Australia's domestic intelligence agency ASIO has shown the door to foreign spies numbering in 'double figures' over the past year. Australian Security Intelligence Organisation director-general Mike Burgess on Wednesday delivered his second annual threat assessment in Canberra. Last year ASIO investigated a 'nest' of foreign spies - from a country not in Australia's immediate region - targeting relationships with current and former politicians, a foreign embassy and a state police service, he said. 'In the last 12 months, a significant number of foreign spies and their proxies have either been removed from Australia or rendered inoperative,. The ASIO (Australian Security Intelligence Organisation) headquarters building is seen in CanberraAsked whether politicians or political advisers with secrets about their behaviour to hide could be targeted, he said: 'That is a technique used by foreign intelligence services.

Source: Daily Mail March 17, 2021 19:25 UTC