This won’t be remembered as a principled defence of Australia’s sovereignty, but as a moment when intelligence was used as a political weapon, with the truth left far behind.
ASIO and the security agencies is openly playing a much greater role in shaping foreign and public policy. This is concerning as Burgess is unelected and unaccountable to the people. He and Albanese relish the secrecy of their ‘intelligence’ but won’t ever share it to have it tested. They can destroy people’s lives with their secret courts like Witness K, while not allowing you to see the evidence brought against you.
Albanese, Marles and Wong (the Triumvirate) will have you believe that ASIO was able to expose this incident and tie it to Iran, but not the Dural Caravan hoax until after the laws were conveniently changed.
Certainly, Australia should have already imposed rigorous sanctions on Israel, since the Netanyahu government has turned Israel into a terrorist state which has murdered at least 64,000 Palestinians and repeatedly attacked neighbouring countries. It is Israel, not Iran, which is preventing true peace in the Middle East.
Israel should be sanctioned in the same way Russia has been.
Putin and Netanyahu are both war criminals and both should gaoled for life.
There are more Palestinians than Israelis in Australia and Albanese needs to listen to them.
I agree Eddie. I would have thought it more appropriate to haul the ambassador over the coals rather than expel them? I feel the expulsion will bring greater consequences especially when tied to not giving a right of reply or explanation to Tehran.
Thanks Joel. I think you might be right there - let’s see how all of this plays out over the next few months, but history suggests that it’s not going to end so well.
The extent to which ASIO and PM Albanese show utter contempt for the intelligence of the Australian public with this attempt at political theatre is mind blowing . An alert Primary school student could demolish this Evidence -Free act.
The continuing silence about the genocide being committed by the Zionists in Palestine only serves to highlight the sham that this removal of the Iranian ambassador has been .
Do I detect a trace here of "The enemy of my enemy is my friend"? As I've said already, you don't need the Mad Mullahs to be nice for Netanyahu to be nasty. It's perfectly possible for both sides to be bastards, who maybe deserve each other; in fact, all the evidence points to that.
I do see more than a trace of knee-jerk Four-legs-good-two-legs-bad thinking, though. Just because something comes from ASIO doesn't make it automatically wrong or malicious, and I'm sure DFAT would have enough of a shape-memory of the Dubb-y'emm-dees embarrassment to counsel caution in accepting a story just because it looks like a good one. I am as suspicious of ASIO as anyone (I go back to the days when they would almost certainly have had a file on me), but I would like to see a bit more evidence before I make any judgement either way. After all, Iran's security forces have been known to commit acts of lethal violence on other countries' territory, and if this is one such, then our security agencies have every right to get involved; that's what we pay them for, after all. On the other hand, as you point out, this looks like a remarkably trivial, purely nuisance intervention compared with the targeted assassinations of known enemies of the theocrats for which they're known - more the kind of mischievous disconbobulation we've come to expect from Putin's hybrid warriors - or maybe Mossad? So the question remains open.
Either way, the sudden decision to expel the ambassador and vacate our Tehran embassy overnight struck me immediatedly as an overreaction, and still does more than a week on - certainly it compares uncomfortably with the snail's pace at which respectable opinion in Australia has accepted the reality of the monstrous cruelty Israel has been inflicting on its neigbour ever since the evening of October 7 2023. It's not the kind of response I'd have expected of a more judicious PM who was less scared of the Zionist lobby. But now that precipitate action has been taken, the Government's effectively locked into it. And that means specifically that in order to declare the IRGC a terrorist organisation, it's now committed to amending the Crimes Act so that state agencies can be designated as terrorist, which I gather isn't legally admissible at the moment.
And that offers a big opportunty. Once it's possible to declare the Iranian security force terrorist, people will start asking spontaneously why the same can't be done to its more obviously murderous Isreali counterpart. And of course, if that happened - as I point out in more detail in my Substack today - Israel's apologists and those who supply its war machine would automatically become subject to a rather scary range of punishments, without the need for any further legislation.
