DRUGS, SPIES AND POWER WITHOUT LIMIT

The combination of spies and drugs does not have a happy history.
Which is one reason it's not a good idea to let spies get mixed up in
the illegal drug trade while giving them immunity from the law.

Yet this explosive mix is sanctioned by the Intelligence Services
Bill introduced into Federal Parliament last week.

The bill also authorises large-scale electronic eavesdropping on
Australian citizens and companies in apparent contravention of laws
prohibiting telephone intercepts. Despite some filters, the
information can be then passed to other countries engaged in
commercial espionage against Australian firms. In addition, the
legislation could harm Australian environmental, aid and human rights
groups. If foreign governments complain about their activities, these
groups are not protected from harassment by Australian intelligence
agencies.

Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer introduced the bill 25
years after a royal commission, chaired by the late Robert Hope, said
legislative backing was needed for the activities of the Australian
Secret Intelligence Service and the Defence Signals Directorate. One
reason for the delay is that the legislation has not been easy to
frame while maintaining respect for the law.

Much of what ASIS does - running spies overseas - breaks
international or Australian laws. Similar legal problems bedevil
DSD's use of satellite ground stations for intercepting vast numbers
of phone calls, faxes and e-mails. Unlike ASIS, however, DSD does not
bribe foreign nationals to commit the crime of treason. Despite being
a judge of the NSW Supreme Court, Hope enthusiastically advocated
that both ASIS and DSD commit illegal acts, including breaking and
entering diplomatic premises in Canberra. Downer has now tried to
skirt the legal obstacles by effectively putting both bodies above
the law. The new bill gives a blanket immunity to ASIS or DSD
employees - and ministers - who break Australian laws in the course
of their duties. Breaches of international law, as well as other
countries' espionage laws, are ignored.

The immunity is far more sweeping than anything enjoyed by the
Australian Federal Police or ASIS's domestic counterpart, the
Australian Security Intelligence Organisation. The AFP can buy drugs
during an undercover operation, but only under the strictest
controls. ASIO can tap telephones, but only with a special warrant
for particular phone numbers and only for a limited time.

Although ASIS was set up in 1952 to collect national security
information, it has expanded into gathering economic intelligence.
Now the Howard Government wants it to penetrate overseas drug rings.
Unfortunately, the huge amount of money in the drug trade and the
clandestine world of spying has proved a volatile combination.

The corrupt involvement of members of the US Central Intelligence
Agency in drugs is well documented in books such as Al McCoy's The
Politics Of Heroin In South Asia. Notorious drug traffickers,
including the former Panamanian president, Manuel Noriega, enjoyed
CIA protection for many years.

While the new bill is supposed to protect the privacy of Australian
citizens, this can be over-ridden by other provisions. Unlike the
safeguards contained in New Zealand intelligence laws, members of
Australian non-government organisations could be targeted by ASIS and
DSD if their activities were felt to be harming relations with
another country.

A future Malaysian or Indonesian government, for example, could
complain about an Australian non-government organisation (NGO)
campaigning against the logging of rainforests in Borneo. ASIS and
DSD could then monitor the NGO's phones. The NGO's computers could be
hacked into, money could be stolen by electronic access to its bank
accounts, as has occurred in operations by British intelligence
agencies.

The new bill prohibits physical violence by ASIS. Australian agents
could not follow the example of their French counterparts, who killed
a Greenpeace member while blowing up the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland
harbour in the 1980s. But the bill lacks adequate safeguards against
damaging intelligence being given to the Malaysians or Indonesians,
who might have fewer scruples about the use of violence.

ASIS should be explicitly prohibited from doing anything which could
harm Australian citizens. It should leave drugs to the police or
Customs and concentrate on its national security role. If ASIS or DSD
officers break Australian laws without a specific warrant issued by a
court, they should be arrested and charged like anyone else.
Otherwise, the Government should forget about lecturing others about
the rule of law.