And the terrorism raids in Melbourne last month focused attention on the issue of radicalisation in the Somali community.

Osama bin Laden has even called on Muslims from around the world to join Al-Shabaab's fight against Somalia's western-backed government.

Somali-born Islamic scholar Dr Hersi Hilole says Somali community leaders have ongoing concerns about the problem.

"Al-Shabaab is a well-known terrorist organisation," he said.

"Anyone who joins them can't get out from them, and whoever tries to get out from them will be killed."

Dr Hilole says he has spoken to the parents of young men who have gone to fight in Somalia and who have come home to live in Australia.

He says the parents do not know what to do about their ongoing concerns about their own offspring.

"Some of them are worried because they think if the government knows this they will be persecuted maybe, and some others think they may also still be associated with these extremist groups," he said.

"Even their parents aren't sure the future of these young people."

Dr Hilole first raised the alarm about the radicalisation of young Somali Australians in 2007, when he was head of the Somali Community Council of Australia.

"Because these young people dropped from the school, they are not working, so these religious people, or religious teachers encourage them to go to war, rather than spending their time here," he said.

"Sometimes they encourage them and provide them money and some other facilities that helps them to travel from here and there and so on."

The claims against the alleged Melbourne terrorist cell are yet to be tested in court but the episode has focused attention on broader concern in the Somali community that a small number of young men, brought up in families fractured by conflict, have lost their way.

"They are worried about their sons because these young people are free now," Dr Hilole said.

"Parents, especially mothers do not have any control on them. Australian law provides freedom for these young people.'

Federal Police agents have had background contacts with the community and ASIO has a close eye on several mosques.

But the Government did not comment about concerns that young men, who may still be allied to Al-Shabaab, have returned from Somalia to Australia.

Dr Hilole says not enough has been done to check the preachers spreading radical messages in their community.

"The number of families that I talked to still believe that the issue is going on, nothing is done until now and still the young people are at risk."

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Young Somali fighters return to live in Australia

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This transcript corresponds with the Radio National broadcast. It will be replaced with the transcript for the local radio broadcast at 10am.


MATT BROWN: When the Federal Government added the Somali Islamist group al-Shabaab to its list of banned terrorist organisations last month, it cited a string of bombings in east Africa and alleged links to Al Qaeda.

Osama bin Laden has even called on Muslims from around the world to join al-Shabaab's fight against Somalia's western-backed government.

HERSE HILOLE: Al-Shabaab is well-known terrorist organisation, anyone who joins them can't get out from them and whoever tries to get out from them will be killed.

MATT BROWN: Somali-born Islamic scholar Herse Hilole has been monitoring perceptions of al-Shabaab in the Australian Somali community.

Despite the group's ruthlessness he says he's spoken to the parents of young men who've gone to fight in Somalia, and who've come home to live in Australia.

HERSE HILOLE: Some of the parents told me that some young people came back from Somalia.

MATT BROWN: Dr Hilole says the parents don't know what to do about their ongoing concerns about their own offspring.

HERSE HILOLE: Some of them are worried because they think if the government knows this they will be persecuted maybe, and some others think well, they may also still be associated with these extremist groups.

MATT BROWN: So even their parents aren't sure?

HERSE HILOLE: Yes, even their parents aren't sure the future of these young people.

MATT BROWN: Herse Hilole first raised the alarm about the radicalisation of young Somali Australians back in 2007 when he was head of the Somali Community Council of Australia.

HERSE HILOLE: Because these young people dropped from the school, they are not working, so these religious people, or religious teachers encourage them to go to war, rather than spending their time here.

MATT BROWN: There are even suspicions these preachers are actually facilitators who smooth the path to jihad.

HERSE HILOLE: Sometimes they encourage them and provide them money and some other facilities that helps them to travel from here and there and so on.

MATT BROWN: The claims against the alleged Melbourne terror cell are yet to be tested in court, but the episode has focussed attention on broader concern in the Somali community that a small number of young men, brought up in families fractured by conflict, have lost their way.

HERSE HILOLE: They are worried about their sons because these young people are free now. Parents, especially mothers do not have any control on them. Australian law provides freedom these young people.

MATT BROWN: Federal Police agents have had background contacts with the community and ASIO has a close eye on several mosques.

But the Government didn't comment about concerns that young men who may still be allied to al-Shabaab have returned from Somalia to Australia.