Don't go expecting Albo to go the whole way on this any time soon. Ever since the first Mad Mullah took over, 46 years ago, it's been perfectly OK in respectable circles to hate Iran, but not OK at all to criteek Israel, however meekly. But now the tide seems finally to have turned, and who knows where that might get us if the slaughter goes on much longer.
Good call, Eddy and David. We're almost certain that Israel is committing a genocide (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/01/israel-committing-genocide-in-gaza-worlds-top-scholars-on-the-say). We've several pictures of arms made in Australia being seen in official photos in Israel (https://red-spark.org/2025/07/17/gaza-genocide-the-undeniable-support-of-the-alp/). We've seen our glorious Zionist Genocide Envoy dishonestly exaggerating claims of antisemitism (by counting harmless incidents), while her Zionist co-ideologues call Aussie Antizionist Judiacs antisemitic, and put them in real danger by telling everyone that Israel's actions represent all Jews (no matter how loud those Jews protest this falsehood). Aussie Zionism Genocide critics have bloody good reason to suspect further falsehood from their genocide complicit government. So when Iran gains large negative effects from committing this act, while Israel gains much, those same Aussie Zionism Genocide critics have damn good reason to suspect a likely coverup. Maybe ASIO is being lazy or inept again (I'm sure they do a good job, no criticism, but it does happen), and allowing a false flag op or a double agent for Israel to sabotage Iran-Australia relations. It seems likely that this political outcome would suit the Genocide & Imperialism Troika (Albo, Wong, and Marles). It seems plausible to me, given what I have read on Declassified and Wikileaks, that the 'investigation' was manipulated (covertly or overtly) by our government and/or the US' and/or Israel.
The benchmark for ASIO is rooted in their spying on East Timor. Nothing, NOTHING, has improved since then. ASIO is a shame.
Thanks Eddy.
ASIO and the security agencies is openly playing a much greater role in shaping foreign and public policy. This is concerning as Burgess is unelected and unaccountable to the people. He and Albanese relish the secrecy of their ‘intelligence’ but won’t ever share it to have it tested. They can destroy people’s lives with their secret courts like Witness K, while not allowing you to see the evidence brought against you.
Albanese, Marles and Wong (the Triumvirate) will have you believe that ASIO was able to expose this incident and tie it to Iran, but not the Dural Caravan hoax until after the laws were conveniently changed.
Well said 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Certainly, Australia should have already imposed rigorous sanctions on Israel, since the Netanyahu government has turned Israel into a terrorist state which has murdered at least 64,000 Palestinians and repeatedly attacked neighbouring countries. It is Israel, not Iran, which is preventing true peace in the Middle East.
Israel should be sanctioned in the same way Russia has been.
Putin and Netanyahu are both war criminals and both should gaoled for life.
There are more Palestinians than Israelis in Australia and Albanese needs to listen to them.
I agree Eddie. I would have thought it more appropriate to haul the ambassador over the coals rather than expel them? I feel the expulsion will bring greater consequences especially when tied to not giving a right of reply or explanation to Tehran.
Thanks for this great read, Eddy. A bigger moment that we perhaps recognise at the moment.
Thanks Joel. I think you might be right there - let’s see how all of this plays out over the next few months, but history suggests that it’s not going to end so well.
The extent to which ASIO and PM Albanese show utter contempt for the intelligence of the Australian public with this attempt at political theatre is mind blowing . An alert Primary school student could demolish this Evidence -Free act.
The continuing silence about the genocide being committed by the Zionists in Palestine only serves to highlight the sham that this removal of the Iranian ambassador has been .
Excellent piece. It sounded much like a put up job to me too. https://blotreport.com/2025/08/17/whose-terrorists/
Jack Waterford in today’s P&I supports ASIO! Wow!
I've known Jack ever since we were student radicals together, and I can tell you he's very likely to have got it right.
