RR Phantom
Location : Wasted Space
Job/hobbies : Cayman Islands Actuary
 |  Subject: OZschwitz Keystone Spies behind trees is a national farce  Sat Jan 18, 2014 1:58 am | |
| The four-part series Persons of Interest on SBS has taken me back to the days when I was put under surveillance by ASIO agents. As has been noted by various academics, including David McKnight, ASIO's incompetence was legendary. This point was only emphasised after my partner and I spent a few days in the National Archives reading room going through the 25 folders that ASIO had kept on me. At times we had to contain ourselves from laughing.
Up to 90 per cent was either wrong or so mundane as to be meaningless. A lifelong labour movement activist and union official, including at the ACTU, I spent 25 years in the (quite legal) Communist Party, much of that time in the state and national leadership. Virtually everything I was involved with was on the public record. Even minutes of our meetings were on the public record.
Yet ASIO wasted tens of thousands of dollars snooping around. Often at the end of phone calls with colleagues, we would jokingly say: ''Have you guys tapping this call got your notes clear, or do you want us to clarify something'', to let them know we knew they were there.
Once, a colleague thought he noticed a microphone above the light bulb in the Communist Party offices. He followed the wires to discover, in an empty office on the floor, above two ASIO agents listening in. They got quite a shock when he knocked and went in.
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The files showed operatives clandestinely sitting in meetings, almost invariably wrongly interpreting much of what we were discussing, or they reported at great length on mundane information - caught such and such a flight to Sydney, travelled on a certain train, met with so and so, with no other clarifying information. Despite numerous redactions, we could sometimes identify people and times. It sends a chill down my spine when I try to work out just who among us was reporting to ASIO.
One operative reported using 150 feet of film while parked outside a meeting of the Eureka Youth League. Needless to say, it did not lead to any arrests or charges being laid.
In one document there is a request from head office to find out who Max Ogden was marrying, suggesting a name I had never heard of. Besides, I was not getting married. One phone call would have elicited that information, plus the correct names of our extended family.
From 1969 to 1972, ASIO prevented me from visiting Papua New Guinea. This despite the fact I was invited by a friend, Albert Maori Kiki, the chief minister prior to independence. The files show ASIO asked him why I was invited, and he said because ''Max is a friend''.
At one stage I was sent a travel permit for PNG, which I took seriously, although I was suspicious it was a mistake. I went to book a flight and showed my permit. The attendant excused himself, and upon his return told me I was barred. I loudly asked, so others in the booking office would hear, ''Have you just been on the phone to ASIO'', which clearly embarrassed him. Sure enough, my files showed the travel permit had been sent to me in error.
Occasionally the Melbourne press published small items on my demand for a permit. Following this one debacle, a journalist rang to ask what I would do next. I jokingly replied that I intended to head north and swim across, which was published. Unbelievably, in my files there was a directive from head office for operatives to keep an eye out for Ogden in the far north, as he may attempt to cross.
When I eventually did receive a permit to travel to PNG, my father and I were trailed everywhere by its Special Branch, under the direction of ASIO. It was like the Keystone Kops. A drunken operative got talking to me in a hotel; when his briefcase fell open to reveal a small microphone activated by the handle and a small camera, he apologised as he hurriedly closed the case, and expressed surprise that he had recorded our conversation.
On other occasions, operatives jumped out from behind trees to take photos. Once, when I gave chase, an operative dropped the camera, which we took to the local paper. Its journalists had a laugh, and then rang the Special Branch to come and collect their camera. Their operatives replaced barmen in hotels, and even hid behind newspapers as we talked in pubs.
My files show a request from head office seeking my whereabouts following the three-week visit to PNG, as they understood I had gone directly to Africa, a region I never went near. I could go on; two close friends found ASIO had listed the names of each guest who attended their weddings. What that had to do with national security is beyond me.
A note in my file suggests that operatives should be honest about their mistakes and learn from them, but that such surveillance was important. However, such activities, without proper checks and balances, did immeasurable harm to law-abiding citizens.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/comment/spies-behind-trees-is-a-national-farce-20140117-310cv.html#ixzz2qjNOVA1f
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