The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation is Australia's national security agency responsible for the protection of the country and its citizens from espionage,sabotage,acts of foreign interference,politically motivated violence,attacks on the Australian defence system,and terrorism. ASIO is part of the Australian Intelligence Community and is comparable to the American FBI and the British MI5.
Alexander John Gosse Downer is an Australian former politician and diplomat who was leader of the Liberal Party from 1994 to 1995,Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1996 to 2007,and High Commissioner to the United Kingdom from 2014 to 2018.
Robert Bruce McClelland is an Australian judge and former politician who has served on the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia since 2015,including as Deputy Chief Justice of that court since 2018. He was previously Attorney-General of Australia from 2007 to 2011,and a member of the House of Representatives from 1996 to 2013,representing the Labor Party.
George Henry Brandis is an Australian former politician. He was a Senator for Queensland from 2000 to 2018,representing the Liberal Party,and was a cabinet minister in the Abbott and Turnbull governments. He was later High Commissioner to the United Kingdom from 2018 to 2022.
Zygmunt Edward "Ziggy" Switkowski,,is a Polish Australian business executive and nuclear physicist. His most public role was as the chief executive officer of Australia's largest telecommunications company Telstra from 1999 to 2004. During his tenure,he oversaw the privatisation of the then government-owned corporation through a series of public tranche sales. Later positions were chairman of both NBN Co and Suncorp,a director of Healthscope,Oil Search and Tabcorp and the Chancellor of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.
Scott Parkin is an anti-war,environmental and global justice organizer,former community college history instructor,and a founding member of the Houston Global Awareness Collective. He has been a vocal critic of the American invasion of Iraq,and of corporations such as ExxonMobil and Halliburton. Since 2006,he has worked as an campaigner for the Rainforest Action Network,organizing campaigns against Bank of America,Citibank,TXU and the Keystone XL Pipeline. He also organizes with Rising Tide North America. He is also the co-host and co-producer of the Green and Red Podcast.
AWB Limited was a major grain marketing organisation based in Australia. Founded in 1939 by the Government of Australia as the Australian Wheat Board,in 1999 it became a private company,owned by wheat growers. It was acquired by Agrium in 2010.
The Cole Inquiry,formally the Inquiry into certain Australian companies in relation to the UN Oil-For-Food Programme,was a Royal Commission established by the Australian government pursuant to the Royal Commissions Act 1902 to investigate "whether decisions,actions,conduct or payments by Australian companies mentioned in the Volcker Inquiry into the United Nations Oil-for-Food Programme breached any Federal,State or Territory law."
Sir Geoffrey Sandford Reed,KC was a justice of the Supreme Court of South Australia and the first Director-General of Security and head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO).
Mohammed Sagar is an Iraqi,who was detained on Manus Island and Nauru between 2001 and 2006. Sagar became the last of approximately 1,300 refugees from the Middle East to be detained on Nauru under the Australian Government's "Pacific Solution" after an adverse security assessment was issued by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO). He resettled in Sweden in 2007 after the UN High Commissioner for Refugees' efforts to secure asylum in a third country finally met with success.
The Director-General of Security is the executive officer of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO),Australia's national security agency. The Director-General,through ASIO,has overall responsibility for the protection of the country and its citizens from espionage,sabotage,politically motivated violence,attacks on the Australian defence system,terrorism and acts of foreign interference.
Major General Duncan Edward Lewis is an Australian military officer,diplomat and intelligence chief. From 2014 to 2019,he was the Director-General of Security of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO). Prior to that appointment,he held the post of Australian Ambassador to the Kingdom of Belgium,the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg,the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. He is a retired Australian Army officer,and formerly Special Operations Commander Australia (2002–2004),National Security Adviser,and Secretary of the Department of Defence.
Muhammad Faisal is an Iraqi refugee who was detained on the island of Nauru between 2001 and 2006 under the Australian Government's "pacific solution". Faisal became the second last Iraqi refugee to leave Nauru after he was initially refused a protection visa on the basis of an adverse security assessment issued by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO).
The AWB oil-for-wheat scandal refers to the payment of kickbacks to the regime of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein in contravention of the United Nations Oil-for-Food Humanitarian Programme. AWB Limited is a major grain marketing organisation based in Australia. For much of the 20th and early 21st century,it was an Australian Government entity operating a single desk regime over Australian wheat,meaning it had the sold ability to export Australian wheat,which it paid a single,fixed price for. In the mid-2000s,it was found to have been,through middlemen,paying kickbacks to the regime of Saddam Hussein,in exchange for lucrative wheat contracts. This was in direct contradiction of United Nations Sanctions,and of Australian law.
Ben Zygier was an Australian-Israeli citizen who was a veteran of the Israel Defense Forces and allegedly an agent of Mossad. He was imprisoned in Ayalon Prison,Ramla,Israel and died in custody in 2010,reportedly by hanging himself in a maximum-security cell designed to be suicide-proof. Prisoner X,Mr. X and Mister X were placeholder names for him while he was being held in strict secrecy for unspecified crimes.
Brigadier Sir Charles Chambers Fowell Spry was an Australian soldier and public servant. From 1950 to 1970 he was the second Director-General of Security,the head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO).
Bernard Joseph Edward Collaery is an Australian barrister,lawyer and former politician. Collaery was a member of the Australian Capital Territory's first Legislative Assembly for the Residents Rally party,from 1989 to 1992. He served as Deputy Chief Minister and Attorney-General from 1989 to 1991 in the Kaine Alliance Government.
The Australia–East Timor spying scandal began in 2004 when the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) clandestinely planted covert listening devices in a room adjacent to the East Timor (Timor-Leste) Prime Minister's Office at Dili,to obtain information in order to ensure Australia held the upper hand in negotiations with East Timor over the rich oil and gas fields in the Timor Gap. Even though the East Timor government was unaware of the espionage operation undertaken by Australia,negotiations were hostile. The first Prime Minister of East Timor,Mari Alkatiri,bluntly accused the Howard government of plundering the oil and gas in the Timor Sea,stating:
"Timor-Leste loses $1 million a day due to Australia's unlawful exploitation of resources in the disputed area. Timor-Leste cannot be deprived of its rights or territory because of a crime."
Michael P. Burgess is an Australian intelligence official,and the current Director-General of Security in charge of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO). Prior to his appointment to this role on 16 September 2019,Burgess was director-general of the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD).
Michael John Cook was an Australian diplomat.