Herse Hilole says not enough has been done to check the preachers spreading radical messages in their community.

HERSE HILOLE: The number of families that I talked to still believe that the issue is going on, nothing is done until now and still the young people are at risk.

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Huawei pours cold water on Oz spy probe reports

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By John Leyden

Posted in Telecoms, 7th September 2009 12:45 GMT

Chinese networking equipment maker Huawei has denied reports that Australian security agencies are investigating its business.

Huawei told Bloomberg that it met the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) back in June only for what's described as a "routine briefing". Suspicions that there might be something more to he meeting than that were raised last week after The Australian published an unsourced report claiming Huawei is employing "technicians in Australia with direct links to the People’s Liberation Army".

The Chinese networking firm reportedly dismissed "several dozen" of its Australian-born workforce, replacing them with Chinese nationals. These Chinese nationals have allegedly been spotted meeting officials at Chinese embassies and consulates in Canberra, Sydney and Melbourne. Huawei employs 120 workers in Australia, 100 in Melbourne and the rest in Sydney.

Huawei said it is normal for a large business operating overseas to have links with its embassy staff. "Our links to the government are no more than any links General Electric might have to the US government, due to the fact that some members of its management team are military veterans and they sell products to the US military," a spokesman told trade publication Telecom Tiger.

Huawei, which was founded by an ex-People's Liberation Army officer, has run into similar concerns in other western countries including the UK, USA and India. For example, Huawei's bid to take over 3Com floundered because 3Com's TippingPoint division supplies intrusion prevention anti-hacker technology to the US military.

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North Asia security a 'wicked' problem

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BY PHILIP DORLING, NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT
22/09/2009 9:06:00 AM
A leading Australian strategic analyst says the Rudd Labor Government's push to advance nuclear disarmament could actually worsen nuclear dangers in some regions, notably North Asia.

In a new Lowy Institute report, former diplomat and intelligence analyst Rory Medcalf highlights this week's United Nations Security Council meeting, to be chaired by United States President Barack Obama, as potentially a major step forward in disarmament and non-proliferation efforts.

''Yet in North Asia, the region where the interests of the world's great powers most deeply intersect and clash, these are times of risky strategic change and gathering nuclear danger,'' Mr Medcalf writes.

Mr Medcalf, who before joining the Lowy Institute was a senior analyst at the Office of National Assessments, held discussions with officials and security experts in China, Japan and South Korea in April and May this year, and encountered views that were a ''reality check for optimists on nuclear disarmament''.

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Habib's lawyers excluded from legal talks

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21 September 2009 | by The New Lawyer Print this article Comments Share this article

THE lawyer for former Guantanamo Bay inmate, Mamdouh Habib, claims any victory in his compensation claim against the Australian Government is likely to be another three years away because of the unprecedented nature of the case and the Government's secrecy and stalling tactics.


Solicitor Peter Erman and his legal team have been have excluded from the legal proceedings by government lawyers, reports The Sydney Morning Herald.


Appearing before a full bench of the Federal Court, the lawyers argued that Australian courts have no jurisdiction to find foreign government officials tortured Habib in Pakistan, Egypt, Afghanistan and Cuba, and therefore cannot compensate him for the alleged complicity of ASIO, Australian Federal Police and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade officers.


The court has not yet had to rule on allegations that Australian officials were involved in his treatment including being beaten unconscious, shocked with electric prods, sodomised with sticks, smeared with menstrual blood and threatened with rape by a dog.


Howard government ministers repeatedly denied knowledge of his rendition to Egypt or maltreatment in Guantanamo.


Former president of the Law Council of Australia, John North, commented on the circumstances surrounding Habib and David Hicks and the legal implications.


"We're not saying Habib or Hicks are innocent or guilty, but what we are saying is that they are Australian citizens and they should not be left in legal limbo by their own government," he said in 2005.


"It's also disgraceful that the Australian Government has allowed Habib and Hicks to be treated differently – they are allowing Hicks to still be held in Guantnamo Bay facing a kangaroo military tribunal."


Last December, Justice Nye Perram of the Federal Court struck out part of Habib's claim while indicating how his lawyers might put the case forward in a more legitimate manner: by alleging that Canberra broke its obligations under the Geneva Conventions banning torture.


