Australian Army Officer Loses Security Clearance Over Ties to Israel

Members of the Australian Defence Forces (ADF) march during an Anzac Day parade in Brisbane, Australia on April 25, 2022. Dan Peled/Getty Images

An Australian Army officer with 19 years of service has been stripped of his security clearance in a decision upheld by the Administrative Review Tribunal, which found he had “divided loyalties” between Australia and Israel and posed an “unacceptable and avoidable risk to security” as a result.

The Tribunal accepted there was no evidence of acts of foreign interference or espionage as a result of the man’s actions but that something of that nature remained a “possibility we are satisfied is real and not so remote it should be discounted.”

The officer, referred to in the decision as HWMW, joined the Australian Defence Force in 2004. By 2010, he had achieved a security clearance known as negative vetting 2, giving him access to material classified as top secret.

Between 2014 and 2023, he was also a member of a community security group (CSG), a volunteer organisation that provides security and intelligence services to the Jewish community.

In 2016 and 2019, he travelled to Israel to participate in CSG training courses run by former members of Israeli security agencies and financed by the Israeli government.

His activities came to the notice of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), which interviewed him and concluded that he posed a risk to Australia’s security “due to [his] demonstrated loyalty to Israel and poor judgement by withholding security-relevant information during the security clearance process.”

This meant there was no way to “adequately mitigate the risk of Mossad [Israel’s intelligence agency] exploitation” other than complete revocation of his clearance.

Lack of Disclosure

HWMW failed to declare CSG training in Israel on two occasions, “even though, by his own admission, he understood the courses were conducted by Israeli trainers who had ‘been in the Shabak’ [Israel’s internal security agency, also known as Shin Bet],” the Tribunal said.

HWMW also declared on an ASIO form that he had not come into contact with anyone he suspected of being a member of a foreign intelligence service.

When an investigation was opened, he disclosed that “he suspected the courses were supported by the Israeli government and Mossad was involved.”

Later, he told interviewers that Mossad might seek to recruit volunteers during the training. He also changed his statement about providing classified or sensitive information to Israel if asked to do so.

“By his own account, [he] did not fully declare these matters in the security clearance revalidation processes,” the Tribunal went on to say.

“This provides strong justification for ASIO’s assessment that [his] close identification with and loyalty to Israel outweighs his obligations to the Australian government as a security clearance holder.”

‘Latent Risk’ in Employing Jews, Officer Said

HWMW attributed his failure to fully disclose the full range of contacts he was having—which included members of Israel’s Knesset (Parliament) on Facebook—to “lack of experience and the dilemma of harbouring loyalty to the Jewish Nation.”

He told the Tribunal that “Zionism is an essential theme within Judaism. Judaism mandates the loyalty of a Jew to his people and to the Land of Israel. The Australian government is aware that every Jew harbours a varying degree of loyalty to Israel. Some have a higher and more overt levels of loyalty than others. This is the latent risk that the Australian government must naturally accept when employing Jews.”

However, he emphasised that his 19 years of service in the ADF were “clear indications” of his “strong loyalty” to Australia.

A senior ASIO officer who had interviewed HWMW testified that he had “a demonstrated willingness to withhold information from personnel security processes, a level of maturity and judgement that does not meet the standard required of security clearance holder, poor security awareness, and ... a high level of loyalty to Israel.”

The officer also had concerns about HWMW’s “susceptibility to influence.”

The Tribunal agreed. “ASIO’s opinion that [HWMW] has demonstrated a higher level of loyalty to Israel than to the Australian government is justified as [he] has, in our assessment, demonstrated loyalty to Israel which is incompatible with his obligations as a security clearance holder.”

The Tribunal noted that HWMW’s evidence that “he understood ASIO and the CSG to be ‘plugged together’ and that he was ‘working under the same umbrella’ strains credulity.”

The fact that he had discussed his first ASIO interview with someone in the CSG also raised “serious questions about [his] judgement, trustworthiness, and willingness to adhere to the security requirements of an NV2 security clearance holder.”

Despite acknowledging that the revocation of his security clearance would likely adversely affect his employment prospects with Australian governments and contractors, the Tribunal upheld the decision of the Australian Government Security Vetting Agency (AGSVA).