Bureaucracy: ASIO DELAYS OVER SPY FILE

ASIO DELAYS OVER SPY FILE

The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), the nation’s counter-intelligence agency, has inexplicably delayed responding to a request for a file on a former communist Yugoslav diplomat who might be linked to the Croatian Six case.

Sasha Uzunov, an Australian independent film maker and journalist, has tried to obtain under Australia’s National Archive Act access to the ASIO file of the late Dr Georgi Trajkovski, the Yugoslav Consul General in Melbourne during 1978-79.

Any federal government documents over 30 years become open to the public. Exemptions can apply on the grounds of national security. However, ASIO has 90 days to respond to any request.

So far Uzunov’s request, made on 4 November 2011, has taken almost double that time.

“I’ve made other requests for files and ASIO has responded within a matter of weeks,” He said. “I don’t know why this has taken over 150 days, almost double the time, just for a simple answer of yes or no.”

Uzunov, who is producing a documentary film about Yugoslav spying on Australia soil, titled UDBa down under, believes there is strong circumstantial evidence to link Trajkovski to the Croatian Six Case.

One of Australia’s worst miscarriages of justice, the Croatian Six terrorism case in 1979-80, may have been perpetrated by Trajkovski, a master spy posing as a diplomat and who, would you believe it, not once but twice managed to outsmart Australia’s domestic spy catchers, ASIO, and even shook hands with an unsuspecting Prime Minister, Malcolm Fraser.

Intelligence sources in Washington and in the Republic of Macedonia, one of the successor states of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY), have confirmed that Dr Georgi Trajkovski, the Yugoslav Consul General in Melbourne, Australia during 1978-79 was “hardcore UDBa (Yugoslav intelligence) and a key player in the Croatian Six set up.”

In 1988, Trajkovski with the same modus operandi, the use of agent provocateurs and exaggerated claims of anti-Yugoslav subversion, had a fellow Yugoslav diplomat removed from his post in Melbourne right under the nose of ASIO.

In 1991 legendary ABC TV investigative reporter Chris Masters dropped a bombshell on the Four Corners program about The Croatian Six case.

An agent provocateur set up members of Australia's Croatian community in 1979. Six Croats were imprisoned on false charges of wanting to plant bombs in Sydney.

Masters tracked down the agent provocateur, Vitomir Visimovic, who was an ethnic Serb living in Bosnia but had passed himself off as a Croat.

In fact, ASIO, the Australian Federal Police (successor of the Commonwealth Police) and the infamous and corrupt New South Wales Police Special Branch were all aware that Visimovic was an UDBa operative but suppressed the information during the trial of the Croatian Six. Moreover, the alarming thing was the Australian authorities let the man depart the country. This was during Malcolm Fraser’s tenure as Prime Minister (1975-83).

An UDBa hitman Vinko Sindicic was arrested in Scotland in 1988 after a failed assassination attempt on Croat dissident Nikola Stedul. At Sindicic's trial it was revealed he “had been in Australia in 1978, working with another Yugoslav agent on a plan to link Croatian political activists with terrorism.”

Hamish McDonald, an award winning Australian journalist with the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper, has been following the Croatian Six case. He had this write on the subject: 

“In a new video, the Macedonian-Australian documentary journalist Sasha Uzunov says he has evidence Sindicic set up the Croatian six conspiracy with the main UDBa official in Australia, Georgi Trajkovski, who operated under diplomatic cover as Yugoslav consul-general in Melbourne."

Links:

www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1107/S00270/who-was-the-croatian-six-mastermind.htm

Previews of UDBa down under

www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuMIDTPyGe0

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMA0QTTayxE

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EMAILS – Request for ASIO FILE on Dr Georgi Trajkovski (reference number 11/21566 - National Archive of Australia)

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Subject: RE: Your Inquiry - Ref: 11/21566 [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2012 12:59:41 +1000

From: ######@naa.gov.au

To: sashauzunov@hotmail.com

UNCLASSIFIED

Dear Mr Uzunov,

Unfortunately we have not yet received a response from ASIO, however please be assured that we will continue to process your application and will notify you as soon as we receive a response. 

