Historian John Blaxland says he would have refused to write the agency’s official story if it had denied its ‘embarrassing and demoralising’ failure

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

One of the writers charged with recording the official history of Australia’s spy agency, Asio, says he would have walked away from the project if the agency had refused to acknowledge that it was infiltrated by Soviet spies during the 1970s and 1980s.



John Blaxland, one of the authors of the third and final volume of the official history of Asio, The Secret Cold War, told reporters on Wednesday he was prepared to abandon the project if Asio refused to publicly acknowledge that part of its history.

The new volume, launched in Canberra, is the first public acknowledgement of Soviet penetration of Asio.

The new history asserts conclusively the organisation was infiltrated and says it is possible that many of Asio’s operational efforts during the 1970s and 1980s were compromised through revelations to the Soviets.

Asio chief defied Gough Whitlam's order to cut ties with the CIA in 1974 Read more

However, the book does not say how much damage was done with Blaxland, an Australian National University historian, saying the cost was “virtually impossible to measure”.

Blaxland said the new history contained redactions, which he termed “pixelations”, and he said negotiating those was “a challenging exercise with Asio staff”, and necessitated “robust” discussions.

Soviet infiltration has been a matter of allegation and reportage for many decades.

The idea that Asio had been penetrated first surfaced during the Petrov affair in the mid-1950s and persisted throughout subsequent decades.

In the 1970s Asio was concerned its operations against the Soviets weren’t very successful when compared with non-Soviet targets. “Poor tradecraft was offered as one explanation for this failure, but, more importantly, for the first time Asio was forced to consider the possibility that it and other elements of the government had been penetrated by a hostile intelligence service,” the new history says.

The history says Asio initially investigated the various allegations, which also included a lead from a “foreign service” that the mole and his wife worked in Asio. A covert team within Asio was tasked with conducting a top secret investigation.

Asio later decided to hand the investigation over to the federal police, who launched Operation Liver. The investigations started with a “significant number of suspects” the history says, but eventually centred on George Sadil, a Russian translator who had worked for Asio since 1968.

Sadil was arrested in 1993, and police found classified documents at his home. Police didn’t find direct evidence of espionage, and he was charged with removing classified documents without authority.

Further leads led to the Cook report, undertaken by the former director of the office of national assessments, Michael Cook, in 1994 – which remains top secret.

In 2004, an ABC Four Corners program broadcast an investigation about the penetration of Asio which interviewed a range of intelligence officials, and alleged a mole had been passing secrets to the KGB.

The history says the source for the claim came from “within the KGB itself.”

It references an autobiography by a senior KGB officer, Oleg Kalugin, which claimed the KGB had “excellent sources in Australia” including what he termed “productive moles in Australian intelligence who passed us documents from the CIA and British intelligence.”

The authors say in the history: “The combination of evidence suggests there could have been other moles within Asio.”

“Some former officers interviewed for this history even went so far as to name the officers. They, like everybody else, could offer no corroborating evidence for their accusations, but in some cases there is circumstantial evidence.”

Blaxland told reporters after the launch on Wednesday the Soviet penetration needed to become a matter of record. “We agreed it was appropriate to be included, even though it was painful to Asio to do that,” the historian said.

“This was the most contentious part of the story ... it is arguably the most embarrassing to Asio. But to the credit of Asio, and particularly the director-general, they decided that what had asked for would happen.

Catholic extremism fears in 1970s Australia made Croats the Muslims of their time | Paul Daley Read more

“This is a demoralising story. It is a story of failure. To recognise that and admit it and grapple with it is deeply disturbing and also deeply cathartic for the organisation.

“Yes it’s traumatic, yes it’s difficult, but it’s also positive. Effectively there is a silver lining to this very dark cloud. It was addressed. It was very systematically addressed.”

The current Asio director-general, Duncan Lewis, told guests gathered at Asio headquarters for the launch of the third volume that the day was about history.

Lewis said history was a great teacher, “and here, at Asio, we continue to learn from our history”.

The attorney-general, George Brandis, said the acknowledgement of the past was a strength of the organisation, given it indicated the organisation was able to subject itself to criticism.

The third volume covers 1975 to 1989, and takes in events like the bombing of the Hilton Hotel in Sydney in 1978 and the Combe-Ivanov affair, which culminated in the expulsion of Soviet diplomat Valery Ivanov.

The volume is co-authored by Rhys Crawley, an historian at the Australian War Memorial.