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

SAS SOLDIER SPIES

(Top left): In 2006 the then Governor General of Australia Major General Michael Jeffrey decorates an SASR trooper with the Medal for Gallantry in the Afghanistan War. SASR soldiers are praised for being unconventional warriors. But not according to a recent article by journalist Rafael Epstein (bottom) who has used some "unconventional methods" to get a story. Photo sources: Defence Department and ABC.

SECRET SOLDIER SPIES, SO WHAT?

By Sasha Uzunov

The revelation that elite Australian Special Forces soldiers are being used in an unconventional role as spies in parts of Africa should be applauded not criticised.

A report in Melbourne newspaper The Age by Rafael “Roadblock” Epstein and Dylan Welch, titled “Secret SAS squadron sent to spy in Africa, March 13, 2012,

www.theage.com.au/opinion/political-news/secret-sas-squadron-sent-to-spy-in-africa-20120312-1uwjs.html#ixzz1ox8IKUa0

creates an atmosphere of scaremongering with the usual suspects, self-appointed expert and ex-The Age journalist Hugh White, throwing his two cents worth about how bad the idea is.

The Age's in-house media tough guy Tim Lester of Timor Leste fame has also jumped on the bandwagon:

www.theage.com.au/opinion/political-news/sas-is-involved-in--foreign-intelligence-work-smith-20120313-1uxds.html

The unit known as 4 Squadron SASR has deployed plain clothed soldiers in parts of Africa on intelligence gathering missions, namely focusing on possible kidnapping of Australian citizens or Islamic fundamentalist activity.

This is in stark contrast to the Australian Federal ALP government's passivity that saw Australian backpacker David Wilson kidnapped and murdered by Khmer Rouge guerillas in Cambodia in 1994. No doubt if 4 Squadron was around then, Wilson may have had a fighting chance. In fact, both of Australia's spy agencies ASIO and ASIS are a running joke. It is probably a good idea that we have 4 Squardon.

But for some of us The Age article sounds more of a cynical exercise in carving up the lucrative SASR book industry. Surprisingly, News Limited's Defence reporter Ian McPhedran was beaten to the punch by Epstein and Welch on this story. McPhedran is seen as an unofficial member of the SASR. There was a running joke in Canberra that a high ranking Australian Army officer wanted to send McPhedran an SASR sand coloured beret in the mail as a sarcastic joke but was talked out of it by wiser and calmer subordinates.

The Special Air Service Regiment (SASR) or SAS is one of the Australian Army elite units and a major part of Special Operations Command. Together with 1st and 2nd Commando Regiments forms the backbone of counter-terrorism in Australia and front-line combat missions in Afghanistan.

Over the past 20 years a number of best-selling books about the SASR and its British parent SAS have been written and a genre of its own has developed.

Heaven forbid should Epstein, Welch or for that matter Lester ever be kidnapped overseas by the bad guys and there are no SASR soldiers to rescue them. Perhaps that would be hubris.

Let us take Rafael “Roadblock” Epstein, who as a journalist has employed “unconventional methods” to get the story but the SASR are not allowed to be used outside the box:

In an earlier article for www.scoop.co.nz , I detailed a scandal that never was involving Australian Commandos in Afghanistan, which was pursued by Epstein:

www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1107/S00091/australian-experts-with-egg-on-their-faces.htm

There is a public perception that journalists have become a law onto themselves that is they have a special media sheriff’s badge they can flash, whilst the rest of us cannot even ask a question.

Rafael Epstein, former ABC TV reporter and now with Fairfax. In 2010, the taxpayer funded journalist got up to some shenanigans and tied up valuable court time:

“Victoria Police will not prosecute a former ABC journalist accused of breaching police roadblocks after the Black Saturday bushfires.

“Rafael Epstein and a cameraman were stopped by officers in the main street of Kinglake on February 24 last year.

“Mr Epstein, who now works at The Age, admitted to deliberately entering an area restricted by the coroner. Mr Epstein's lawyers and the Office of Public Prosecutions agreed charges would not proceed, no conviction be recorded and that the matter would be dealt with through the Magistrates Court diversion program.

“Under diversion, Mr Epstein donated $2000 to Strathewen Primary School and admitted wrongdoing. He said: ''I apologise to local residents and police. I do wish to stress that my intention was to provide constructive and responsible coverage.''

You can bet your bottom dollar that if a teenage citizen journalist shooting a news clip about the bushfires for you-tube would have had the book thrown at them.

Now for Hugh White, a “Defence expert” who has never served in uniform but spent some time as a desk bound spook for the Office of National Assessments, the Australian Prime Minister's own spy agency.

