Today's video is about the Australian Secret Intelligence Service. Australian intelligence?
Well, they sure have done a good job at keeping that a secret. Joking, the Aussies are a great
people, especially for a bunch of ex-cons. The Australian Secret Intelligence Service,
or ASIS is Australia's foreign intelligence agency - like MI6 or the CIA. Ironically those
two organisations are famous, they're basically pop culture phenomenoms. Not so for ASIS,
which has historically had a reputation for being a sort of Mickey Mouse agency most notable
for allegedly being grossly mismanaged and publicly blowing their cover in bungled operations.
This video will focus on one such operation - when secret counter-terrorism training was
performed in a public setting, the agents causing damage to propety, becoming antagonistic
towards distressed civilians, and eventually getting arrested by their own police. Bravo.
The Australian Secret Intelligence Service was formed in 1952. Modelled after Britain's
foreign intelligence agency, MI6, its very existence remained secret for decades - even
to members of the government. Even after its existence was made public in the 70's, very
little was known about the agency, and the press was prohibited from reporting on ASIS
"current or projected foreign intelligence activity".
This brings us to 1983. ASIS had begun training a covert team in hostage rescue. Their goal
would be to protect Australian citizens taken hostage by terrorists abroad. As part of this
training, a mock scenario would be conducted on November 30th, 1983 on the 10th floor of
the Sheraton Hotel in Melbourne. Of course, this being a secret agency, the hotel was
not informed that this would be occuring. The operation involved four ASIS officers,
six trainees and two commandos from the Army Reserve. The scenario was to be a mock hostage
rescue, where the terrorists had taken the hostage captive in a hotel room. The trainees
were to rescue the hostage using deception and subterfuge.
However, the trainees were given a large degree of freedom in how they approached the situation,
and at some point during the operation, they chose violence. At around 9pm, hotel guests
were alarmed to find a number of armed men in balaclavas and theatrical masks breaking
down doors with sledgehammers. And honestly what the fuck were they thinking?
I mean even if no one had been alerted to the disturbance they were causing, did they
really think this secret operation would be best served by causing criminal damage to
the hotel? I mean they work for an intelligence agency, maybe they should have used their
fucking intelligence to ascertain that no matter what happened they weren't leaving
the hotel without some serious questions being raised about what had happened here.
The guests reported what they believed to be an armed robbery to the desk. This prompted
the hotel manager to go up and have a look for himself. Because the first thing I'd want
to do after learning of a potential armed robbery is immediately involve myself.
Exiting the elevator on the 10th floor, the manager was confronted by one of the agents
who grabbed him and dragged him back into the elevator, sending it back down to the
ground floor. Back on the ground, the manager called the
police to alert them to the masked and armed men causing havoc in the hotel. While he waited
for police to arrive, the elevator dinged again, someone was coming down.
Staff gathered around nervously waiting to see what was on the other side of the elevator
doors. When the doors slid open, five masked men carrying submachine guns barged through,
waving their guns at staff and guests before escaping through the back.
The ASIS agents had getaway cars waiting for them and off they went. One of the cars, however,
was caught in the city by police. Amazingly, the authorities had also not been informed
of the operations, and when the men in the car refused to co-operate or identify themselves,
they were arrested. Extensive damage had been done to the hotel,
and police sources said it appeared large quantities of alcohol had been consumed in
the room booked by the agents.
When it was revealed the arrested men were government agents partaking in covert operations,
there was outrage. Of course, a lot of people were amused too, the event was kind of a fucking
joke. For a lot of people, the incident was actually the first time they'd ever even heard
of ASIS. The whole thing was a massive embarassment for the Australian government - none of whom,
including the minister for foreign affairs, who the ASIS director general is directly
responsible to, claimed to know the operation was even taking place.
That of course raised a lot of questions over how ASIS was managed, questions that would
persist for years. There have been claims the agency is out of control. The agency refused
to cooperate with the police investigation and although a judge found that individuals
involved in the operation could potentially be prosecuted by the state for assault, firearms
and motor vehicle offences, there was insufficient evidence to pin any charges on any specific
agents. The hotel took legal action against the state
for the incident, and in an out of court settlement, the hotel and staff was paid around 300,000
dollarydos. As a result of the incident, the government
disarmed ASIS and forbid them from undertaking any more covert paramilitary operations. But
this was reversed in 2004, so they're assumedly back at it, if they ever actually stopped
to begin with. Thankfully the story does have a happy ending though, as we all know, Australia
isn't real.