As it has gone over the 90 days you do have rights of appeal which are outlined in the following link:

http://www.naa.gov.au/collection/fact-sheets/fs12.aspx

Sincerely, ######

	t  02 6212 3924 f  02 6212 3999 e        @naa.gov.au
	Queen Victoria Terrace,Parkes ACT 2600 PO Box 7425, Canberra Business Centre ACT 2610

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From: Sasha Uzunov [mailto:sashauzunov@hotmail.com] 


Sent: Tuesday, 10 April 2012 10:31 AM


To: ######

Subject: RE: Your Inquiry - Ref: 11/21566 [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

Hi ####,

Its been over 4 months (120 days) and no response on this request?

cheers

sasha

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Subject: RE: Your Inquiry - Ref: 11/21566 [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]


Date: Fri, 3 Feb 2012 09:36:38 +1100


From: ######@naa.gov.au


To: sashauzunov@hotmail.com

UNCLASSIFIED

Dear Mr Uzunov,

I refer to your request for an update on your request for ASIO files relating to Dr Georgi Trajkovski.

Unfortunately I have not yet received a response from ASIO, however please be assured that we will continue to process your application and will notify you as soon as we receive a response.

Sincerely,

 ###########

Reference Officer

Reference and Information Services 
Access and Communication

National Archives of Australia


Queen Victoria Terrace, Parkes ACT 2600 
PO Box 7425, Canberra Business Centre ACT 2610  t  02 6212 3924 f  02 6212 3999
e   ####@naa.gov.au


naa.gov.au

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From: Sasha Uzunov [mailto:sashauzunov@hotmail.com]

Sent: Thursday, 2 February 2012 7:14 PM


To: ########

Subject: Your Inquiry - Ref: 11/21566 [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

Dear #####

Just wanting to know any progress on my request?

cheers

Mr Sasha Uzunov

mob 0419 635 808

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From: Sasha Uzunov <sashauzunov@hotmail.com>


Date: 4 November 2011 1:42:12 PM AEDT


To: ########>


Subject: RE: Your Inquiry - Ref: 11/21566 [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

Thanks ##### for the quick response.

Georgi Trajkovski was under ASIO surveillance between 1977, 78, 79. He was Yugoslavia's consul general in Melbourne. He may have been a Yugoslav intelligence (UDBa / SDB) officer under diplomatic cover.

Cheers Sasha.  

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Subject: Your Inquiry - Ref: 11/21566 [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]


Date: Fri, 4 Nov 2011 13:06:41 +1100
From:

########@naa.gov.au


To: sashauzunov@hotmail.com

UNCLASSIFIED

Dear Ms Uzunov,

Thank you for your request for an ASIO file relating to Dr Georgi Trajkovski.

ASIO records are eligible for release under the Archives Act 1983 after 30 years, subject to exemption of any material of continuing sensitivity as prescribed by section 33 of the ACT.  They are generally only transferred to the Archives in response to applications for access under the Archives act.

In order to submit an application to ASIO I need you to provide the following information about Dr Georgi Trajovski:

Date of Birth
Period you believe he was under surveillance (eg. 19XX-19XX)
State he was living in a time of suspected surveillance
Reason you believe he was under surveillance (eg. Membership of organisations, participation in events, etc)

Once I receive this information I will submit the application to ASIO, and I will contact you as soon as we receive a response. Please note this process can take up to 90 days.

Sincerely,

#########

Reference Officer

National Archives of Australia - Canberra Office 


Telephone: (02) 6212 3924
Fax: (02) 6212 3999
Email: ######@naa.gov.au

BRAVE COP WHO KEPT VICTORIA SAFE

PART 4 – THE FIGHT AGAINST YUGOSLAV INTELLIGENCE IN AUSTRALIA

Fourth part in a series on Yugoslav intelligence activities on Australian soil from the 1970s to the early 1990s.

BRAVE COP WHO KEPT VICTORIA SAFE

The full story can now be told…

By Sasha Uzunov

International terrorists must be rubbing their hands with glee at the news that the Australian state of Victoria’s Police Force will abolish its highly effective counter terrorism unit, the Security Intelligence Group (SIG).

