Australia spy 'leaked US secrets'

By Red Harrison
BBC, Sydney

An Australian television documentary has alleged that a spy fed British and American secrets to Moscow for 15 years and has never been caught.

The ABC programme Four Corners said the spy worked for ASIO, the Australian Secret Intelligence Organisation.

His work is said to have threatened the foundation of Australia's military alliance with Britain and the US.

The information was so good, according to the documentary, that authorities in Moscow were at first suspicious.

But a former British spy, Kim Philby, who defected to Moscow, confirmed that the information was genuine.

A former KGB general, Oleg Kalugin, told the programme that once ASIO had been penetrated, Moscow was able to achieve very deep penetration of Britain's secret agencies, MI5 and MI6, as well as America's CIA and the FBI.

A senior Australian government official said Washington responded to the leak of information by limiting the flow of intelligence to Australia.

Investigations in the early 1990s resulted in George Sadil, a Russian-language translator in ASIO, being charged with possessing secret papers.

But a court case lasting nearly four months found no evidence that Mr Sadil had passed information to anyone and the case collapsed.

Oleg Kalugin says the spy in Canberra asked for and received thousands of dollars, but he added that the Australian authorities had never discovered his identity.