Again, drawing on scoop.co.nz article

www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1107/S00091/australian-experts-with-egg-on-their-faces.htm

White, a former Fairfax newspaper journalist turned defence expert, came up with the “brilliant idea” of cutting back our front-line combat troops, such as infantry, in the mid 1990s. When the East Timor crisis erupted in late 1999 the Australian Army did not have enough infantry “gunslingers” and was forced to cannibalise reserve units for soldiers.

In 1998 the then Chief of Australia's Army Lieutenant General Frank Hickling was so concerned that our army was run down at the hands of Dibb-White that he issued his famous back to basics directive ordering all soldiers sharpen up their war fighting skills. A year later his move had potentially saved the lives of many young Australian soldiers engaged in a conflict with pro-Indonesian militia in East Timor. General Hickling had to fight off opposition from some of Canberra's desk warriors and self-appointed experts who "knew better."

Now all of a sudden White expresses concerns for SASR soldiers in spy missions:

''Such an operation deprives the soldier of a whole lot of protections, including their legal status and, in a sense, their identity as a soldier. I think governments should think extremely carefully before they ask soldiers to do that.''

Yet, back in 1990-91 and even to this day White has never expressed any concern for the Australian Navy sailors suffering from Gulf War Syndrome from the first Iraq War which he had a hand in sending, as I revealed in my article for the Herald Sun newspaper in 2007:

www.heraldsun.com.au/news/labor-must-help-stricken-soldiers/story-e6frfimf-1111112976611

In fact, The Age newspaper for reasons that remain a mystery have refused to scrutinise White's record as a “defence expert.”

Once again from the scoop.co.nz archives we hear about Tim Lester's exploits:

www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1007/S00246/aus-fed-election-journo-takes-down-senator.htm

In 2008 Lester, as a reporter with the commercial network Nine, complained the ADF would not be his taxpayer funded cab service in Iraq to observe Australian troops pulling out. He moaned:

“I am one of the reporters who wanted the necessary transport and protection to cover our 550 combat troops as they leave Tallil Air Base in Southern Iraq.”

But surely the great Tim Lester of Timor Leste fame would not need ADF transport and protection to navigate through a warzone in Iraq?

Britain’s top war reporter Sir Max Hastings, in his autobiographical account of his career, Going to The Wars, tells of taking a private taxi to the Golan Heights during the 1973 Yom Kippur War that pitted Israel against its Arab neighbours and of driving with a colleague into the Sinai desert, after not receiving any assistance from the Israeli government.

The Australian media have a moral obligation to keep tabs on the military, the intelligence agencies as well governments. But we can only have an informed defence debate when we allow many voices, not just an elite few who have hijacked the debate for their own purposes.

We need to remind our information gatekeepers that Australia's defence debate belongs to the Australian taxpayer and is not the personal property of a handful to make money out of books, or push their own political agendas.

EXPERTS DOUBT UDBa "TORTURE CHAMBER"

Australian counter-intelligence experts, speaking on the strictest conditions of anonymity, have told TEAM UZUNOV they doubt the existence of a torture chamber in the old Yugoslav Embassy in Canberra, Australia.

The extraordinary claims were made by Melbourne photographer Nikola Stavrevski in a filmed interview for an upcoming documentary film, UDBa down under.

Mr Stavrevski was invited by the Ambassador of the Republic of Macedonia to Australia, Mr Pero Stojanovski, to photograph the handover-takeover ceremony of the former Yugoslav Embassy in Canberra by the Macedonian government in July 2011. Serbian diplomatic officials handed over the keys.

After the collapse of Communist Federal Yugoslavia (SFRJ) in 1991, the various diplomatic missions were split up amongst the successor states, Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Slovenia.

“Ambassador Stojanovski told me,” Mr Stavrevski said, “that I wasn't permitted to photograph a particular room inside the embassy. This room had been left closed up and unused for many years.”

“When we opened the door to have a look inside, I was shocked at what I saw,” Mr Stavrevski.

“The room was sound proofed, dark, and had a bathtub in the middle with a wooden rack used to either tie down or secure something.”

He said that he immediately got the impression it had been a torture chamber used by the then Yugoslav Embassy and its secret police, UDBa.”

“Ambassador Stojanovski said to me that it was a delicate matter at the moment and that in due course the matter would be revealed in full detail.”

Australian counter-intelligence experts have told TEAM UZUNOV that it would be highly unlikely that UDBa would have run a torture cell on Australian territory.

“Anything is possible but ASIO (Australian Security Intelligence Organisation) would have been monitoring the Yugoslav Embassy in Canberra during the 1960s, 70s, 80s and 90s. They would’ve bugged the place. If anything of that nature occurred, then there would be details in ASIO files. The Australian media would have gotten wind of it long ago.”

