When the authors of the 2017 independent intelligence review recommended that a ‘suitably qualified person’ review the legislative framework of Australia’s intelligence community, they probably had in mind someone like Justice Robert Marsden Hope, whose …
When intelligence folk smell roses, they look for the funeral. That bit of spy lore is about finding the opportunity in the threats (or vice versa). The lore hints at the mystique of the trade: …
Spies are prey to principle, pride, passion and payment. Betrayal is driven by everything from cause to cash. In a history of espionage, The anatomy of a spy, Michael Smith writes that spies spy for …
‘Spies cannot be usefully employed without a certain intuitive sagacity. They cannot be properly managed without benevolence and straightforwardness. Without subtle ingenuity of mind, one cannot make certain of the truth of their reports. Be …
Australia’s overseas spies shelter in the most silent spaces of the spook universe. The 68-year-old ethos of the spies of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service is never to speak publicly, just as they aim never …