Why you would tamper with something that has been successful is hard to fathom? In comparison, the United States has learned its lessons after the initial 9/11 intelligence gap and recently after a decade has finally taken out terrorism mastermind Osama bin Laden.

Australia is a federation of six states and two territories, each with their own police force. The Australian Federal Police (AFP) is a separate entity. The domestic spy service is the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO).

In light of this, a little known Victoria Police operation 20 years ago helped to stop the flood of illegal weapons getting onto the streets and into the hands of home grown terrorists. The impact it had was to send a message--loud and clear-- that overseas linked crime and terror were not going to be tolerated in the state of Victoria, Australia.

That story can now be told because one of the leading figures behind that operation passed away early last year after a long illness.

Detective Senior Constable Geoffrey Ian Gardiner, who retired in 1998, was part of the PSG (Protective Services Group) within the Victoria Police at the old Russell Street complex in Melbourne’s city centre. His office was situated on the 5^th floor, East Wing. He was a clean, honest, hard working cop.

Det Snr Const Gardiner was tasked with investigating terrorist organisations including the Tamil Tigers, and ethnic-linked crime. He was very knowledgeable about the activities of Yugoslav intelligence (UDBa) on Australian soil and even knew some of the key agents of influence!

As detailed in a previous scoop article: www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1003/S00021.htm

Tuesday, 2 March 2010

Yugoslavia was a multi-ethnic communist federation founded in 1945, modelled on the Soviet Union, and fell apart in 1991 into various independent nation states.

Yugoslav intelligence (UDBa) later known as SDB, together with Yugoslav military counter-intelligence (KOS) were largely pre-occupied with silencing dissident Croats, Macedonians, Serbs and Albanians living in Western Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand, who were agitating for independence from Yugoslavia.

UDBa was so ruthless and efficient it at one time rivalled the old Soviet KGB and Mossad in liquidating opponents. In Munich, West Germany, a whole section of a cemetery was set-aside for Croats assassinated by UDBa.

Communist strongman Marshal Josip Broz Tito ruled Yugoslavia until his death in 1980 and during the height of the Cold War managed a great balancing act between East and West. He was seen as an indirect ally of the West after his infamous split with Soviet dictator Josef Stalin in 1949.

A number of Australian left-wing politicians, including Victorian State MP Joan Coxsedge, began to allege that ASIO was turning a blind eye to extremist Croatian elements, who were secretly training on Australian soil to undertake terrorist attacks on Yugoslav territory or upon Yugoslav diplomatic missions in Australia.

In this atmosphere of terrorism mania during the 1970s Australia’s Croat community were looked upon as the bad guy.

We now know that the alleged Croatian terrorism on Australian soil was the work of UDBa.

Even though he passed himself as a member of PSG, Det Snr Const Gardiner no doubt would have worked side by side with SIG.

I got to know Det Snr Const Gardiner in 1989 as a young cadet reporter working for the Australian Macedonian Weekly newspaper, who was interested in ethnic-related crime. My parents are Macedonian migrants.

He in fact tracked me down. He was a canny operator who would pump you for information and would never reveal anything unless it was in his interest to do so.

When he got wind of me investigating a leading UDBa agent of influence based in Melbourne with links to the Australian Labor Party’s (ALP) Socialist Left faction and the national multicultural broadcaster The Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), he offered some fatherly advice by warning me that the agent of influence was “being protected by people high above.”

But then to my surprise Det Snr Const Gardiner proceeded to reveal to me that the agent of influence had between 1968 and 1979 amassed criminal convictions in the state of Victoria for stolen goods, illegal gaming and financial deception. The last conviction was obtained for passing off a bogus cheque in the name of Red Star Belgrade, an overseas Yugoslav soccer team, at a pub in the Melbourne western suburb of Footscray.

The UDBa agent of influence was permitted to work as a state public servant despite their criminal record. ASIO had sealed their rap sheet from ordinary police access. The inference being that the agent of influence may have been cultivated as a “double agent.” But questions remain as to why an employee police check was never conducted by both the Victorian Public Service or SBS?

