It’s not often that the Australian government’s most secretive agency steps out of the shadows. But that’s what happened on Tuesday night when Kerri Hartland, director-general of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS), gave a …
Articles by: "Chris Taylor"
Hezbollah’s pagers and radios surreptitiously changed into anti-personnel explosive devices and detonated across Lebanon and Syria. Russia-linked fires plague European and American factories supporting Ukraine’s defence. Ukrainian nationals implicated in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline …
When Peter Wright remarked: ‘That will fix the bastards’, while leaving the NSW Supreme Court witness box on 8 December 1986, he was firing a salvo in the ‘Spycatcher affair’, a political and legal controversy …
We are coming up to the first anniversary of Prime Minister Albanese announcing an Independent Intelligence Review and we are yet to know the results of that review. On 22 September 2023, he said that: …
Twenty years ago today, on a Thursday morning, an innocuous white delivery van stuttered towards the gate of the Australian embassy in Jakarta. Seconds later, an explosion shattered windows for blocks around and left 10 …
The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) has confirmed publicly that Iran isn’t the only foreign power interfering with a diaspora community in Australia. Responding to a question on whether India was similarly engaged (following a …
Unclassified, official histories of secret intelligence organisations for public readership seem a contradiction in terms. The official works are commissioned by the agencies in question and directly informed by the agencies’ records, thus distinguishing them …
It will be a welcome step if the current Independent Intelligence Review (IIR) recommends further empowering the Office of National Intelligence (ONI) to lead capability development and, by extension, to achieve a more collective approach …
Even mindboggling actions typically have a logic that’s discoverable, whether Hitler declaring war on America after Pearl Harbor or Putin invading Ukraine. That’s why ‘strategic warning’—informed by ‘strategic warning intelligence’—is so important. Indeed, intelligence’s intuitive …
Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) Director General Mike Burgess’ Annual Threat Assessment highlighted the principal threats to Australia’s security—in ASIO’s 75th anniversary year. One of the positives from these public announcements, and this was Burgess’ …
Ana Montes was US Intelligence’s ‘Queen of Cuba’. The Defence Intelligence Agency’s leading Central America analyst; go-to voice on Cuban intentions and capabilities; eldest daughter of a family dedicated to US Government service. She was …
Scorpions are fascinating. Found on every continent except Antarctica, their fossil records span 420 million years. Indeed, they might be the oldest land animals still in existence. With astonishing resilience, they withstand heat and cold …