Jewish ADF officer stripped of security clearance over espionage risk, still in reserve after tribunal

An army officer stripped of his security clearance due to ASIO’s concern he is more loyal to Israel than Australia has not been kicked out of the nation’s defence force.

Despite having served in the Australian Defence Force for 19 years, the officer told ASIO he did not view Israel as a foreign government and would share classified information with its military if asked for it.

Under questioning at a Senate Estimates hearing on Wednesday, Chief of Army Lieutenant-General Simon Stuart confirmed the officer still remained in the ADF in the inactive reserve, pending administrative action.

Greens Senator David Shoebridge grilled defence officials on why this was the case.

“What does it take to have somebody removed from the ADF?” he said.

“Ensuring that members of the ADF, their highest loyalty is to Australia. I would have thought is something that you would take as incredibly serious.”

Senator Shoebridge asked if a review had been undertaken to ensure no other ADF members had undergone training making them susceptible to recruitment by a foreign government.

The question was taken on notice.

Defence force chief Admiral David Johnston said the ADF had “clear expectations” members fully complied with the rules.

Anonymised as HWMW, a tribunal backed in the adverse security assessment made by the intelligence agency in June 2023, to revoke the army officer’s high-level clearance which allows access to top secret information.

“HWMW is vulnerable to influence or coercion to enable acts of espionage or foreign interference by Israeli Intelligence Services due to his loyalty to Israel,” the tribunal found.

The Jewish officer, who is not an Israeli citizen, withheld information from Australian officials about training courses he had completed overseas.

“Zionism is an essential theme within Judaism. Judaism mandates the loyalty of a Jew to his people and to the Land of Israel,” he told ASIO.