Australian charged with spying for Hamas - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

"An Australian man has faced court in Israel charged with spying for Hamas."

Fat cats' money to burn on the barbie | thetelegraph.com.au

"IT'S the mother of all barbecue stoppers - a $542,190 bill to construct a roof on a barbecue area so federal public servants are protected from the glare of the sun."

Dr Meredith Bergmann - ABC Queensland - Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)

"Do you think you have a Police Special Branch file? Many people do and now SBS TV is putting together a documentary series to be screened later this year called 'persons of interest: the ASIO file'."

Cuts 'will significantly impact' spy operations - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

"Some of the nation's spy agencies are feeling the pressure of the Federal Government's efficiency dividend with a report recommending a review of the impact it is having on operational activities."

Report reveals spy agencies' secret pain over cuts - National News - National - General - The Canberra Times

"Some spy agencies are feeling the pinch as a result of the efficiency dividend, with one warning any additional reduction in their budget will ''significantly impact operational activities''."

ASIO watchdog needs more money: report

"The intelligence and security watchdog needs a bigger budget if it is going to properly monitor the seemingly ever-growing domestic spy agency ASIO."

How Australia can solve it's asylum seeker 'problem'

"There should be an independent judicial examination of adverse reports by ASIO on would-be immigrants to Australia. The nature of the decision on refugee status and the grounds for the decision should be available to the review. The review should report to Parliament and ASIO should have no capacity to censor any part of it. The secrecy surrounding these matters, the inability of people to learn why they have been denied residence in Australia, is shameful."

‘Nothing short of Orwellian’ | Castlemaine Independent

"The Australian Greens have labelled a Government plan to significantly broaden ASIO’s mandate ‘nothing short of Orwellian’. And the Australian Law Council has written:"

ASIO » Careers - Overview

"Overview
It is no secret; our organisation is a unique workplace. You will experience a career unlike any other.

As a team, we protect Australia from threats to national security.

You’re probably wondering if you’ve ‘got what it takes’ or are ‘what ASIO’s looking for’. Our employees come from many different backgrounds and skill sets. In fact, we actively seek a diverse workforce. Our roles include a wide range of operational roles, such as Collection Officers, Intelligence Analysts and Surveillance Officers, through to a variety of specialist technical positions, administration and many other roles you would expect to find in any large organisation.

If you are interested in a career with ASIO, visit our Current Vacancies page, or for more information on a job family click Learn More below to read about each job family."

Wikileaks: Government coy on ASIO amendment target | Crikey

"A senior attorney-general bureaucrat has struggled to explain to a Senate committee the rationale for amendments broadening ASIO’s remit to spy on organisations overseas and tried to duck questions about whether the amendment would enable ASIO to spy on WikiLeaks."

Now tobacco can save us from mobsters, whores, terrorists...

"A SHORT film that appears to be based on a John le Carre spy novel - think people smugglers, prostitutes, terrorists - is the latest salvo in the tobacco industry's battle against federal government plans to introduce plain packaging for cigarettes."

Barnett 'irresponsible' on cyber attacks

"The WA opposition has branded Premier Colin Barnett irresponsible for revealing that ASIO was called in when the government fell victim to international cyber hacking."

Historic Houses Trust - Persons of interest: the ASIO files

"It‘s estimated that ASIO files have been opened on more than half a million Australians; it's possible you might be a ‘person of interest’."

Boost in ASIO powers set for rubber stamp | Greens MPs

"The Australian Greens have raised concerns about the lack of scrutiny of a Government bid to expand the powers of ASIO."

WA Govt 'victim of espionage': Barnett - The West Australian

"Premier Colin Barnett has called in ASIO to help the State Government with its computer security problem, suggesting that Government departments and WA business had been the victims of industrial espionage."

The FINANCIAL - Raising awareness of Chemicals of Security Concern

"The FINANCIAL -- Attorney-General Robert McClelland said the Government has today published a list of Chemicals of Security Concern to help stop chemicals that could be used in a terrorist attack getting into the wrong hands."

WATERFORD: The war on crime fighters - Opinion - Editorial - General - The Canberra Times

"To that, of course, one must add several thousand people added to ASIO and other intelligence and security bodies."

Former spy wins right to compensation - National News - National - General - The Canberra Times

"A former spy who says his work for ASIO induced a mental disorder has won the right to compensation."

Fears terrorists could use chemical weapons in Australia | thetelegraph.com.au

"FEARS terrorists could use chemical weapons in Australia has sparked a $10 million awareness campaign that lists 'dangerous' chemicals for the first time."

Dupes and subversives: the banal dross in ASIO files

"For the past five years, film director Haydn Keenan has spent endless hours poring over the newly released files which ASIO - the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation - kept on potential enemies of the state in the 1960s and '70s."

