A spying scandal has rocked the land below, after a top Australian spy made serious accusations against an unnamed former politician.
The head of security at the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO), Mike Burgess, said the politician had “sold” Australia to a foreign intelligence service, which he also did not name at the moment.
Burgess added that the Australian agency confronted the “spy ring” to let them know their cover had been blown.
The ASIO chief said in his annual address that he had declassified details of the operation. “Which used professional networking platforms, email and social media to target Australians.”
Reuters reported:
He did not name the country involved, but said it had also targeted the Australian defense industry, offering money in exchange for reporting on AUKUS' partnership with the US and Britain to build nuclear submarines.
He said the outside agency had “successfully recruited and recruited a former Australian politician” several years ago. He did not identify the politician and said that no charges had been brought against him because he was no longer active.
“This politician sold out his country, his party and his former colleagues to advance the interests of the foreign regime. He added that at some point, the former politician suggested bringing a member of the Prime Minister’s family into the orbit of spies.
In his speech, Burgess called the foreign spies “the A-Team.” They attracted Australians with national security information “By offering them advisory roles.”.
He added that academics and political figures who attended a conference abroad received “masked spies.”
“ASIO has disrupted this scheme and confronted the Australians involved. “While some were unwitting, others knew they were working for a foreign intelligence service,” he added.
Links between Australians and foreign spies and individuals were severed “I should be grateful that espionage and foreign interference laws are not retroactive.”.
“We have seen it try to recruit students, academics, politicians, business people, researchers, law enforcement officials and public servants at all levels of government,” he said.
He said in his speech that the Australian Foreign Interference Task Force has conducted 120 operations since its formation in 2020.
“We assess that this government is not actively planning sabotage, but is continually trying to gain undetected access that may allow it to carry out sabotage in the future,” he said, without specifying the country.
Now Burgess is under intense pressure to name the politician and country that many in the media speculate is China.
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