Up To Our Necks

It was The Australian's foreign editor Greg (Jerusalem Prize) Sheridan who first alerted us to the fact that Australian and Israeli intelligence were, ahem, more than just good friends: "Canberra has a very close, active and intimate relationship with Israel. Many of our top people go there for consultations and even for special short course training." (Theft burned a strong supporter, 26/2/10)

Now, on Radio National's excellent Rear Vision program, Israeli intelligence expert and Haaretz journalist Yossi Melman lifts the lid on their obscene congress:

Yossi Melman: ... A third role [of Mossad] was to maintain secret, clandestine but very vital and useful contacts with its counterparts, whether it's... ASIO or... the CIA or... M16... And they have developed over the years very, very intimate relations, sharing information and... assessments and even, nowadays, going into the field, enjoying the operations in the war against global terrorism... [Such 'friendly organisations'] meet once in a while... they send envoys to each other's countries. There is an Australian ASIO delegate here, or envoy or resident if you wish, working [both] for the Israeli Embassy and for the Australian Embassy in Tel Aviv, and there is a Mossad agent or representative working from the Israeli Embassy... in Australia. And so on and so forth around the globe. So on the one hand there is very good, intimate, strong co-operation between the security services, and they are doing each other favours ocassionally, not only sharing information but also Scratch my back [&] and I'll scratch yours, Do me a favour [&] and I'll do you a favour, and these favours can vary from Can you lend me your agent? or I'm running an agent in country A, can I join you in running that agent? Sometimes it's to provide documentation: We need you to provide us with a cover because we are working a clandestine [operation] in country B and we can't operate in this country, while your... passports [&] travel documents are more welcome [there]. And then we come to that rough [sic: grey] area in which you co-operate... but... don't tell the other organisation all your secrets... And because of that ocassionally the Mossad, which is using other identities [&] nationalities, finds itself in troubling [sic: hot] water, as was the case in Dubai." (The Mossad, 24/3/10)