- The Strategist - https://www.aspistrategist.org.au -
The Australian Secret Intelligence Service: 007 blessing and curse
Posted By Graeme Dobell on November 15, 2020 @ 13:00
‘The subject of intelligence attracts attention out of proportion to its real importance. My theory is that this is because secrets are like sex. Most of us think that others get more than we do. Some of us cannot have enough of either. Both encourage fantasy. Both send the press into a feeding frenzy. All this distorts sensible discussion.’
A blessing because on holidays it’s a darn good read or darn good movie. Curse, because there’s so much wrong—there’s so much wrong with the way he performs his function. He’s licensed to kill. We don’t give people a licence to kill. He has, one would suggest, an ego, aspects of narcissism that wouldn’t fit comfortably with my people. So, he’s a blessing and a curse.
There are jewels there, and that’s what drives us—to find those jewels. The other aspect of that very complex array of cornucopias and cacophonies that you’ve talked about is that … there’s an opportunity for us to ‘swim’ in that noise—as the term that we use inside the organisation—and to be pretty invisible in that noise. There’s a lot happening, a lot of bandwidth, there is a lot of noise. How can we perform our function in the middle of that without it being clear that we are part of a foreign espionage service? How do we use that cacophony? How do we swim in all of that noise to quietly go about our business? We’re turning our mind to that, because we think that’s where the future of the Service lies.
We are you—we serve you, we serve the government, we serve the prosperity and security agenda that we all aspire to for our nation now and into the future. We’re a component. We proudly serve Australians. We think we do it well, we do it legally, we do it with propriety, we do it conscientiously.
And so really my message is, while there is a certain mystique around a secret intelligence service, we know our bearings, we have our bearings. We care deeply about what we do. We’re here for Australia. We’re for Australians. We serve with pride. That’s the message I want to send.
Article printed from The Strategist: https://www.aspistrategist.org.au
URL to article: https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/the-australian-secret-intelligence-service-007-blessing-and-curse/
[1] spy lore: https://www.mi5.gov.uk/news/the-olympics-and-beyond
[2] cites: https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/safeguards-australias-intelligence-ecosystem
[3] Rodric Braithwaite: https://www.chathamhouse.org/publications/the-world-today/2004-01/uses-and-abuses-intelligence-defending-british-spies
[4] racy without careening into the red zone of camp: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/02/fashion/mens-style-sean-connery-bond-suits.html
[5] ASPI interviews: https://www.aspi.org.au/report/asis-interviews
[6] Australian Secret Intelligence Service: https://www.asis.gov.au/
[7] ‘new age of espionage’ issue: https://www.australianforeignaffairs.com/essay/2020/07/spy-vs-spy
[8] writes: https://www.australianforeignaffairs.com/articles/extract/2020/07/mission-impossible
[9] writes: https://www.australianforeignaffairs.com/articles/extract/2020/07/data-driven
[10] Ben Packham: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/directorgeneral-paul-symon-reveals-work-of-australian-secret-intelligence-service/news-story/7f58a82d7ec7f0823d52247572b05d68
[11] Hamish McDonald: https://johnmenadue.com/media-in-the-asian-century-upheaval-all-around-but-no-australian-perspective/
[12] Peter Edwards: https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/australias-intelligence-agencies-send-mixed-signals-on-openness-and-transparency/