Another expert said: “It would’ve been too risky for UDBa to have kidnapped people off the streets and taken them back to the Canberra. For that to happen you would need ASIO or the various Australian state police forces to have been either incompetent or outsmarted by UDBa.”

Mr Stavrevski stands by his allegations.

TEAM UZUNOV is in the process of trying to contact Mr Pero Stojanovski, the ex-Republic of Macedonia Ambassador to Australia, for comment.

(end)

UDBa "TORTURE CHAMBER" IN CANBERRA

“UDBA down under” – documentary film about Communist Yugoslav spying in Australia.

FILM'S SHOCKING ALLEGATION: COMMUNIST TORTURE CHAMBER IN CANBERRA

The Former Yugoslav Embassy in Canberra with the alleged torture chamber. In 2011 it was handed over to the Republic of Macedonia.

Photo: The handover takeover ceremony of the Embassy of the Republic of Macedonia, July 2011. Mr Nikola Stavrevski is on the far right of photo. The Ambassador Mr Pero Stojanovski is in the centre, white shirt, black suit and wearing glasses.

Mr Nikola Stavrevski, who runs a successful photography business in Melbourne, has revealed in a camera interview for an upcoming Australian documentary film, that he saw what appeared to be a torture chamber in the old Yugoslav Embassy in Canberra, the Australian capital.

Mr Stavrevski, also the editor of a popular news website for the Australian-Macedonan community known as Informator, agreed to make his shocking allegation on camera for the documentary film “UDBa down under”, directed and produced by Melbourne independent film maker Sasha Uzunov, which details the former Communist Yugoslav regime's use of its secret police to discredit emigre Croats, Macedonians and other dissidents.

Mr Nikola Stavrevski agreed to make his allegations on camera for the documentary film: "UDBa down under." Photo by Sasha Uzunov 2012.

Mr Stavrevski was invited by the Ambassador of the Republic of Macedonia to Australia, Mr Pero Stojanovski, to photograph the handover-takeover ceremony of the former Yugoslav Embassy in Canberra by the Macedonian government in July 2011. Serbian diplomatic officials handed over the keys.

After the collapse of Communist Federal Yugoslavia (SFRJ) in 1991, the various diplomatic missions were split up amongst the successor states, Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Slovenia.

“Ambassador Stojanovski told me,” Mr Stavrevski said, “that I wasn't permitted to photograph a particular room inside the embassy. This room had been left closed up and unused for many years.”

“When we opened the door to have a look inside, I was shocked at what I saw,” Mr Stavrevski.

“The room was sound proofed, dark, and had a bathtub in the middle with a wooden rack used to to either tied down or secure something.”

He said that he immediately got the impression it had been a torture chamber used by the then Yugoslav Embassy and its secret police, UDBa.”

“Ambassador Stojanovski said to me that it was a delicate matter at the moment and that in due course the matter would be revealed in full detail.”

Mr Stavrevski further alleged in the filmed interview that he knew of Australian-Croats and Macedonians who had been “kidnapped” off the streets in Melbourne and Sydney and tortured by UDBa officers during the 1970s and 1980s.

Ambassador Stojanovski later became the centre of controversy over a legal dispute with his then girlfriend Lidija Dumbaloska over a failed relationship.

Link: Sydney Morning Herald article:

www.smh.com.au/national/exlover-menaced-diplomat-20110101-19cin.html

Film details

UDBa down under (45 minutes running time) – release date: late 2012 / early 2013.

An Australian a documentary film about the Yugoslav secret police (UDBa) in Australia, with a release date in early 2013. Directed and produced by Sasha Uzunov/Luke Leon Media. Interviewed on camera are Croatian and Macedonian community leaders, ex-Australian state police officers involved in counter-intelligence operations, and former spies both here in Australia and overseas.

The trailer/preview of UDBa down under - Yugoslav spying in Australia.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuMIDTPyGe0&feature=share

Sasha Uzunov's film making resume:

Director/Producer

Timor Tour of Duty (Documentary film) 2009

Brave Love (Short film) 2011 -

Kate's Screen test (Short film) 2012 -

UDBa down under (Documentary film) - 2012/13

Cameraman

Afghanistan: Outside the wire (Documentary film) – Canadian Cable TV News (CPAC) 2011.

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Hamish McDonald

Respected Australian journalist Hamish McDonald's recent article titled, Framed: the untold story about the Croatian Six, in the Sydney Morning Herald, dated: 11 February 2012,

www.smh.com.au/national/framed-the-untold-story-about-the-croatian-six-20120210-1smum.html

McDonald in the longer e-book version (kindle) of his article writes:

“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."

Who was the Croatian Six Mastermind? article by Sasha Uzunov.

http://teamuzunovmedia.blogspot.com.au/2011/07/croatian-six-mastermind.html”