Australian army officer stripped of security clearance over Israel loyalty leaves defence force

The Guardian

a day ago

An officer in the Australian army, stripped of his security clearance because Asio believed he was more loyal to Israel, has left the Australian defence force.
In February, Guardian Australia revealed the man had his clearance revoked after the administrative review tribunal (ART) upheld Asio's assessment that he was not of 'appropriate character and trustworthiness to hold any security clearance'.
At the time of the ART decision, the man was in the inactive reserve pending administrative action but Guardian Australia understands he has now left the ADF.
The man, anonymised in the ruling as HWMW, had told Asio interviewers he did not view Israel as a foreign government and that he would share classified information with the Israel Defense Forces if asked.
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Asio said the officer, who is Jewish and had served 19 years in the Australian military, withheld information from Australian officials about training courses he undertook in Israel – where he is not a citizen – in 2016 and 2019, which included self-defence, security and firearms training.
The training was for a Sydney community security group (CSG) – an organisation that provides security and intelligence services to the Jewish community – in which he volunteered between 2014 and 2023.
The officer had said in cross-examination that withholding the information was not a lie but not a 'complete disclosure'.
HWMW told interviewers the CSG training he did could be considered a 'natural recruiting pool' for the Mossad, which would probably be aware of the courses.
The Greens senator and defence spokesperson, David Shoebridge, questioned defence officials in Senate estimates in February on whether there had been any review undertaken of ADF members who may have undertaken similar training by CSG 'that makes them incredibly susceptible to recruitment by a foreign government'.
In a response tabled in the Senate this week, defence stated all security clearance holders have their suitability to hold the clearance reviewed on a regular basis, and an assessment of external loyalties is a key part of this process.
'Security clearance holders are required to report foreign contacts, in addition to a range of other issues that may impact their suitability to hold a clearance,' the department stated.
Shoebridge said on Friday the department had failed to answer his question on whether a review of CSG groups had been undertaken.
'This should have been a simple exercise, having discovered an ADF member undertook secret training associated with a foreign government, then the exit should have been rapid,' he said.
'[In defence] overarching loyalty to the US and its allies is seen as normal and entirely consistent with Australia's national interest.
'It is not, and this shows again the lack of genuine independence in so much of our defence and foreign policy.'
The Asio director general, Mike Burgess, told Senate estimates in February that the case raised 'potential concerns' but said: 'I want to be clear here on the public record – there is nothing wrong with the community security groups'.
He said, however, that it was important for people to be transparent about their involvement with the groups in overseas training.
'[CSGs] perform a decent function, an important function, especially in times like this, [the] training they might provide to help provide security to members of the Jewish community is fine,' Burgess said.
'Of course, there is an element of that that in some cases it may be the case that that training done overseas in Israel might present an opportunity.'