ASIO launches recruitment campaign

ASIO launches recruitment campaign

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Australia's spy agency ASIO has launched a campaign for recruits as the organisation continues to grow.

A major plank in the campaign is a new website using videos to show the life of a spy.

The plan was to make information about ASIO more accessible to the public, deputy director-general David Fricker said.

"There is a legitimate public interest in what we do," he told reporters in Canberra on Friday.

In a rare event, the media were invited inside ASIO headquarters, which are also home to the super secretive Office of National Assessments.

Attorney-General Robert McClelland also attended the launch and praised the organisation for its increasing transparency.


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Australian spy had a hand in the Petrov affair

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RON CLEAVER

ASIO OFFICER

6-10-1914-26-12-2009

By SALLY DAVIS

FOR many years, family and friends of Ron Cleaver thought he worked in the federal public service. He did, but such a description hid the real nature of the service. In reality he helped develop Australia's fledgling national security service - ASIO.

ASIO had originally based its head office in Sydney in 1949, but then moved to Melbourne the following year where Cleaver was a founding officer - or as he proudly claimed, the "last of the 49ers".

His area of expertise was surveillance and he was responsible for recruiting and training ASIO officers in an era of international tension during the Cold War.

It was decades later before he revealed that he had lived in a safety house with Russian spies Vladimir and Evdokia Petrov following their defection to Australia. This was his part in the event known as the "Petrov Affair'', something that would have national and international ramifications. (In 1954, then prime minister Sir Robert Menzies announced the defection of Vladimir Petrov and a week later Mrs Petrov was escorted by two Soviet couriers on to a plane at Mascot airport. When it reached Darwin, she also defected.)

Cleaver's daughter, Paula, recalled in her father's eulogy some of the stories he had shared with the family about his ASIO life. This included the time when the ASIO chief Brigadier (later) Sir Charles Spry asked her father whether he would feel compromised working with a female agent on a particular surveillance case. In his inimitable, witty style, Cleaver assured the boss he was "flat out chopping the wood in his own back yard".

So after the surveillance was completed, Sir Charles Spry sent a handwritten letter of thanks to Cleaver - enclosed was a sharpening stone for his axe.

For the Cleaver children playing 'I spy' on car trips took on a new meaning. As relayed by Paula: "I remember Dad asked us to write down as many registration numbers as possible, of cars heading to a particular venue. It was many years later before I found out that those cars were attending a meeting of the Communist Party!"

A unique character, Cleaver had been dubbed with several monikers - but the nickname that caused him the most mirth was ''99''. As an inquisitive, aspiring journalist - and neighbour of the Cleavers - I told my parents that I was sure Ron worked for ASIO. My mother laughed it off and called Ron ''99'' after the character in the TV series Get Smart. Ron thought this was hilarious because Maxwell Smart was actually agent ''86'' whereas ''99'' was the female spy.

In a recent conversation, he told me for the first time about his role in ASIO and how proud he was that the organisation recently presented him with a medal honouring his work.

He also told me how concerned he was at the time that I had almost "blown his cover".

"I went along with the joke - being called '99' - but I told Betty at the time that I couldn't believe you figured it out."

Ron and Elizabeth (Betty) Cleaver, who survives him, married 70 years ago and raised their four children in Burwood. Their children Nola, Paula and Carl recalled his strong work ethic, his wit and his abiding love for them and their mother.

Born in Tasmania in 1914, just after the outbreak of World War 1, his life included navy service during World War II.

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ASIO feels the strain as raw recruits take key jobs

TOM HYLAND

March 7, 2010

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 of the organisation.

Key positions in combating terrorism and detecting foreign spies are being left vacant as ASIO trains new officers, recruited in slick advertising campaigns targeting generations X and Y.

ASIO's staff has doubled in the past six years, but two-thirds have less than five years' experience, according to its unreported submission to the Joint Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee last month.

While the submission says it has benefited from the skills brought by new staff, it reveals the proportion of seasoned agents is falling, with ASIO struggling to maintain the number of officers in key intelligence roles.

As the organisation expands, officers have been rapidly promoted beyond their level of skill, at a time when the federal government's new counter-terrorism white paper warns the threat of terrorism is ''a persistent and permanent feature of Australia's security environment''.

''The need to fill critical senior officer vacancies, particularly in the intelligence-focused areas, has drawn heavily on officers with limited or narrow experience in the organisation and who may not have well-developed leadership skills,'' the submission says.

ASIO's workload has increased exponentially since the September 11, 2001, terrorism attacks in the US, and the Bali bombings in 2002.

Its budget for this year is more than $400 million, four times more than in 2003.

Under legislation introduced in Parliament last month, combating people-smuggling will be added to its responsibilities.