ASIO | Greens MPs

"Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee Wednesday 25 May 2011"

ANU College of Asia and the Pacific - Desmond Ball - CAP - ANU

Desmond Ball, BEc (Hons), PhD
Professor, Strategic & Defence Studies Centre, School of International, Political & Strategic Studies

Research interests

Australian defence; nuclear strategy; Asia-Pacific security.

Key publications

• Politics and Force Levels: The Strategic Missile Program of the Kennedy Administration, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1980.
• A Suitable Piece of Real Estate: American Installations in Australia, Hale and Iremonger, Sydney, 1980.
• Can Nuclear War be Controlled?, Adelphi Paper No. 169, International Institute for Strategic Studies, London, Autumn 1981.
• Targeting for Strategic Deterrence, Adelphi Paper No. 185, International Institute for Strategic Studies, London, Summer 1983.
• (ed. with Jeffrey Richelson) Strategic Nuclear Targeting, Cornell University Press, Ithaca and London, 1986.
• A Base for Debate: The US Satellite Station at Nurrungar, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, London and Boston, 1987.
• Pine Gap: Australia and the US Geostationary Signals Intelligence Satellite Program, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1988.
• (ed. with Helen Wilson) Strange Neighbours: The Indonesia-Australia Relationship, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1991.
• (ed.) Aborigines in the Defence of Australia, Australian National University Press, Sydney, 1991.
• Signals Intelligence in the Post-Cold War Era: Developments in the Asia-Pacific Region, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, 1993.
• (with Pauline Kerr) Presumptive Engagement: Australia's Asia-Pacific Security Policy in the 1990s, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1996.
• (ed.) The Transformation of Security in the Asia/Pacific Region, Frank Cass & Co, London, 1996.
• Burma's Military Secrets: Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) from the Second World War to Civil War and Cyber Warfare, White Lotus Press, Bangkok, 1998.
• (with David Horner) Breaking the Codes: The KGB's Network in Australia, 1944-1950, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1998.
• (with Hamish McDonald) Death in Balibo, Lies in Canberra, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2000.
• The Boys in Black: The Thahan Phran (Rangers), Thailand's Para-military Border Guards (White Lotus, Bangkok, 2004).
• The Probabilities of On the Beach: Assessing 'Armageddon Scenarios' in the 21st Century, Working Paper No. 401, SDSC, May 2006.

Career highlights

Head of the Strategic & Defence Studies Centre (1984-91); personal chair in RSPAS (1987); FASSA (1986); member of the Council of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) (1995-2001); Co-chairman of the Steering Committee of the Council for Security Cooperation in Asia-Pacific (CSCAP) (2000-2002).

Australia By The Indian Ocean: So Cisco Colludes with the NSA - Big Deal!

Australia By The Indian Ocean: So Cisco Colludes with the NSA - Big Deal!

PM invoked rare constitution section to re-hire Henry - National News - National - General - The Canberra Times

"Prime Minister Julia Gillard invoked a rarely used section of the constitution to re-hire former Treasury secretary Ken Henry."

ASIO power directed to silencing “soft” targets in Australia | Green Left Weekly

"Surveillance of and interference with Australian analysts, writers and other professionals standard practice"

Taking on water and headed for the rocks

"Reports have said ASIO is investigating alleged links between Huawei's workforce and the People's Liberation Army, which have also been criticised by the US Department of Defence."

Huawei names John Brumby, Alexander Downer board members | The Australian

"CHINA'S Huawei Technologies has appointed Liberal and Labor elders, Alexander Downer and John Brumby, to its Australian board in a bid to secure part of the $1 billion-plus National Broadband Network technology deal."

Habib's Egyptian lifeline

"THE Egyptian lawyer of the former Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib flew into Sydney yesterday and volunteered to give evidence at an inquiry into what Australian agencies knew about Mr Habib's detention and torture in Egypt."

Call for more money to fight growing cyber arms race

"THE former head of Australia's elite military cyber unit has called on the government to speed up its response to the emerging ''cyber arms race'', saying more funding is needed for key civilian agencies."

Security concern as cyber threat grows | The Australian

"THE Gillard government has become so concerned about attacks on the computer systems of industry and the public sector it will produce a white paper focusing largely on cyber security."

Australia to defend itself in cyber war

"AUSTRALIA will create its first national cyber strategy to confront the growing threat posed by electronic espionage, theft and state-sponsored cyber attack, with one of the country's most respected public servants revealing his department endures ''daily'' electronic intrusions."

BURMESE ROHINGYA REFUGEE’S HUNGER STRIKE ENTERS THIRD WEEK OVER ASIO SECURITY CLEARANCE | Refugee Action Coalition Sydney

"After 11 months waiting for his ASIO security clearance, with his wife and four children barely surviving on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, Villawood refugee Sayad Kasim, has reached breaking point."