On 4 September, Habib won leave to appeal to the High Court over the Government's refusal to reissue his passport. At an earlier hearing in November 2007, the Administrative Appeals Tribunal upheld the passport cancellation by the minister for foreign affairs and trade and the director-general of security, but Habib and his lawyers are not allowed to see the full judgment and were excluded from the court while ASIO officers gave evidence.


Habib says he is still being watched, and confronted a government lawyer, Andrew Berger, in court this week, saying, ''Tell your spy to leave me alone''.


Meanwhile, Erman said his phones had been tapped and his family followed since he took the case on.


''It's like something out of the Bourne Conspiracy,'' he said, referring to the Robert Ludlum spy novels.


But his client and a team of pro bono lawyers working on the case, including barristers Robert Beech-Jones, SC, Ian Barker, QC, and Clive Evatt, were determined to see it through despite the hurdles they had encountered.


He added that the more they learn about Guantanamo Bay the more they realise it was an overreaction by security forces.

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Cloak and digger

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Bringing Kim Beazley in from the cold completes a new foreign policy and security apparatus for the Rudd Government. But it has many parts, report Deborah Snow, Jonathan Pearlman and Cynthia Banham.

Kevin Rudd put the final touches to his newly-shaped foreign policy hierarchy this week. Kim Beazley's appointment as Canberra's man in Washington redefines Australia's most important bilateral relationship on Rudd's own terms. Beazley is a man with significant standing in both countries. He commands bipartisan respect, and has a great fondness for the US.

But with Afghanistan the top immediate issue for Australia as it navigates its relationship with the US, it is Beazley's formidable background in defence that will play to Canberra's advantage.

Coming on the heels of a slew of recent appointments to top foreign and domestic security apparatus, and in tandem with Brendan Nelson's appointment as EC and NATO representative, the Beazley job completes the biggest rewrite of foreign policy pecking order since John Howard's election 13 years ago.

Unlike Howard's night of the long knives - when the then new prime minister cut through the upper ranks of the public service in 1996 - Rudd bided his time. For his first year and a half in government he left in place most of his predecessor's appointments even though, said one insider, Howard ''promoted more people from his personal staff into senior positions in government than any other prime minister''.

At the change of government in 2007, the heads of Defence, Foreign Affairs, ASIO and the Office of National Assessments had all worked on Howard's personal staff. Now Rudd, the former diplomat, has remade the chessboard. And with half a dozen key appointments he has woven a tight net of carefully-picked, tried and tested individuals across the top of the security and intelligence community.

After Rudd became Labor's foreign affairs spokesman in 2001, David Irvine, a senior diplomat who would soon become the head of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service, asked to see Alexander Downer on a matter of some sensitivity. He told the Foreign Minister he had served with Rudd as a diplomat in Beijing and was godfather to a Rudd son.

Irvine went on to take the helm of ASIS, Australia's overseas spy outfit, and acquitted himself so well that in February this year Irvinsky (as Rudd calls him) was handpicked to head the domestic spy agency, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, making him the first man to have led both ASIS and ASIO. Irvine is described by one longtime associate as an astute operator with ''a slight touch of the 19th century bureaucrat-scholar about him''.

Rudd's and Irvine's personal connection was not raised publicly when Irvine moved to ASIO seven months ago. The latter's credentials were impeccable, flying against any suggestion of cronyism. But insiders see the appointment as carrying Rudd's strong personal stamp.

Signs Rudd wanted change were there in his first national security statement last December.

His call for ''seamless'' relationships across Australia's intelligence and law enforcement agencies hit a raw nerve for those reading between the lines. The 2007 Haneef debacle - which saw ASIO and the AFP dramatically split over whether the Indian doctor was a terror suspect - loomed like Banquo's ghost over that part of the speech.

Rudd spoke of achieving a ''cohesive national security culture''. But no simple redrawing of management diagrams would deliver that. Chemistry at the top needed changing.

The Australian Federal Police got a new broom in the shape of Tony Negus, sworn in this week to replace Mick Keelty. Nick Warner, the bruised head of Defence, is moving to fill Irvine's vacancy at ASIS, a much better fit for Warner. Ian Watt, a tough numbers man, moves into the Defence chair.

And in August Peter Varghese left the helm of the Office of National Assessments (the premier intelligence analysis agency) to become the ambassador to Delhi. Moving into Varghese's spot is Allan Gyngell, a former Keating adviser who has become prominent in recent years as head of the private think-tank, the Lowy Institute for International Policy.