Do I detect a trace here of "The enemy of my enemy is my friend"? As I've said already, you don't need the Mad Mullahs to be nice for Netanyahu to be nasty. It's perfectly possible for both sides to be bastards, who maybe deserve each other; in fact, all the evidence points to that.
I do see more than a trace of knee-jerk Four-legs-good-two-legs-bad thinking, though. Just because something comes from ASIO doesn't make it automatically wrong or malicious, and I'm sure DFAT would have enough of a shape-memory of the Dubb-y'emm-dees embarrassment to counsel caution in accepting a story just because it looks like a good one. I am as suspicious of ASIO as anyone (I go back to the days when they would almost certainly have had a file on me), but I would like to see a bit more evidence before I make any judgement either way. After all, Iran's security forces have been known to commit acts of lethal violence on other countries' territory, and if this is one such, then our security agencies have every right to get involved; that's what we pay them for, after all. On the other hand, as you point out, this looks like a remarkably trivial, purely nuisance intervention compared with the targeted assassinations of known enemies of the theocrats for which they're known - more the kind of mischievous disconbobulation we've come to expect from Putin's hybrid warriors - or maybe Mossad? So the question remains open.
Either way, the sudden decision to expel the ambassador and vacate our Tehran embassy overnight struck me immediatedly as an overreaction, and still does more than a week on - certainly it compares uncomfortably with the snail's pace at which respectable opinion in Australia has accepted the reality of the monstrous cruelty Israel has been inflicting on its neigbour ever since the evening of October 7 2023. It's not the kind of response I'd have expected of a more judicious PM who was less scared of the Zionist lobby. But now that precipitate action has been taken, the Government's effectively locked into it. And that means specifically that in order to declare the IRGC a terrorist organisation, it's now committed to amending the Crimes Act so that state agencies can be designated as terrorist, which I gather isn't legally admissible at the moment.
And that offers a big opportunty. Once it's possible to declare the Iranian security force terrorist, people will start asking spontaneously why the same can't be done to its more obviously murderous Isreali counterpart. And of course, if that happened - as I point out in more detail in my Substack today - Israel's apologists and those who supply its war machine would automatically become subject to a rather scary range of punishments, without the need for any further legislation.
Don't go expecting Albo to go the whole way on this any time soon. Ever since the first Mad Mullah took over, 46 years ago, it's been perfectly OK in respectable circles to hate Iran, but not OK at all to criteek Israel, however meekly. But now the tide seems finally to have turned, and who knows where that might get us if the slaughter goes on much longer.
Good call, Eddy and David. We're almost certain that Israel is committing a genocide (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/01/israel-committing-genocide-in-gaza-worlds-top-scholars-on-the-say). We've several pictures of arms made in Australia being seen in official photos in Israel (https://red-spark.org/2025/07/17/gaza-genocide-the-undeniable-support-of-the-alp/). We've seen our glorious Zionist Genocide Envoy dishonestly exaggerating claims of antisemitism (by counting harmless incidents), while her Zionist co-ideologues call Aussie Antizionist Judiacs antisemitic, and put them in real danger by telling everyone that Israel's actions represent all Jews (no matter how loud those Jews protest this falsehood). Aussie Zionism Genocide critics have bloody good reason to suspect further falsehood from their genocide complicit government. So when Iran gains large negative effects from committing this act, while Israel gains much, those same Aussie Zionism Genocide critics have damn good reason to suspect a likely coverup. Maybe ASIO is being lazy or inept again (I'm sure they do a good job, no criticism, but it does happen), and allowing a false flag op or a double agent for Israel to sabotage Iran-Australia relations. It seems likely that this political outcome would suit the Genocide & Imperialism Troika (Albo, Wong, and Marles). It seems plausible to me, given what I have read on Declassified and Wikileaks, that the 'investigation' was manipulated (covertly or overtly) by our government and/or the US' and/or Israel.