A few thoughts from last year on ASIO, Islamism, cutting security funding and national security

The sloppy ABC apparently doesn't give a rat's

Paul Bracegirdle is a truckie who wants the best for his disabled daughter

A few thoughts from last year on ASIO, Islamism, cutting security funding and national security

Tuesday, 24 June 2014

We first published these reports in April and September last year - here and here.

ASIO is back in town naming our biggest threats - violent Islamists - also highlights dangers in making Syria an issue here

Senator the Honourable George Brandis QC has tabled the publicly available version of ASIO's annual report - ASIO Report to Parliament.

Senator Brandis's public statement is here.

Good to see the previously shameful and divisive Australian flag making a come-back. It looks almost Cronulla-beach-apparel style rather than at the top of the flag pole and out of harm's way.

The fact ASIO feels able to display an unmolested Australian flag without also showing a burnt and wee-soaked one for multi-cultural balance has to be a good thing. But there's cause for even more joy as a result of ASIO's direct language. ASIO spells it out here:

This year ASIO:

investigated several hundred mostly Australia-based individuals who are advocates of a violent Islamist ideology;
managed the security threat posed by individuals working with al-Qa‘ida affiliated groups;
worked closely with partner agencies to identify and mitigate the threat to the security of government information from the 'trusted insider';
degraded the harmful activities of foreign intelligence officers working in Australia against Australian interests;
provided Australian Government agencies with intelligence on people smugglers to support surveillance, interdiction and disruption activities;
developed a new cyber defence and cyber protection capability;
was nominated for a Comcare award based on improvements in return-to-work outcomes and a significant reduction in time off work; and
implemented the ASIO strategic plan 2013–16 to capitalise on the achievements under the previous plan and to best place ASIO to respond to emerging threats to security.

Throughout 2012–13, Australia’s security environment continued to evolve, with the terrorism threat posed by traditional extremist networks and groups being compounded by the threat from self-radicalising lone actors.

The Syrian conflict has resonated strongly in Australia and is likely to have a lasting impact on Australia’s security environment for the foreseeable future.

The scale and sophistication of cyber espionage conducted against Australian Government and private sector systems has increased significantly over the reporting period, requiring a resolute response from ASIO and national security partners.

The Attorney-General has welcomed the report in a media release, saying "the report demonstrates clearly why Australia continues to need an organisation dedicated to countering individuals and groups who threaten our security".

ENDS

ASIO says

The Syrian conflict has resonated strongly in Australia and is likely to have a lasting impact on Australia’s security environment for the foreseeable future.

I think the message is pretty clear. A Syrian conflict that resonates strongly in Australia is bad. Anything to reduce the Syria-resonation here is good. Anything to increase it is not.

Pre-wired empty-headed automatons who were born in the Middle-East might have some claim to caring about who wins. For the rest of us, do as ASIO suggests and stop thinking about it.

The ABC in particular has form for resonating Syria here. It held a 3-hour Syria-thon on its local radio networks a couple of weeks ago. Heaps of Muslims heard the call to resonate and did - funny thing with Jihad, everyone who does it thinks their Jihad is the correct one and should be applied to kill competitor Jihadis vying for Allah's approval. The ABC dutifully resonated solely about Syria for 3 hours with equal time, no doubt, for every murderous participant group.

(On the day of judgement, the Lord will reveal why Australia's public broadcaster brought the Syria conflict to Australian audiences live for 3 on that Sunday arvo. Until then assume it's because the ABC thinks it will irritate conservatives more than Ramona Koval used to.)

Bob Carr has been a bit of a Syria-Resonator-in-Chief, whacking in a media appearance to kick the resonation along whenever possible. Thankfully he's gone and I think Julie Bishop's pretty right for getting involved in Syria conflict stuff just now. So here's the request to Middle-Eastern opinion-holders and sundry Syria-resonators. Please listen to ASIO and give the Syria crap a break. And if you can't leave it alone, just succumb to the joyous temptation and go get immersed in the full-on Jihadi experience.

We'll be glad you did.

AND THIS

The Islamist appetite for hate and terror is unabated. Yet the Gillard Government is cutting our intelligence capability.

Simon Bensen of News Limited makes some very important points in his blog.

AUSTRALIA’S spy chief David Irvine made a rare public statement a year ago,
warning the threat of a terrorist attack on our soil was both real and
persistent.

He also subtly warned about the future funding of the country’s intelligence
agencies.

It apparently fell on deaf ears, but the fact the head of ASIO was making it
should have been enough to get people listening.

What did the federal government do? Cut the intelligence budget, of course.

The Boston bombs should not only be a warning to everyone, as suggested by
Foreign Minister Bob Carr.

They should be wake-up calls to governments who think they can use the public
perception of reduced threat levels to cut budgets from the intelligence
agencies.

The truth, as demonstrated in Boston, is the array of threats has never been
greater.

Simon's blog goes on to quote US security officials, clearly disturbed by Obama's cuts to US intelligence gathering capability. Simon said our own parliamentary joint committee had earlier this year issued a:

warning to the Gillard government. The annual report from the joint parliamentary committee on intelligence went largely unnoticed, probably because much of what would have been interesting was classified.
But its worry was clear. It cited “concerns raised in relation to the
efficiency dividend’s impact on agencies”.

The efficiency dividend they were talking about was imposed last budget by
the government on the six intelligence agencies - ASIO, ASIS, DSD, DIGO, ONA and
DIO. It cut $80 million from them over the next four years.

No doubt the government is looking at the intelligence agencies again in this
year’s budget to see how they can contribute to the political goal of getting
the government back into surplus by 2017.

Despite a report in 2005 calling for a ramping up of ASIO officers, a staff
freeze was forced on the agency, meaning it will no longer be able to reach its
staffing targets of 1850.

This was deemed critical to the operation of ASIO and it is an issue that has
been recently brought to its attention.

One of the key issues that the Gillard government is failing to address in
its budget cuts to the intelligence agencies, particularly ASIO, is the
increased workload being forced on it by the government’s own failed border
protection policies.

Simon's blog is worth reading in full.

So is the Australian Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security's report for FY 2011/12 released a few weeks ago.

Download Joint parliamentary committee on security

Download Prelim pages security and intelligence

The Parliamentary Committee takes serious evidence from all 6 of our intelligence agencies and some other commonwealth departments.

This past year the Committee also had to deal with submissions from 5 external groups who are apparently upset that some illegal boat people get knocked back on security grounds.   Here are the groups that made submissions:

And here, to add insult to injury, is the Gillard Government's disdain for its security services.   The so-called "Efficiency Dividend" means do more with less. Keep in mind ASIO's headcount was boosted (theoretically, it's never actually got the extra bodies) in 2005 to deal with known terror threats. That was before Kevin Rudd opening the illegal boat people flood gates for ASIO to deal with.   Here's the paragraph from the report in the dry, unelaborated language of the mandarin.

And here are some of the terror groups that have been brought to the Committee's attention.   As in other years 2011/12 came to a close without an appearance by a Buddhist, Presbyterian, Mormon or Aboriginal terror group coming to the Committee's notice.

There are other Muslim terror groups named in the report but I think you have the point.   And the point is simple.   We live in dangerous times with people among us who wish us harm.   Now is not the time to cut resources from our intelligence agencies.    We're talking about $80 million.   Cut it from the Climate Change travel budget.   Just don't make us an easier target for terror.

Posted at 04:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (17)

Comments