Tag Brian Toohey
By Brian Toohey: Pearls and Irritations The Australian Secret Intelligence Service was established in 1950 to conduct spying overseas and morally repulsive covert operations. It had a slow start, but in the 1970s it sent three staff to Chile to… Continue Reading →
By Brian Toohey: Pearls and Irritations. Government ministers and senior officials are conditioning Australians to become frightened, very frightened. The Home Affairs minister Clare O’Neil warns they face a “dystopian future” from cyber-crime, foreign interference and threats to our democracy…. Continue Reading →
By Brian Toohey: Pearls and Irritations. The US dominates the Pacific Islands to an extent China can never hope to achieve. With Australia’s support, the US is now engaged in an arms build-up in its Pacific territories and de-facto colonies… Continue Reading →
By Brian Toohey with Michael West Media. Australian governments and their defence leaders, with help from lobbyists, choose immensely complex, overpriced and overmanned weaponry. Wasteful spending has to end, writes Brian Toohey. With the blow-out in the budget expected to hit… Continue Reading →
By Brian Toohey This the Preface from Brian Toohey’s latest book Secret: The Making of Australia’s Security State. Step by step, a succession of new laws and policies have provided the building blocks for Australia to become a country in… Continue Reading →
By Brian Toohey: Michael West Media The use of disinformation campaigns and cyber attacks by China and other authoritarian states has rightly attracted much criticism in the mainstream media. However, the US and its democratic allies decades ago pioneered the… Continue Reading →
By Brian Toohey During the 1970s and 1980s the governments of Gough Whitlam, Malcolm Fraser and Bob Hawke mostly held the line against Australia becoming a national security state. The official figures show that the domestic spy agency the Australian… Continue Reading →
By Brian Toohey with Michael West Media The Joint Strike Fighter has been plagued by problems since it was just a sketch on paper, when in 2002 John Howard jumped the gun and committed to buying them. But the F-35… Continue Reading →