In a visit to Skopje, the capital of Macedonia in 1993, a year after it declared independence from Yugoslavia, I met with Mr Aleksandar Dinevski, a former Interior Ministry Officer, who confirmed the above-mentioned individual was an UDBa informer in Australia. The Interior Ministry is responsible for policing and the secret service

Another name supplied by Det Snr Const Gardiner was an individual who was a member of a Balkan mafia group based in Melbourne. In 2002 when I mentioned this name to another Macedonian Interior Ministry Officer, he confirmed that the individual was involved in drugs and illegal weapons.

One of Gardiner’s favourite warnings was" If you write anything about me, I'll chop you! Wait till I’m long gone." I kept my end of the bargain for 20 years!

In 1990 he telephoned me out of the blue asking for some information on a stolen weapons racket and if I had heard anything. He said he was deeply concerned about weapons getting into the hands of the wrong people. I told him I knew nothing and asked if he would elaborate.

But being the loyal policeman he did not go into detail. Months later, the story unfolded about a Police operation targeting stolen weapons. One of those unexpectedly caught in the dragnet was Oliver Bubevich (aka as Bubev, Bubevski), also the son of Macedonian migrants, and a Vic Roads (vehicle licensing office) employee and the then owner of a pub (bar) in Fitzroy, a Melbourne’s northern inner suburb. Bubevich was an obsessed illegal gun collector without links to organised crime or Yugoslav intelligence.

According to a Herald Sun newspaper report, dated 22 March 1991, "A MAN who hid a gun in his stove and ammunition in his kitchen cupboards was fined $2500 yesterday for possessing 15 unregistered firearms. Magistrate Mr David McLennan also ordered Oliver Bubevich to perform 300 hours of unpaid community work.

"Melbourne Magistrates' Court heard on Wednesday that Bubevich was fascinated with guns and had 23 weapons - all with serial numbers drilled out or stamped over. The weapons, hidden throughout his Thomastown house, were found when police raided the property last year. Bubevich, 36, of Winamarra Cres, pleaded guilty to two counts of unlawful possession, one count of possessing silencers and 15 counts of possessing unregistered and unlicensed firearms.

The court was told police raided Bubevich's house after finding two unregistered handguns in his car and another two unregistered weapons in a second man's car after Bubevich had sold them to him.

"Bubevich denied supplying guns to the underworld and said his fascination with guns had led him to disregard the fact the serial numbers had been deleted. He told the court he had bought two of the guns from a man at a Fitzroy hotel and had found the rest on the site of a demolished Preston house.

" On 21 March 1991, the Herald Sun wrote: "Prosecutor Sen-Constable Maurice Lynn told the court Bubevich was arrested after police found two guns in his car on November 7, 1990. "They found two more guns, a .38 Rossi revolver and a .32 Webley and Scott pistol in a second man's car after Bubevich had sold them to him, he said. Sen-Constable Lynn said police then raided Bubevich's house and found 23 unregistered guns, two silencers and a large quantity of ammunition in kitchen cupboards.

"Bubevich's lawyer, Mr Peter Finkelstein, said his client was a "gun collector gone wrong". Magistrate David McLennan said he was not satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Bubevich had supplied guns to crime figures."

Mr Aco Talevski, a long time Macedonian human rights activist and former Orthodox Church leader, gave an interview filmed on camera last year. Freeze frame photo by Sasha Uzunov.

Mr Aco Talevski, a long time Macedonian human rights activist and former Orthodox Church leader, gave an interview filmed on camera last year.

He revealed:

“I met Geoff Gardiner in the early 1980s through my friend Stojan Sarbinov (another long time Macedonian activist). Geoff Gardiner was a member of the Victorian Police anti-terrorism squad.

“I had numerous meetings with Geoff Gardiner as a representative of the Macedonian community (in Melbourne) because in the past we organized a lot of protests…He was assigned to communicate with the ethnic groups.

“As a democratic society here in Australia everybody has the right to express their opinion…but it has to be conducted in a civilized and peaceful manner.”

Mr Talevski said that Gardiner had confirmed to him that a number of individuals who were saboteurs of Macedonian community events were connected to the Yugoslav government.

