Patrick Walters, John Kerin and Misha Schubert – ASIO deliberately withheld counter-terrorism intelligence from the Australian Federal Police based on the spy agency's "idiosyncratic calculation of the national interest", according to a new study by a leading US think tank.
In a searing analysis, the Rand Corporation study also backs the claims of regional terrorism experts that ASIO blatantly disregarded the assessment of the threat posed by Jemaah Islamiah, which if followed could have prevented the October 2002 Bali bombings that killed 88 Australians.
Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said last night that while Bali had been mentioned in a generic form, an investigation by former Inspector-General of Intelligence Bill Blick found "there was no specific intelligence ... that Bali was vulnerable".
Putting more pressure on the security network, a former intelligence official added weight to accusations made by army whistleblower Lieutenant-Colonel Lance Collins yesterday by claiming a secret document circulated within spy agencies in the late 1990s had warned analysts about the threat to their career of giving advice challenging a pro-Jakarta lobby in the bureaucracy.
John Howard dismissed the Rand claim of tensions between ASIO and the AFP.
"These two agencies, in particular ASIO and the AFP, have co-operated very closely. I have observed it, I see it on a very regular basis," the Prime Minister said.
The Rand Corporation study claimed that tension between ASIO and the AFP had created a view that the "ASIO-AFP" relationship was "neither two-way or mutually beneficial".
AFP commissioner Mick Keelty last night denied any strains. "ASIO and the AFP have a close working relationship, which has become closer since September 11, and we share a commitment to fight terrorism," he said.
"The community expects it and recent joint operations have demonstrated this."
His view was backed by other senior ASIO and AFP sources, who said that if information had been withheld it was due to administrative oversight rather than deliberate omission.
A series of government inquiries in the wake of the Bali bombings failed to find any specific intelligence that could have helped avert the Bali bombings.
The Rand study examined intelligence agencies, police and their roles in fighting terrorism in four Western countries – Australia, Canada, Britain and France.
It said that "operationally", the counter-terrorist record of the domestic intelligence agencies had been far from perfect, with ASIO's counterparts in Britain and Canada accused of failing to pass on intelligence to relevant authorities that could have prevented several high-profile terrorist incidents.
It claimed that ASIO's occasional withholding of information from the AFP had caused disquiet in the law enforcement community.
"One former high-ranking federal police officer claims that this problem has steadily worsened since 2002 on account of jurisdictional jealousies arising over investigative visibility and profile that have been accorded the AFP in the wake of the Bali bombings," it said.