Australia’s top intelligence official has revealed that the country has eliminated a number of “highly trained” spies who have operated in the country for years.
“They were good, but ASIO was better. We watched them. We mapped their activities. We mounted an intense and sustained campaign of operational activities,” said Mike Burgess, head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) on Thursday. . “Working with our partners, we have removed them. The hive is history.”
“ASIO is…busier than ever in our 74-year history. Busier than the Cold War, busier than 9/11, busier than the height of the caliphate,” Burgess added. “From where I sit, it looks like hand-to-hand combat.”
Burgess did not identify the country behind the operation but revealed many details, such as how the spies aimed to manipulate and influence media coverage in a “concerted campaign”, the BBC reported.
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The operation included “repeated attempts to hack dozens of Australian media outlets” to expose sources critical of the foreign government.
The Australian Security Intelligence Organization’s director general of security, Mike Burgess, presents his fourth annual threat assessment. (ASIO Twitter/@ASIOGovAu)
One of the agents gave journalists fully paid tours to a foreign country where other agents could obtain information for leverage, while others studied and tried to seduce journalists, judges and other officials.
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Burgess highlighted a more troubling element of the operation that focused on targeting home nation dissidents, which included plans to physically damage the targets.
“In one case, the intelligence service began tracking a human rights activist and plotted to lure the target offshore, where the individual could be – quote – ‘eliminated,'” he said. “In another, a footman was sent to locate specific dissidents and – I quote – ‘deal with them.'”
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Burgess stressed that ASIO would need to take more aggressive steps in the future to create a stronger “counterintelligence position”, The Guardian reported.
Melbourne’s central business district can be seen from the area located along the Yarra River called the Southbank located in Melbourne, Australia. (REUTERS/David Grey)
“Over the past year, we have identified multiple spies from multiple countries developing and seeking to exploit relationships with government officials, bank employees, doctors, police employees and other professions to obtain the personal details of alleged dissidents,” he said Burgess.
“Insiders have been offered tens of thousands of dollars to… ‘do whatever it takes’ to obtain personal data,” he explained. “Spies and their proxies can then use this information to identify, locate, track, film, harass and intimidate their targets.”
Australia recently took steps to remove Chinese-made security cameras from government buildings, citing security concerns following the discovery of surveillance balloons in the US and other countries in recent weeks.
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“Where those particular cameras are, they will be removed,” Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. “There is a problem here and we will address it.”