“These people were well connected and protected by certain forces. He (Gardiner) didn’t go further in saying…” Mr Talevski said.

Police of the calibre of Geoff Gardiner are very rare. It was because of his attention to detail, the willingness to be flexible that the shenanigans perpetrated by UDBa in the state of New South Wales, and aided indirectly by the incompetence of NSW Police Special Branch and ASIO, in the 1970s, such as the Croatian Six case did not happen in the state of Victoria.

Infamous ex-NSW Police Detective Roger Rogerson, freeze frame image from a video interview with Sasha Uzunov, May 2011. Rogerson was one of the arresting officers in the Croatian Six case. He has called ASIO "amateurs." Photo by Sasha Uzunov.

Infamous ex-NSW Police Detective Roger Rogerson, now an author, was involved in two of Australia’s highly contentious cases, the Ananda Marga-Hilton Hotel bombing and the the Croatian Six case. In February 1979 Rogerson led the raid on the Sydney home of Mile Nekic, one of the Croatian Six.

In 1991 legendary ABC TV investigative reporter Chris Masters dropped a bombshell on the Four Corners program.

Masters filed a story about The Croatian Six case. An agent provocateur set up members of Australia's Croatian community in 1979. Six Croats were imprisoned on false charges of wanting to plant bombs in Sydney.

Masters tracked down the agent provocateur, Vitomir Visimovic, who was an ethnic Serb living in Bosnia but had passed himself off as a Croat.

In fact, ASIO, the Australian Federal Police (successor of the Commonwealth Police) and the infamous and corrupt New South Wales Police Special Branch were all aware that Visimovic was an UDBa operative but suppressed the information during the trial of the Croatian Six. Moreover, the alarming thing was the Australian authorities let the man depart the country. This was during Malcolm Fraser’s tenure as Prime Minister (1975-83).

In a filmed interview last month, Rogerson revealed to me that ASIO were “amateurs.”

Victoria Police's motto is Uphold the Right...Tenez Le Droit...It certainly did that back in 1990-91 in keeping our streets safe from weapons falling into the hands of the bad guys. But we should never remain complacent.

(end)

If you have any information about UDBa activities on Australian or New Zealand soil, then I would like to hear from you. We can talk on or off camera and confidentiality is assured - Sasha Uzunov. You can contact me on sashauzunov8@gmail.com

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links:

http://teamuzunovmedia.blogspot.com/2010/06/part-3-fight-against-yugoslav.html

The Fight against Yugoslav Intelligence in Australia, parts 1, 2, 3

Part 1 - PART 1 – published in scoop.co.nz

www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1003/S00021.htm
Tuesday, March 02, 2010
ASIO’S POOR RECORD

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CROATIAN SIX CASE - 4 Corners, ABC TV, 1991 Report by Chris Masters.

Part 1 - www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2v4118TV8c

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Obtain your DVD copy of TIMOR TOUR OF DUTY - A Luke Leon Media production in conjunction with SASHA UZUNOV

go to the film link at:

http://timortourofduty.blogspot.com/

BRITT LAPTHORNE MYSTERY

Western backpackers enjoying the scenery in Dubrovnik, Croatia.

Photo copyright Sasha Uzunov 2005.

ON-LINE OPINION - Australia's e-journal

http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=8612&page=0

CSI Dubrovnik: the Britt Lapthorne mystery

by Sasha Uzunov - 4 March , 2009

The American forensic crime show franchise, CSI: Crime Scene Investigations, CSI: Miami, and CSI: New York, has sparked enormous public interest in the use of science to solve mysterious deaths or murders. Perhaps with the media feeding frenzy associated with the tragic Britt Lapthorne case, we could see a Dubrovnik CSI hitting our TV screens.

In television the whodunit is solved within 60 minutes but in real life, answers may never be found.

We know that the 21-year-old Melbourne backpacker was last seen leaving a night club in the Croatian seaside resort town of Dubrovnik on September 18, 2008 and in October of the same year her decomposed body was found in Dubrovnik waters. Her parents maintain she was murdered.

