21 August 2013

World's biggest dork spy threatens to sue

| johnboy
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NineMSN has the depressing news of another loser in ASIO embarassing the nation:

The Canberra-based man, who cannot be identified, was four years into his career at the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation in 2011 when he met a foreign diplomat who would later become his wife, the Canberra Times reports.

When he became aware the woman was lodged in Canberra with her foreign nation’s military attaché, he followed ASIO’s rules and made a “contact report” to his superiors.

But his bosses were unhappy that the woman had already learned the man’s identity as an ASIO operative.

They accused him of breaching security protocols by revealing his secret job too early in the romance and, by late 2011, his top-secret status was withdrawn and he was sacked.

He’s threatening to take the case to the Federal Court despite having been knocked back by the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, Fair Work Australia, and ACAT.

It’s pretty bloody simple. If you’re working in intelligence you don’t get to go out with the military attaché of a foreign power. Unless you’ve been assigned to do just that.

A couple of weeks ago the BBC’s Adam Curtis published an excellent piece on all that goes wrong in Intelligence services that’s worth a read.

As for ASIO’s inglorious past the I, Spry documentary is worth remembering. Although in Australia it’s worth noting our spies seem to have had a better record of success.

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scorpio63 said :

“Love” “real Love” and “genuine Love” come before, or should come before, any career, wealth, money, assets, and “ego”.

Love and wishes to the bloke and his Beloved “Wife”.

Wow! What laa-dee-daa land do you come from?

“Love” “real Love” and “genuine Love” come before, or should come before, any career, wealth, money, assets, and “ego”.

Love and wishes to the bloke and his Beloved “Wife”.

LSWCHP said :

Dudes working for ASIO and other such outfits just do not get involved with foreign diplomats. End of story. If he didn’t lodge a contact report until well into the relationship then he deserves all he gets.

Stupidity is its own reward.

Indeed. Can’t feel sorry for this idiot at all.

Dudes working for ASIO and other such outfits just do not get involved with foreign diplomats. End of story. If he didn’t lodge a contact report until well into the relationship then he deserves all he gets.

Stupidity is its own reward.

The Canberra Times article does make it appear that he got a raw deal, but that’s what journalist do for a living. There’s probably a lot more to this story then we will ever know.

I’m not up on ASIO’s ‘extreme’ (classic journalistic embellishment?) official secrecy provisions but I would have thought he’d be required to lodge a contact report when he first started dating a ‘woman from overeas’? I also find it a little strange that he only discovered who she lived with AFTER they got married.

Maybe he gave himself away by not switching his shoephone to silent while out on a date one evening.

Or maybe it was the recording device he’d inserted into his urethra that gave it all away during the after dinner ‘entertainment’?

Mark of Sydney12:25 pm 21 Aug 13

johnboy said :

I can only go off the news reporting.

I read the original story in the Canberra Times quite differently to ninemsm — that the foreign diplomat isn’t this man’s fiance but the military attache with whom the fiance was lodging. The military attache then found out, presumably from the fiance, that the Australian man was an ASIO agent.

But it’s not clear, which I put down to the irritating journalist practice of using a different word to describe the same concept in successive references even where this results in confusion — the ‘military attache’ in the 2nd para below becomes the ‘foreign diplomat’ in the 3rd para.

From the relevant parts of the CT story:

‘The former agent, who cannot be identified because of ASIO’s extreme official secrecy provisions, was four years into his career at the agency in 2011 when he met and fell in love with a woman from overseas.

When he became aware the woman, who is now his wife, was lodging in Canberra with her nation’s military attache, he made a ”contact report” to his superiors, according to ASIO rules.

But when it became clear the foreign diplomat had discovered the agent’s identity as an operative, ASIO bosses began the process for revoking their man’s ”top secret positive vetting”, accusing him of breaching the “protective security framework policy” by revealing his secret job too early in the romance.

Read more: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/asio-sacked-worker-after-romance-20130820-2s9nw.html#ixzz2cZ7hyFe8

But his bosses were unhappy that the woman had already learned the man’s identity as an ASIO operative.

His opening ‘chat up line’ was probably, yeah I work at ASIO and i’m a spy.

What a tool!

If it is as JB describes it, I can’t see him winning this one.

I can only go off the news reporting.

justin heywood11:55 am 21 Aug 13

“He’s threatening to take the case to the Federal Court despite having been knocked back by the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, Fair Work Australia, and ACAT.”

If they have all knocked you back, Mr. Eengleesh, take the hint.

A wonderfully researched book of poems by Lesley Lebkowicz called The Petrov Poems has just been published, dealing with the defections of the KGB officers stationed here in the 1950s.

ASIO features prominently.

Wow johnboy, you’re in a good mood this morning.

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