The organisation's $606 million headquarters being built on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin - dubbed the Lubyanka on the Lake by Canberra wits - will house a new multi-agency counter-terrorism control centre.

The submission reveals an organisation straining under huge expansion.

It is struggling to attract enough linguists and recruits from ethnic backgrounds, with skills critical to preventing home-grown terrorism and catching foreign spies.

It also reveals that coping with a massive influx of new staff - numbers have doubled since 2003 to 1609, and will peak at 1860 next year - has distracted the agency from its key functions, as it juggles its human resource management.

It says the growth ''has occurred at a time when there has been little, if any, relief in the rapid operational tempo'' - jargon for the growing pressure of its intelligence work.

The organisation is overwhelmingly young: half the staff have been in the agency three years or less, their median age is 36, while only about 300 have more than 10 years' experience. Only about 18 per cent of ASIO staff are intelligence officers - the people who detect evidence of terrorism or espionage - and the proportion is ''growing slowly'', with the area ''difficult to grow and sustain''.

At the same time, it appears ASIO staff are happy in the service - only 4.5 per cent of staff left last year, a dramatic fall on the previous year.

The expansion has created other problems: checking the background of potential recruits means ASIO officers are diverted from their intelligence and security roles.

A $2 million advertising campaign last year attracted 12,550 applicants. Of those, 564 underwent ''Top Secret (Positive Vetting)'', a detailed examination of their background to ensure they can be trusted with secrets.

ASIO aims to vet applications within 16 weeks, but sometimes it can take more than six months, ''particularly for applicants who have complex backgrounds, or when there are matters that need to be resolved''.

''The long lead times associated with the recruitment and vetting process result in critical vacancies remaining unfilled for extended periods.''

Recruiting linguists remains a ''challenge''. While it has recruited ''a larger number'' of staff from ethnically diverse backgrounds, ''a range of cultural and other factors'' mean the ethnic diversity of ASIO's workforce is below Australian Public Service levels.

A younger workforce, in which women account for 45 per cent of the total, creates other issues. They are in an age group that has families, leading to an increase in the number taking parental leave and working part time.

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Australian passports in Hamas hit duplicated or altered

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Australian passports in Hamas hit duplicated or altered, Stephen Smith says

• UPDATE: Joe Kelly 
• From:The Australian 
• February 25, 2010 2:22PM

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A combo of identity photographs released by the Dubai police showing alleged Australian passport holders Nicole Sandra Mccabe (L), Adam Korman (R), and Bruce Joshua Daniel. Picture: AFP Source: AFP

AUSTRALIAN PASSPORT HOLDERS NOW SUSPECTS

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Australian passport holders now suspects

Three Australian passport holders are now suspects in the killing of a top Hamas militant.

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AUSTRALIA has warned Israel it would regard any involvement in the forging or abuse of Australian passports for the killing of a Hamas militant as "not the act of a friend".

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith told parliament this morning that three Australians suspected in the assassination of  Hamas militant Mahmud al-Mabuh in Dubai last month appear to have been the victims of passport fraud.

The assassination has been linked in the media by Dubai police to the Israeli security agency Mossad.

Mr Smith said ASIO and the Australian Federal Police were investigating the probable identity fraud involving  Australians Nicole Sandra Mccabe, Adam Marcus Korman and Joshua Daniel Bruce.

Mr Korman, who like the other two Australians lives in Israel, has denied any involvement, while Ms McCabe's mother says her daughter is heavily pregnant.

CAN TARGETED ASSASSINATIONS BE JUSTIFIED?

Can state-sponsored assassinations ever be justified?

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``Preliminary analysis by the Australian Federal Police together with the Australian Passport Office shows that the three Australian passports appear to have been duplicated or altered,'' Mr Smith said.

``At this stage Australian officials have no information, no information to suggest the three Australian passport holders were involved in any way other than as victims as passport or identity fraud''.

In his strongest comments on the matter, Mr Smith said Australia made “no conclusions” about the investigation into the killings but said it would appear a serious abuse of Australian passports had occurred.

Mr Smith called in Israeli ambassador Yuval Rotem this morning, urging Israel to "fully co-operate" with the Australian investigation.

“If the results of that investigation cause us to come to the conclusion that the abuse of Australian passports was in any way sponsored or condoned by Israeli officials, then Australia would not regard that as the act of a friend," Mr Smith said.

“Australia, of course, is a longstanding friend of Israel”.

Mr Smith said the passports were all issued in 2003, and since then there had been major improvements in passport security.

``The Australian government condemns in the strongest possible terms the misuse and the abuse of Australian passports,'' he said.

The three Australians involved have been offered consular assistance.

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ASIO targets new spy suspects

JASON KOUTSOUKIS

February 27, 2010

EXCLUSIVE

ASIO is investigating at least three dual Australian-Israeli citizens who they suspect of using Australian cover to spy for Israel.

