Australian Security Intelligence Organization Director-General of Security Mike Burgess on Wednesday disclosed plots by foreign nations to lure away and kill critics in Australia. File Photo by Darren England/EPA-EFE
Feb. 19 (UPI) -- Australia's domestic intelligence chief said Wednesday that his officials had sabotaged plots by at least three hostile nations to "physically harm" dissidents and other critics on Australian soil.
Among the conspiracies was a plan to shut down a vocal human rights advocate by luring him overseas where he would be seriously injured or killed in a staged accident, Australian Security Intelligence Organization Director-General of Security Mike Burgess said in his annual threat assessment in Canberra.
"In a small number of cases, we held grave fears for the life of the person being targeted. In one operation, a foreign intelligence service wanted to silence an Australia-based human rights activist," he said.
ASIO rescued the activist from the trap by preventing him from travelling to the country where he was to be attacked, but Burgess said he was deeply worried for a small number of other Australians facing similar plots to harm them.
He detailed how, working with intelligence colleaques in other friendly countries, ASIO was able to disrupt what he called another "global plot" by a hostile foreign intelligence service in 2024 that involved trying to murder at least one person in Australia.
"We determined this plot was part of a broader effort by the regime to eliminate critics of the foreign government around the world -- activists, journalists, ordinary citizens," said Burgess.
The unnamed regime viewed the targets as enemies, Burgess said. "We would call them human rights advocates."
Burgess also said that a rise attacks against Jews had "not yet plateaued," warned Australia could be the target of sabotage operations carried out by Russia imminently, and that ASIO was on high alert ahead of parliamentary elections in May which he said would also likely face interference from one or more hostile countries.
He said that protests in support of Palestinians had escalated into harassment and threats against Jews and from there to targeting Jewish neighbourhoods, synagogues and Jewish leaders since the Israel-Gaza war erupted in October 2023 amid a failure to differentiate Australia's Jewish community from the State of Israel.
He also detailed how ASIO was able to alert U.S. authorites to 12-year-old "self professed neo-Nazi" making online threats to live-stream a shooting spree targeting a school, a church and either a synogogue or a mosque.
Burgess warned of an unprecedented threat level through 2030 from political tensions or conflicts around the world, playing out in Australia, fuelled by social media which he said was also implicated in youth radicalization amid record numbers underage boys caught up in terrorist plots.
The profile of the average suspect was a 15-year-old Australian-born male.