But the pivotal appointment, apart from Beazley's, is that of Dennis Richardson, a former ASIO head who is returning from the Washington ambassadorship to reinvigorate a demoralised Foreign Affairs and Trade Department.

Richardson was Rudd's first boss at Foreign Affairs, and worked in Immigration and Prime Minister and Cabinet before joining Bob Hawke as the prime ministerial foreign affairs adviser in 1990 - for the year leading up to Hawke's ousting by Paul Keating.

Having reviewed the intelligence services, Richardson was made head of ASIO when Howard won government in 1996. The agency had been regarded as something of a backwater but the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington changed all that. He was well regarded in Canberra's inner councils and he and Irvine know each other's modus operandi intimately.

The plain-speaking Richardson will need toughness at DFAT, a department sluggish and demoralised and a long way from its glory days at the pinnacle of the public service.

Rudd has been unimpressed with the quality of its advice, particularly around the time of the G20 leaders meeting in London last April. ''DFAT's response was not up to scratch,'' says a senior diplomat. ''It was slow to recognise the centrality and importance of the G20 summit to the government's priorities, and indeed slow to recognise its importance to Australia.''

It is instructive to witness the flurry of activity in the run-up to the next G20 meeting, to be held in Pittsburgh next month.

Michael L'Estrange, the outgoing head of DFAT , was closely associated with Howard and the Liberal Party, having headed up the Liberal think tank the Menzies Research Institute in 1995. After the 1996 election, he joined Howard's inner team as cabinet secretary for four years before the high commissioner posting to London and, then, the DFAT job from early 2005.

His relationship with Downer became strained. The latter has told colleagues he wanted L'Estrange to clear out senior echelons of the DFAT to make way for new blood, but the cautious L'Estrange would have none of it.

The department's budget languished under Downer, says one insider, and that ''ate into its morale and confidence''. Over the past eight years, DFAT's funding rose by 45 per cent; ASIS's rose by 357 per cent and ASIO's by 521 per cent.

Says a former official who has seen Richardson at close quarters: ''Dennis is the critical appointment because it brings back into the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade a very strong personality, a person with real policy passions, who has views and expresses them strongly. I think he will probably energise the policy debates. He is always prepared to take people on, including ministers and prime ministers.''

Rudd told a US-Australia dialogue in Melbourne last month that ''there are those who doubt that the words Dennis and diplomacy belong in the same sentence''.

Richardson was one of the few Howard government ambassadors to buck a departmental requirement that all speeches by senior diplomats first be cleared with Canberra.

Not all share the high hopes associated with Richardson's return, however. ''He's still got a minister [Stephen Smith] who's subservient to Rudd and Rudd's own foreign policy team in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, which has grown enormously,'' one sceptic said. "Dennis will be a much stronger leader and far more prepared to lay things on the line with the minister … [but] he's got to get him [Smith] to stand up and take a line."

Rudd has coralled much decision-making into the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. Capability and experience has been drafted in and Duncan Lewis, a former SAS commander, last year was made Rudd's first national security adviser.

Another burden on Richardson will be the boom in consular work pressed on DFAT by Australians getting into hot water overseas. ''Governments now think they have to give Australians overseas a higher service level than they would get here,'' says an insider.

Irvine's challenges include getting ASIO's relationship with the AFP back on track. Like L'Estrange, the outgoing ASIO head, Paul O'Sullivan, worked as a Howard adviser and kept a low profile at ASIO, failing to prosecute the agency's interests in the tussle with the AFP over Haneef, say internal critics. The police pursued Haneef long after ASIO concluded the Gold Coast doctor was not a threat.

A former senior ASIO officer told the Herald that O'Sullivan ''cocooned himself inside the organisation".

Mick Keelty, by contrast, aggressively promoted the AFP. Howard ministers knew him as ''Media Mick''. Keelty, who retired on September 2, hit his heights in the aftermath of the Bali bombings, but allegedly soured relations with NSW and Victorian police forces for not sharing credit sufficiently on joint operations.

The AFP decision to open a war crimes investigation on the killing of five Australian journalists in Timor more than 30 years ago could unwind Keelty's greatest legacy - the strong relationship he built with Indonesian police after the Bali bombings. Proof enough, it seems, you cannot control all outcomes.

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