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Palo Alto, California: Australia is on high alert for signs of neo-Nazis and Islamic extremists using the escalating conflict in the Israel-Hamas war for recruitment drives and potential violence, as the nation’s intelligence boss also warned that Russia and China were trying to steal nuclear technology secrets from the AUKUS submarine pact.
In a wide-ranging interview on the sidelines of the first public gathering of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation’s director-general of security, Mike Burgess, outlined heightened threats to the nation’s safety both from extremists activated by war in the Middle East and Chinese and Russian state actors seeking an edge in the battle for global supremacy.
ASIO director-general of security Mike Burgess.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Burgess’ warnings about security risks come as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese prepares to travel to Washington next week for a state visit after US President Joe Biden returns from a wartime mission to Israel.
While Burgess said he did not at this stage see evidence of extremists planning violence as a result of the war, the threat level in Australia meant it was “possible”.
“We know the neo-Nazis would be looking at this. They have it well planned as part of their awful ideology and they do not like Jewish people – and you know where that goes – so you see them firing up.
“On the other side, you would have people who are going: ‘well, Muslims are being oppressed; this is terrible, I’m feeling bad about that,’ and that might stir up their ideology to think violence is the answer. That’s what we have to look out for.”
Burgess’ comments were made at an intelligence chief’s summit between Australia, the US, the UK, Canada and New Zealand. The Five Eyes group united in Silicon Valley to publicly accuse China of the most sustained and sophisticated program of intellectual property theft in history.
But the meeting at the Hoover Institute in California on Tuesday (US time) came as Israel is under pressure to explain how its own seasoned spy networks were caught by surprise when thousands of Hamas fighters breached Gaza’s fortified borders by land, sea and air in a wide-ranging killing spree on October 7.
Burgess suggested that it may not have been an intelligence failure at all, but a failure to listen to the intelligence.
“I’m confident they’ll figure it out at the right time – but now is not the right time for them,” he said.
Asked if wars in the Middle East and Ukraine increased the likelihood of China invading Taiwan, Burgess replied: “Would China exploit an opportunity out of Russia-Ukraine and what’s happening in the Middle East? It may well.
“Our job is to continue to defend our nation from any nation that would try to exploit the situation anywhere – and we’ll just continue to do our job.”
In a frank admission, Burgess acknowledged that AUKUS’s top-level secrets had been targeted by countries such as Russia and China – a move that is likely to add to US Republican concerns about the project. However, he added that ASIO and the Australian Defence Force was equipped to ensure the best possible security protections as the plan advances.
“We’ve seen foreign intelligence services put AUKUS on their list of requirements. We know they’re looking at that in Australia,” the ASIO boss said.
“They’re looking to see: well, how did you get here? What are you thinking? What are you planning? … What opportunities do we have to learn secrets? Russia or China would be the two main countries. There’d be others.”
Under the AUKUS deal, Australia will buy at least three Virginia-class submarines from the US while building capacity to develop its own locally made nuclear-powered subs, sometime in the 2040s.
However, questions remain about the lengthy time frame, the extraordinary cost to taxpayers, and the maze of US export control laws that must be reformed for America to share nuclear technology secrets with Australia.
While the project has broad support, a bipartisan group of US senators this week appealed to the White House to release Pentagon cost estimates to show whether America’s industrial submarine base could handle the extra commitment of AUKUS.
“The volume of submarine tonnage the industrial base must produce to meet the Navy’s own requirements and fully implement the AUKUS agreement will require historic and sustained investments in the submarine workforce and supplier network,” wrote the senators, led by Mississippi Republican Robert Wicker.
“To achieve such capacity, Congress must have a comprehensive understanding of the current status of the submarine-industrial base as well as the future resource investments necessary to meet our nation’s requirements.”
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