The investigation began at least six months before last month's assassination of the Hamas operative Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, widely believed to have been carried out by the Israeli security agency Mossad.

Authorities in Dubai have revealed that three people suspected of taking part in the assassination were travelling on Australian passports, using the names of three dual Australian-Israeli citizens.

The three Australian names linked to the assassination are in no way connected to the three people being investigated by ASIO.

According to two Australian intelligence sources who have been in contact with the Herald, the three men under surveillance all emigrated to Israel within the last decade.

Each has travelled back to Australia at different times to legally change their names and obtain new Australian passports. One of the men has changed his surname three times, the other two have changed theirs twice.

The men have changed their names from surnames that could be read as European-Jewish to ones more typically identified as Anglo-Australian.

Australian citizens are generally allowed to change their name once every 12 months, as long as it is not for criminal reasons.

The new passports have been used to gain entry to a number of countries that are hostile to Israel including Iran, Syria and Lebanon. All three do not recognise Israel and forbid Israelis from entering. Israel also forbids its citizens from travelling to those countries for security reasons.

The Herald understands that the three Australians share an involvement with a European communications company that has a subsidiary in the Middle East. A person travelling under one of these names sought Australian consular assistance in Tehran in 2004.

The Herald has contacted two of the men, both of whom emphatically denied they were involved in any kind of espionage activity.

Both men confirmed they had changed their surnames, but said that the proposition they had done so in order to obtain new documents to travel throughout the Middle East were, in the words of one, "totally absurd''.

"This is a complete fantasy," said the man when contacted in Israel. "I have changed my name for personal reasons.''

The other man, who was not in Israel when contacted, expressed shock at the suggestion he was under any kind of surveillance and said that he had also changed his name for personal reasons.

"I have never been to any of those countries that you say I have been to,'' he said. ''I am not involved in any kind of spying. That is ridiculous."

The same man is also believed to hold British citizenship, and is believed to have come to the attention of British intelligence after he had changed his name.

In January the Herald visited the offices of the European company that connects the three men.

The company's office manager confirmed to the Herald that one of the men being monitored by ASIO - the same man believed to hold a British passport - was employed by the company but was "unavailable".

The company's chief executive later emphatically denied that this man was ever employed by his company, and totally rejected that his company was being used to gather intelligence on behalf of Israel.

ASIO said it had no comment to make on the case.

Meanwhile, the government confronted Israel for a second time yesterday over the Dubai plot, with the acting ambassador in Tel Aviv, Nicoli Maning-Campbell, conveying the government's concerns to officials in Israel.

The Israeli embassy in Canberra said it had relayed Australia's demands to Israel but would not comment.

with Jonathan Pearlman

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Human rights under threat

26 February 2010 | by The New Lawyer

INCREASED security measures outlined in the Government’s Counter Terrorism White Paper could potentially breach human rights according to lawyers involved in several high profile national security cases.

Maurice Blackburn lawyer Elizabeth O’Shea says that the White Paper falls short of the safeguards needed on questions of national security. Maurice Blackburn represented peace activist Scott Parkin and is assisting Dr Mohamed Haneef in his claim for compensation for wrongful detention.

“Some of the Government’s comments are alarmist and miss the mark,” said O’Shea, who specialises in public interest litigation.

“There is far too little discussion about why our law enforcement and security agencies need greater powers and this has the potential to undermine human rights and democratic principles. There is already concern that people can be detained without charge for 14 days.

“The measures could invite fear of outsiders, undermine the strength of our democracy and lead to government agencies operating like they are above the law.”

O’Shea said Australia’s legal system has long had a range of measures to deal with criminal acts or threats of terrorism, and the introduction of new more complex measures can make it less likely that laws will operate effectively and make it harder to investigate possible miscarriages of justice.

“The cases of Scott Parkin, Mohamed Haneef and others represented by Maurice Blackburn are a reminder that anti-terrorism laws can breach basic human rights,” she said.

In 2005, Parkin along with two asylum seekers, Mohammed Sagar and Mohammad Faisal were given adverse security assessments by ASIO and Parkin was removed from the country and given a bill of over $11,000 for the costs of his deportation.

Mohammed Sagar was accepted as a refugee in Sweden and Mohammad Faisal was eventually accepted as a refugee in Australia, passing subsequent security assessments without a problem.

“Five years later and at immense cost and inconvenience to the parties concerned, we still have no explanation from ASIO why these men were considered threats to national security. Dr Haneef is still awaiting compensation for his wrongful detention.

None of these men were charged with a crime, the firm said.

The Counter-Terrorism White Paper refers to the Clarke Inquiry into the case of Dr Haneef and the measures that have been implemented as a result but it is not clear what safeguards have been put in place to prevent another wrongful detention.

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