Mike Burgess defends agency’s handling of Akram brothers before massacre
ASIO boss Mike Burgess has argued his organization failed to prevent the worst terror attack in Australian history and said an internal review following the Bondi massacre supported the spy agency’s 2019 view that hitman Naveed Akram did not pose a serious threat.
In his first Senate estimates hearings since the Bondi attack, Burgess said father-son hitmen Sajid and Naveed Akram “went dark” to avoid detection before the attack.
He welcomed a royal commission as the best way to understand how the massacre took place and develop policies to prevent similar attacks.
Burgess said the occurrence of the Bondi massacre was “a matter of great sadness for me and my officers and places a heavy burden on us”.
“But this does not mean that intelligence was ignored or that my officers made mistakes,” he said in a statement late Tuesday night.
“The sad truth is, as I have said many times before, that ASIO is not an all-seeing, all-knowing system.
“ASIO and our law enforcement partners have foiled 28 major terrorist plots since September 2014.
“But unfortunately we didn’t know what the perpetrators of the Bondi attack were planning, or if they were planning anything at all.
“The alleged terrorists appear to have demonstrated a high level of security awareness to conceal their plans. Simply put, they went under cover of darkness to stay off the radar.”
Burgess announced immediately after the attack on December 14 that ASIO wanted an investigation into its treatment of Naveed Akram, who had been on their radar six years ago.
“The review was carried out internally, but by a reviewer external to ASIO who had unrestricted and unfiltered access to our records,” he said.
“The review is highly confidential because it includes details about individuals and sensitive capabilities, but I would say we remain true to our 2019 assessment that Akrams did not comply or intend to participate in violent extremism at the time.
“In other words, many of the allegations and criticisms made about ASIO’s handling of the case are unfounded.”
He said it would be up to royal commissioner Virginia Bell, who is assisted by former ASIO boss Dennis Richardson, to make her own decision.
Burgess warned against using the advantage of hindsight to declare that an intelligence error led to the attack in which 15 people were shot dead and dozens more injured at a Hannukah celebration at Bondi Beach.
“In the days and weeks after the Bondi attack, assumptions, allegations, hypotheses and opinions were quickly accepted as fact by some,” he said.
“It was recycled and exaggerated over the following weeks, resulting in calls to action that were not supported by any facts.
“That’s why the royal commission is so important.”
More to come.
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