The spy and the SAS soldier with a loaded Glock

Updated

What started as a convivial dinner in covert premises in Kabul ended badly with an SAS trooper pulling his handgun on a female spy.

Even in a warzone like Afghanistan, spies and soldiers need to relax, to let their hair down.

And so it was that on December 7, 2013, a handful of officers from the Australian Secret Intelligence Service and nine Australian soldiers — deployed to guard the spies — decided to put a lamb on the barbie.

The beer and spirits were flowing freely.

Two Afghan interpreters were present and at one stage, some Canadians joined the party.

But what started as a convivial dinner in covert premises in Kabul ended badly with an SAS trooper pulling his handgun on a female ASIS officer.

The ABC first reported the incident in 2014 but little detail was made public.

Now, a secret report obtained by the ABC paints a much fuller picture about what happened that night including how the SAS trooper allegedly held his loaded Glock pistol under the chin of the female spy.

It also reveals that some Australian troops in Afghanistan regularly drank alcohol — some of it supplied by the Australian Embassy — in direct contravention of standing orders.

The 36-page report is marked Secret AUSTEO (Australian Eyes Only).

It says that on the night in question three members of "another government agency" and nine defence force personnel were at the BBQ.

Soldier put muzzle directly under spy's chin

The report says alcohol was consumed during the evening.

There was evidence both the man and the woman involved "were to some degree intoxicated".

Neither is named in the report. They are referred as A35 (the soldier) and Officer L.

It says that around 11:00pm A35 headed back to his room "carrying his pistol in his hand, because his holster was in his room".

"Officer L followed soon after him.

"As she entered the courtyard she alleges in a written statement that A35 pointed his pistol directly at her.

"She alleges he then lowered the pistol, while further conversation took place, before raising it again and placing the muzzle directly under her chin. She saw that his finger was not on the trigger, and did not believe he intended to fire.

"However, she was aware that a magazine was attached to the pistol, was conscious that they had both been drinking and was worried about the potential for an accident."

A35 was 'talking with hands'

The report says A35 denied placing the weapon under her chin but admitted he was "possibly waving (the pistol) around and 'talking with his hands'."

Officer L walked away and when at what she thought was a safe distance, turned and called A35 "a complete dickhead".

She immediately told a colleague who noticed that she was "visibly shaking and had a quavering voice".

The reasons for the incident were not made clear, although Officer L told investigators A35 was interested in a relationship, something he denied. A35 countered that Officer L was known as "a flirt".

The report found that while ASIS officers were allowed to consume alcohol under certain circumstances, ADF personnel were not, except on special occasions such as ANZAC Day.

All the Defence Force members present on the night — except A35 — initially denied they had been drinking.

However, they later changed their story and said the ADF chain of command was "well aware" that members of the detachment drank alcohol.

They added that senior members in their chain of command also drank.

They told investigators alcohol was needed as a "currency" to gather information from intelligence agencies and the armed forces of other countries, and it was unworkable to have defence force personnel and ASIS agents living and working together under different alcohol restrictions.

Incident followed order of large amount of alcohol

The report said that early in the inquiry, investigators had been informed one large alcohol order had been requested and supplied to ADF members through the Australian Embassy's duty free facility.

"The order included 12 cases of beer and 40 bottles of spirits."

Both the ASIS officer and the SAS member were sent back to Australia within days of the incident.

Other documents obtained by the ABC show that the Army hierarchy was concerned about turning the matter over to the Australian Defence Force Investigative Service because it could end up in a public hearing, and compromise operational security (OPSEC).

However the then Chief of the Defence Force, General David Hurley, cautioned against this approach.

"I think we are placing too much emphasis on the OPSEC aspect of this incident. There appears sufficient evidence for [Special Operations Command and Chief of Army] to act ref the consumption of alcohol and the 'blind eye' turned to it by the [chain of command]," General Hurley writes.

"The provision of false evidence is more serious and could be forwarded to ADFIS (Australian Defence Force Investigative Service) — the OPSEC issue need not be a barrier to this. We need to smarten our response to these matters."

Header photo: Margaret Burin

Topics: defence-industry, defence-forces, defence-and-national-security, afghanistan, australia

First posted