ASIO spies on activist - Government - News - Inner West Courier

"SHE’D heard the rumours, but Dr Meredith Burgmann didn’t believe her every move was being recorded by secret government agents - until she saw this photo."

The great privacy debate - The Drum Opinion (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

"OK, let's have a debate about privacy. But before we get around to the dastardly Murdoch press, let's be honest about a couple of things. And the first is that we have very little privacy left anyway."

Terror threat level unchanged: McClelland

: "The Sydney Opera House's image in an online jihadist magazine does not change Australia's terrorist threat level, federal Attorney-General Robert McClelland says."

'WikiLeaks amendment' gives ASIO more power | Green Left Weekly

"This would include Australian citizens involved in non-violent political activities abroad, which do not constitute a threat to Australia’s security."

Intelligence Service Legislation Amendment Bill | Greens MPs

"Senator LUDLAM: Could you please provide us, within a reasonably short time, with some details about how your views were sought and in what manner you participated? Have you assessed the potential impact of this bill on your capacity to effectively oversee ASIO?"

Phone-hacking scandal: Ministers and Mr Murdoch | Editorial | Comment is free | The Guardian

"The fundamental problem is that there has been a massive leak of national security material. It could have only come from the task force members, that is, ASIO, AFP or VicPol."

Attorney General's Department - 5 July 2011 - National security legislation passes Parliament

"Attorney-General Robert McClelland today welcomed the passage through Parliament of improvements to laws underpinning Australia’s national security and intelligence agencies."

Muslim group active at Australian universities | thetelegraph.com.au

"UNIVERSITIES are being targeted in a recruitment drive by a radical Islamic group that urges Muslims to reject democracy and target Australian troops fighting in Afghanistan."

Asio Job Vacancies - Fast & Cheap Blog

"ASIO is putting young, inexperienced officers in senior jobs, as the domestic spy agency struggles to absorb an influx of recruits hired in an unprecedented expansion."

News Weekly

"Innocent Australian lives have been put at grave risk in the last few weeks following the latest leaks of highly confidential counter-terrorist information to the media. A former senior intelligence officer John Miller asks whether Australia will have to suffer a major terrorist attack before proper action is taken."

News Weekly

"In the early 1990s, it was revealed that the Australian Federal Police (AFP) had conducted a high-level operation inside ASIO - an almost unprecedented action."

Building a movement: some lessons from Swan Island / Waging Nonviolence

"Swan Island is one of two major training facilities for SAS troops, as well as the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS)."

Don’t let the FBI steal your server, says Ninefold | Delimiter

"Crossfield concludes that the same situation could happen in Australia – with ASIO or the Federal Police taking the part of the FBI. However, he adds, at least there might be some more due process around such an event, and you might have a legal leg to stand on in your own jurisdiction."

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."

ASIO | Greens MPs

"It is government policy that ASIO not comment on operational matters."

ASIO chief calls movement alert list 'very fallible' | LivePunjab

"According to the ASIO chief, the movement alert list prepared by the Oz Immigration Department"

Why the new ASIO bill must be stopped | WL Central

"A new development in global law harmonization against the perpetual War on Everything is a new amended bill being passed through Australian Parliament, which will further fatten up ASIO’s capabilities to spy on Australians and anyone else abroad."

Australia warns on cyber attacks on resource firms | Reuters

"Australia's government urged companies on Monday to tighten vigilance over cyber attacks launched offshore against some of the world's biggest resource firms and other businesses, warning high-tech threats were intensifying."

Costly veil of secrecy descends over PS - Local News - News - General - The Canberra Times

"The shift has also forced ASIO to devote more resources than ever to vetting bureaucrats and government contractors."

Spy chief deems terror list 'fallible'

"ONE of the front lines in the fight against terrorism - the Immigration Department's list of people who present a possible security risk to Australia - has been labelled ''very fallible'' by the head of the country's chief intelligence agency, ASIO."

Director-General of Security David Irvine, seemed to express dissatisfaction with the list people who present a possible security risk to Australia. Photo: Andrew Taylor

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/national/spy-chief-deems-terror-list-fallible-20110527-1f8tu.html#ixzz1NdrGn5yi

Turning a blind eye to espionage | The Australian

"This was the period in which, as he later wrote, 'I had no misgivings about our society in Australia being swept into the dustbin of human history by the communists', and in which he saw ASIO and its head, Charles Spry, as presumptive men with bourgeois values attempting to 'decide what we should read, think and do'."

Did Simon Overland misuse his powers? | The Australian

"Despite the early advice of ASIO, which had concluded that the so-called evidence was silly and that Haneef was a harmless doctor doing his best with cancer patients at a Gold Coast hospital, police and the Howard government immigration minister, Kevin Andrews, pressed on."

Habib cleared, gets passport back

"Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib has been cleared of being a national security threat and has had his Australian passport returned."

