Australian Secret Intelligence Service

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Group.png Australian Secret Intelligence Service  
(Intelligence service) Powerbase WebsiteRdf-entity.pngRdf-icon.png
Logo Australian Secret Intelligence Service.png
AbbreviationASIS
Formation13 May 1952
FounderLord Casey.jpg Richard Casey
HeadquartersCanberra viewed from Mount Ainslie.jpg Canberra, Canberra viewed from Mount Ainslie.jpg ACT
InterestsGough Whitlam.jpg Gough Whitlam
The Australian foreign intelligence agency, but has tentacles all over society, especially in the media.

Not to be confused with ASIO, the internal security agency.

The Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) is the foreign intelligence agency of the Australian Government. ASIS was formed in 1952, but its existence remained secret for the Labor party opposition until 1972. ASIS is responsible for the collection of foreign intelligence, including both counter-intelligence and liaising with the intelligence agencies of other countries. In these roles, ASIS is comparable to the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and its dominating "partner", the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

ASIS in Chile 1973

An ASIS intelligence station was established in Chile out of the Australian embassy in July 1971 at the request of the CIA and authorised by then Liberal Party Foreign Minister William McMahon. New Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam was informed of the operation in February 1973 and signed a document ordering the closure of the operation several weeks later. However, ASIS ignored the order, and did not withdraw its agents until October 1973, one month after the CIA-backed 1973 Chilean coup d'état had brought down the Allende Government. There were also two officers of ASIO based in Santiago, working as migration officers during this period.[1][2]

It is one of the incidents that has been associated with a confrontation between Prime Minister Gough Whitlam and Bill Robertson, the Director-General of ASIS, resulting in Robertson's sacking on 21 October 1975, with effect on 7 November, just 4 days before Whitlam's own dismissal in the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis. Whitlam accused Robertson of disobeying instructions by delaying the closure of the ASIS station in Chile[3]

ASIS and SIEV X

Full article: SIEV X

ASIS had a "disruption program" to sabotage the seaworthiness of boats smuggling people to Australia, infiltrating and controlling people smuggling networks. In October 2001 such a boat, SIEV X, sank just outside Indonesian waters, killing 400.

People detained or convicted as ASIS spies

A number of people have been arrested or convicted as spies for ASIS. In all cases the agency and Australian media and politicians have strongly denied any espionage.

China

In 2020, the Chinese Global Times, citing "a source with a Chinese law-enforcement agency" wrote that "Australia is waging an intensifying espionage offensive against China - sending agents to China to spy, gather intelligence and recruit assets, instigating defection among Chinese nationals, spying on Chinese students and organizations in Australia, feeding fake news to media to hype up the 'China espionage theory' and even in early years attempting to install wiretaps in the Chinese Embassy in Canberra. Multiple Australian espionage cases uncovered by Chinese law-enforcement agencies showed that Australia is a veteran in spying against other countries and precisely 'the thief who is crying stop the thief' as it steps up infiltration, spying and technological theft operations against China."[4]

In 2018, a Chinese law-enforcement agency uncovered a spying operation launched by Australia and arrested agents who work for Australian security intelligence agencies, and seized materials, including espionage equipment, US dollars and Chinese yuan used for espionage funds, and the intelligence information they were going to exchange. Global Times also wrote that that Australian security intelligence agencies are not just spying on China within Chinese territory, but also conduct acts against overseas Chinese in Australia and other countries.

  • In January 2019, Australian writer and businessman Yang Hengjun was detained in China on suspicion of espionage. In August 2019, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison stated that, "These suggestions that he's acted as a spy for Australia are absolutely untrue." He was subsequently found guilty and handed a sentence of death with reprieve in February 2024.[5]
  • In 2020 Australian journalist Cheng Lei, who for at time worked for the state-run China Global Television News (CGTN), was arrested for "illegally supplying state secrets overseas."[6] Peter Greste from Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom (AJF) stated that "Cheng’s arrest only adds to the impression that Beijing does not care about the freedom of the press". Greste had previously stated that "Julian Assange is not a journalist, and WikiLeaks is not a news organisation."[7] In 2023, she was allowed to leave the country after being detained for more than three years on charges of espionage.[8]

Iran

In 2018, Kylie Moore-Gilbert was detained by Iran when she was at the airport preparing to leave the country. From September 2018 to November 2020, she was imprisoned on charges of espionage. She denied the charges. The Australian government rejected the charges as "baseless and politically motivated".[9] Moore-Gilbert was released by Iran in a prisoner swap on 25 November 2020, in exchange for three alleged Iranian spooks imprisoned in Thailand.[10]

In 2019, online travel bloggers Jolie King, a British Australian, and [Mark Firkin] were arrested by Iran in July 2019. They were arrested for flying a drone near military installations. It was stated by the couple that they wanted to use the drone to capture footage up high for their travelling blogs.[11] In their trial, the charges for espionage - which was worth 10 years of sentence to a maximum penalty of death - were dropped, but the couple was still being charged with taking pictures of an atomic site, with a sentencing of 6 months to 3 years in jail. The couple and Kylie Moore-Gilbert, also imprisoned on charges of espionage, were swapped in 2020 for three alleged Iranian spooks imprisoned in Thailand.[12]

Directors-General

 

An event carried out

EventLocationDescription
Chile/1973 coupChileA CIA military intelligence operation that overthrew of the democratically elected Salvador Allende.

 

Related Quotation

PageQuoteAuthorDate
H. V. Evatt“We must be aware of setting up a security organization which has political views, and which regards the left-wing man who goes too far to the left, as being a criminal. We must prevent any attempt to set up an espionage system for spying on our own people. The security service was never intended to be a secret police organization. Now it wants to run the police of Canberra and everything else, and it is only kept from doing so by public opinion.”H. V. Evatt19 October 1955
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References

  1. ↑ http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2013/09/11/questions-over-australian-involvement-chile-coup
  2. ↑ https://www.academia.edu/23060812/ASIS_and_ASIO_in_Chile_Transparency_and_Double_Standards_Four_Decades_after_the_Coup_in_40_Years_Are_Nothing_History_and_Memory_of_the_1973_Coups_Dètat_in_Uruguay_and_Chile._2014-15%7C
  3. ↑ http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/inquirer/spymaster-stirs-spectre-of-covert-foreign-activities/story-e6frg6z6-1225842681065}
  4. ↑ https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1192847.shtml
  5. ↑ https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/china-court-gives-australian-writer-yang-hengjun-suspended-death-sentence-4099386
  6. ↑ https://www.rt.com/news/514891-china-arrests-australian-journalist-state-secrets/
  7. ↑ https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/04/20/gres-a20.html
  8. ↑ https://www.npr.org/2023/10/11/1205145233/china-cheng-lei-freed
  9. ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/29/kylie-moore-gilbert-terrified-and-suffering-inside-notorious-desert-prison-in-iran
  10. ↑ https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-26/kylie-moore-gilbert-iran-prisoner-swap-what-we-know/12922198
  11. ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/sep/12/australian-couple-arrested-iran-named-jolie-king-mark-firkin
  12. ↑ https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/australian-academic-traded-for-thai-bomb-plots-prisoners-20201126-p56i52.html
  13. ↑ QUESTIONS IN WRITING Australian Secret Intelligence Service , Parliament of Australia, 28 May 2007.
  14. ↑ Message from the Director-General, Secret Intelligence Service, accessed 28 December 2011.
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