Australians in Iran, Iraq directed local Jewish attacks
Australians living abroad planned firebomb attacks on a Jewish delicatessen in Sydney and a synagogue in Melbourne, Australia’s spy chief has revealed.
ASIO chief executive Mike Burgess said spies had found a direct link between Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and two offshore individuals who led two attacks on Jewish Australians.
An Australian in Iran is a senior operative in the Revolutionary Guard’s Quds force, which nurtures and supports terrorist groups abroad, Mr Burgess said in his annual threat assessment on Wednesday.
He was behind the targeting of Lewis Continental Kitchen in Bondi in October 2024, which the spy boss described as the “first major attack of the summer of anti-Semitism”.
“We know more about him than he thinks, including the name of his superior in Iran and the department he works in.”
Mr Burgess confirmed that a former Australian living in Iraq controlled the bombing of Melbourne’s Adass Israel Synagogue almost two years ago.
Iran recruited him through a complex network of Iraq-based militia groups and valued his “high wealth and criminal connections.”
The man was jailed after ASIO named and shamed Iran and Australian law enforcement put pressure on him.
The two men cannot be named to protect ongoing investigations and related prosecutions.
“I fear that one day an Australian will be killed here in Australia at the hands of a foreign government,” Mr Burgess said.
A growing number of people living in Australia are facing “forced repatriation”, where a foreign government pressures someone to return to the country where they are wanted, the ASIO chief has revealed.
These victims almost always face punishment, persecution, or prosecution, and they are often critical of a foreign regime.
At least five regimes target Australians with these tactics, and one country is particularly active.
This country has forced at least eight people to leave Australia for their place of birth in 2023.
Five were Australian citizens or permanent residents. The three never returned.
Mr Burgess said the AUKUS partnership, which sees Australia acquiring nuclear-powered submarines, was also a priority target for foreign intelligence services.
This includes some countries that Australia considers friends.
A spy from a foreign intelligence service approached an Australian security clearance holder online and paid the official to write two reports on Australia’s relations with its Pacific neighbors before requesting information on AUKUS.
“Using professional networking sites to recruit Australians is a low-cost, low-risk vector for foreign intelligence services,” Mr Burgess said.
“They are also using lower-scale but more sophisticated techniques to target AUKUS and its related capabilities, and we expect this to only increase as the project matures and the attack surface expands.”
Working with law enforcement since 2014, ASIO has foiled 31 major terror plots.
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