Terrorism very real: ASIO chief

"THE killing of Osama bin Laden was a symbolic victory but will not diminish the terrorist threat to Australia, even as the dangers posed by cyber espionage and cyber theft continue to grow, the head of Australia's most powerful spy agency says."

Defence to investigate fake security checks - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

"Defence Minister Stephen Smith has announced that security clearances on Defence personnel will be rechecked after allegations that staff were told to fabricate them."

ASIO reviews security after site break-in - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

"Australian spy agency ASIO is reviewing its security after a man broke into the grounds of its new premises in Canberra earlier this year."

Prime Minister and Cabinet - Wiki Leaks and Julian Assange | Greens MPs

"I will put these questions to ASIO when we get them a little bit later in the week but I presume they will refer me back to the minister because they are policy questions and not strictly operational."

PM briefed a dozen times on WikiLeaks - Security - Technology - News - iTnews.com.au

"National security advisors have met with Australian Prime Minister Gillard on a total of 12 occasions to brief the PM on the fallout of information contained in cables leaked to whistleblowing site, WikiLeaks."

WikiLeaks and other online groups may no longer be out of ASIO's reach

"The amendments, now before a Senate committee, aim to broaden ASIO’s role to collecting “foreign intelligence” for ASIS and DSD, which could include spying on groups such as WikiLeaks and any people in Australia associated with it on behalf of the two spy organisations."

Audience on their feet for a fraud who called bin Laden his brother

"It is easy to establish that David Hicks is a fraud."

Comment: Where is Australia's cybercrime data? - Security - Technology - News - iTnews.com.au

"Does it not strike you as odd to hear the Federal Government rabbiting on about the importance of cybercrime, hosting 'cybersecurity awareness week' and proposing an internet filter, while we continue to be a hostage to the data they are given from interested parties such as rights holders, security software and local police?”"

Al-Qa'ida's link to Sydney mum | The Australian

"THE veteran jihadist reportedly appointed as interim leader of al-Qa'ida is related by marriage to Australian woman Rabiah Hutchinson, a long-time target of Australia's domestic security agency ASIO because of her links to Islamic militants."

Greens wary of expanding ASIO's powers - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

"The Greens have raised concerns about a bill that would broaden ASIO's powers to gather intelligence, saying there should be more debate about the issue."

Australia's vassal state relationship to the United States | Independent Australia

"The construction and operation of US installations remained totally under US control and authority until quite recently. The Australian intelligence community (both counter-intelligence and military) also had the deepest connections with the British and the Americans. This goes back in the founding of ASIO and ASIS and the administrative relationship between the Australian Defence Signals Directorate (DSD) and the US National Security Agency (NSA). This relationship continues to this day."

The World Today - 'Cloud' over embassy military security 17/05/2011

"It strikes me that the minister has another major problem on his hands that goes back several years. There needs to be clearly - and the minister will have just another review - this is a problem that has infected security clearances across bases, embassies, all the way down the line into ASIO (Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation)."

Time for Australia to more actively engage Arab states - Opinion - Editorial - General - The Canberra Times

"We seem to be worried about security risks associated with entrants."

The function of a teaser video - PC Games - Game - Features - Atomic MPC

"... to the opposite end of the spectrum for those ASIO agents in training that watch the video on loop, dissecting the tiniest possible clues frame by painful frame."

Lateline - 16/05/2011: Whistleblowers allege security holes in Defence

"Three Defence whistleblowers say they have been directly ordered by superiors to falsify security checks on civilian and military personnel."

Independent Review of the Intelligence Community - Australian Human Rights Commission Submission (2011)

"The Australian Human Rights Commission welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to the Independent Review of the Intelligence Community."

ASIS sets sights on people smugglers

"The government is ramping up the war on people smuggling, providing $14.8 million to Australia's overseas intelligence agency."

Spy base | China's planned East Timor facility failed

"just another part of China's growing intelligence activity through Asia and beyond"

Australia, the United States ‘Yes Man’ - On Line Opinion - 9/5/2011

"The forces necessary to build any invasion force would be significant and require time. Surely even the Australian intelligence services and ADF might notice that this was occurring."

Terror too hard between wars | The Australian

"AS Osama bin Laden's death was celebrated by Americans on New York streets a little like on 1945's V-J Day, Julia Gillard cautioned Australians that 'our war against terrorism must continue'."

Triumph of the dills on Osama - bureaucrats ruined great PR victory | thetelegraph.com.au

"A former secret agent with the Australian Secret Intelligence Service, who does not want to be identified, said the bin Laden mission, conducted by US Navy SEALs and other operatives, was an even greater special forces triumph than the Entebbe rescue in Uganda in 1976, when Israeli special forces freed 103 hostages from a hijacked airliner."

Kevin Rudd in row over Osama bin Laden ally Umar Patek's arrest | The Australian

"He declared it 'a potential major step forward in the fight against terrorism'."