Many theories about how Lapthorne died or was killed have been offered. The latest comes from former New Zealand law graduate turned award winning television investigative reporter, Ross “Rosco” Coulthart of the Seven network. Rosco Coulthart was able to track down other female tourists who had alleged they were approached by men posing as Croatian police officers and who tried to abduct them. A photo sketch of the alleged assailants revealed they were serving Croat police officers. But local officials denied any police involvement.

Coulthart has an excellent track record in uncovering big stories and is one of the Australian media’s genuine nice guys.

However, a highly respected former Australian multicultural SBS TV star reporter, now living in Croatia, believes that the international media needs to tone down its hysterical coverage of the Britt Lapthorne and focus on the facts. Mr Vladimir Lusic, Croat born Australian who hosted the hugely successful SBS TV current affairs program Vox Populi, said:

“The Lapthorn case investigation is still open and, as far as I know, Croatian and Australian police experts are co-operating. What the outcome will be I refuse to predict since I am still a proud former Australian award winning investigative journalist.

“Everyone in Dubrovnik and the rest of Croatia sympathise with the young girl’s family, relatives and friends. In line with that, whatever the Lapthorn family thinks and says is completely understandable - they tragically lost their beloved daughter.

“However, all extensive ‘investigative’ media reports about the case and Dubrovnik which do not include all the facts are incomplete and misleading. Not telling the whole truth is equal to telling a lie,” he said.

Mr Lusic was awarded 1989 Golden Gavel Award for Excellence in Legal Reporting.

Mr Peter Hanrahan, SBS TV’s founding current affairs and news director, on December 13, 1990 told Australia’s prominent ethnic affairs expert, reporter John Masanauskas that Lusic was “a very competent journalist and always fair”.

Lusic now works for the Croatian State Broadcaster HRT (Hrvatska Radio Televisija) and heads its International Section.

Lusic has ruled out the possibility that Albanian organised crime elements tried to kidnap the Australian backpacker to use her in a brothel.

“What Albanian mafia? There are no ‘mafia’ organisations of any kind in Dubrovnik. It’s one of the world’s most peaceful tourist destinations,” he said.

“Movie stars, politicians, princesses and sheiks walk the streets without paparazzi and any other harassment. Children of all ages play in the parks without any supervision. Hundreds of thousands of tourists, including young people, pass through Dubrovnik every year. It is true that young tourists have more ‘fun’.

“They drink, get drunk and have sex on the beaches - even on the rocks high above the sea. Over the past century there were incidents when people fell or jumped from the rocks.

“However, in comparison with other places in Croatia and the world, such incidents were extremely rare. More importantly, not one kidnapping has ever been recorded in the Dubrovnik region - except, of course, during the 1991-1992 war when the Serbian led aggression on Croatia brought looting, raping, murder, destruction of property etc.”

According to testimony given to the United States Senate by the FBI in 2003, Balkan organised crime groups, particularly those composed of ethnic Albanians, have expanded rapidly over the last decade to Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Great Britain, and the Scandinavian countries, and are beginning to gain a foothold in the United States. In the last year or two, European nations have recognised that Balkan organised crime is one of the greatest criminal threats that they face. European police organisations now estimate that Balkan organised crime groups control upwards of 70 per cent of the heroin market in some of the larger European nations, and are rapidly taking over human smuggling, prostitution and car theft rings across Europe.

This writer has been to Croatia three times, 1983, 2002 and 2005 and walked the streets at night and felt very safe. In 2005 in Dubrovnik I saw hundreds of Aussie, Kiwi, Pommie, Yank, Canuck (Canadian) backpackers enjoying themselves. I even remember recognising a heavily intoxicated and aggressive Australian TV camera operator and a companion on holiday giving the locals at Dubrovnik airport disdainful looks in jest. It was all light hearted fun.

For the sake of justice and for the peace of mind of the Lapthorne family, hopefully, closure can be found.

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Sasha Uzunov is a freelance photo journalist, blogger, and budding film maker whose mission is to return Australia's national defence/ security debate to its rightful owner, the taxpayer. He also likes paparazzi photography! He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in 1991. He served as a professional soldier in the Australian Army from 1995 to 2002, and completed two tours of duty in East Timor. As a journalist he has worked in the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan. His blog is at Team Uzunov.

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