Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS)

Labor, Coalition block Greens motion outing Australia’s role in Salvador Allende coup

Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather used the 50th anniversary of the military coup in Chile to propose we scrutinise Australia’s role in helping the United States overthrow socialist president Salvador Allende. The major parties refused. Federico Fuentes reports.

 

Chilean Australians demand apology, transparency over covert operation to oust Salvador Allende

Led by Rodrigo Acuña and Adriana Navarro, Chilean-Australian community members are campaigning for the federal government to give an “unreserved apology” for Australia's covert support to the US-backed coup against Dr Salvador Allende in 1973.

 

Australian spies aided and abetted CIA in Chile

On the 48th anniversary of the military coup against Chilean president Salvador Allende, never-before-seen archive posts by the Australian Secret Intelligence Service show that the CIA requested and received support. Peter Kornbluh reports.

Campaigners for Pinochet’s victims win two legal battles in Australian courts

The decades-long campaign demanding truth and justice for victims of Chilean General Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship scored two important victories in Australia last month, reports Federico Fuentes.

Timorese present 10-metre-long petition to Australian embassy protesting prosecution of whistleblowers

Activists from the Movement Against the Occupation of the Timor Sea (MKOTT) delivered a 10-metre-long banner covered with the signatures of 1300 Timorese to the Australian embassy in Dili on September 16. The signatures were collected in protest at the Australian government's persecution of former spy Witness K and his lawyer Bernard Collaery, for allegedly blowing the whistle on the 2004 bugging of Timor-Leste Cabinet offices by the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS).

Anti-war campaign gets organised

The campaign to end Australia’s involvement in the unjust war in Afghanistan has picked up momentum in the last few months in Melbourne. In December, a number of peace activists decided to organise regular anti-war activities, to tell people the truth about the foreign occupation force and call for Australian troops to be withdrawn. Since then, three vigils have been held across Melbourne. Activists handed out hundreds of leaflets called “Eight reasons to get out of Afghanistan”.

Secret review proposes new spook powers

A secret review of Australia’s intelligence services has proposed giving them new powers to spy on Australians, carry weapons and conduct secretive paramilitary operations in other countries. Powers to carry weapons are proposed for employees of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), which has already received a vast expansion of legal powers since 2001, extra personnel and a new purpose-built Canberra headquarters.