Seeking a balance between intelligence and citizen rights | The Jakarta Post

"For example, MI-5 in the United Kingdom and the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) are neither armed nor have arrest powers. Operations requiring police authority are conducted in coordination with law enforcement."

Unchecked visitors gain access to secure areas at airports and docks | The Australian

"The federal Auditor-General said a range of gaps in the security regime protecting the sensitive facilities was allowing an unknown number of visitors through without ASIO checks."

Department of Management hosted Director-General of ASIO « News and Events

The Department of Management recently hosted Mr David Irvine AO, the Director-General of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation. Mr Irvine delivered a presentation on the ethical and moral dimensions of leadership."

Osama bin Laden death won't change Australia's security budget | Adelaide Now

"The death of Osama bin Laden will have no impact on the major focus in the national security budget - the continued construction of the massive new multi-storey headquarters for the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation."

US didn't tell PM's office about bin Laden | Adelaide Now

"Asked how she found out, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation was told before the Prime Minister's office."

bin laden | celebration | sovereignty

"In a similar vein, people applying for a licence to use blasting explosives in Australia have to take an ASIO security check. I'm not sure many terrorists would bother with getting a licence to use explosives."

Public projects driving ACT investments - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

"Non-residential construction includes the new ASIO headquarters and work on the precinct near the Australian National University."

WikiLeaks: telling it like it is

"I have been reliably told that ASIO played an active part in the investigation into Assange"

Airport worker breach highlights security risks | The Australian

"The Transport Department requires people who work airside on a regular or permanent basis to be checked by ASIO, law enforcement agencies and, where necessary, the Immigration Department."

Questions on Habib torture

"The then head of ASIO, Dennis Richardson, now the head of the Department of Foreign Affairs, was asked the next day what he knew about the US practice of sending prisoners to other countries such as Egypt for interrogation. He said: ''We have no information as of fact about that.''"

'Red Evatt' claims don't stand up | The Australian

"My first reason for suggesting that the evidence should be rejected is that in the early 1950s any fool would have known that ASIO would have such a premises under surveillance, so it was hardly a state secret, but in any event clearly that information could only be a leak from ASIO itself, and again any fool would know that ASIO did not leak to either Evatt or Dalziel."

Secret US files on Mamdouh Habib and David Hicks released by WikiLeaks | The Australian

"FORMER Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib told Egyptian interrogators under 'extreme duress' he planned to hijack a Qantas plane and had prior knowledge of the September 11 attacks on the United States, according to newly-released WikiLeaks files."

Spies, lies and archives

"The recently released ASIO files, however, shed new light on left-wing Labor senator and Whitlam government minister John Wheeldon, who last year was identified by journalist and author Mark Aarons as a possible secret Australian Communist Party member, a claim vehemently denied by Wheeldon's son and Labor veterans including former New South Wales premier Bob Carr."

Asylum seeker pleads for compassion - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

"He was granted refugee status three months ago and is waiting for ASIO to check his security status."

Australia and US sign secret satellite spy deal

"AUSTRALIA and the United States have begun a partnership to share top-secret intelligence from spy satellites as Australia moves to acquire its own satellite to boost surveillance of Asia and the Pacific."

Israel calls Aussie man a Hamas spy | The Australian

: "Among them was Sydney woman Shyloh Giddins, whose passport was cancelled at ASIO's request while she was in Yemen."

Jetstar to sue over 'theatrical' Sydney Airport evacuation | Crikey

"ASIC cards are essentially issued on the basis of background checks including by ASIO."

The challenge of intelligence by Allan Gyngell AO - Lowy Institute for International Policy Publication

"On 30 March, Allan Gyngell, Director-General of the Office of National Assessments, and former Executive Director of the Lowy Institute, spoke at the Institute’s annual Canberra Dinner on 'The challenges of intelligence'."

Emails between MPs and miners stolen - The West Australian

"The West Australian _understands that spy agency ASIO is particularly concerned about the theft of emails between Gillard Government minsters and a small number of major Australian resources companies doing business with Beijing."

Habib sues Egyptian Vice-President for torture | The Australian

"Mr Habib does not have a current Australian passport as he is still deemed by the security agency ASIO to be a security risk."

Australia Forum would be an asset - Opinion - Editorial - General - The Canberra Times

"Unfortunately, however, the Commonwealth's enthusiasm for funding anything in Canberra new and refurbished buildings for ASIO and the AFP aside is close to zero"

Blackmail warning as cyber raids target MPs | Adelaide Now

"Sources have confirmed that DSD advised that the passwords of selected MPs and their staff had been stolen."

Schneier on Security: How did the CIA and FBI Know that Australian Government Computers were Hacked?

"How did the CIA and FBI Know that Australian Government Computers were Hacked?"

loon pond

"I have read tens of thousands of pages of declassified ASIO files during the past quarter of a century, demonstrating that Spry's ASIO was involved in unprofessional, even odious operations."