While statutorily established to investigate and bring to judgment those guilty of the civil and canonical crime at the time that was heresy, the inquisitors general and their eight-man teams were obliged by circumstances of history to develop sophisticated networks of capable informants who would excel at acting as true spies. Those who have difficulty believing that cassock-attired clerics comprise the world's greatest intelligence network fail to recall just how it was the papacy, the most powerful institution in history, that invented and developed to great success the Catholic Church's tip-of-the-spear agency to investigate and gather information pertaining to dangerous sects threatening the stability of the Church, societies and kingdoms: the Papal Inquisition. For one to focus, however, on official names and structures is to miss the forest for the trees when it comes to the Vatican's intelligence network.

Some say that the Vatican's counter-espionage section is the Sodalitium Pianum of the turn of the last century that everyone thought had been disbanded. This was long before the CIA even conceived of overthrowing governments. Pius V in 1566 in order to gather intelligence from the court of Elizabeth I and obtain her overthrow from power. With motto being Cum Cruce et Gladio ('With the Cross and Sword'), it is said to have been created by Pope St. The true name of the Vatican's clandestine intelligence service is Santa Alleanza ('Holy Alliance') or L'Entità ('The Entity') according to Allen Dulles, the first director of the CIA. Viganò, the Vatican's most wanted man, is on the run and has gone into hiding. “I don’t comment on national security briefings, but I just say that ASIO do a very good job in defending Australia’s national interest and they have my absolute confidence and support in doing that job,” Albanese told reporters.It is for no small reason that Abp. “It was obvious to us that the spies were highly trained because they used sophisticated tradecraft to disguise their activities,” Burgess added.ĪSIO “removed them from this country, privately and professionally,” he said.Īustralia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese would not say whether the spy network that ASIO had disrupted was Russian. Among other malicious activities, they wanted to steal sensitive information,” Burgess said in ASIO’s annual report on threats posed to Australia. “Proxies and agents were recruited as part of a wider network. Precise numbers of those exposed as spies have not been reported. Though not naming the country involved, Burgess had said ASIO “detected and disrupted a major spy network”, which he likened to a “hive” as it was bigger and more dangerous than a “nest” of spies previously disrupted. On Tuesday, ASIO’s secretary-general of Security Mike Burgess described the uncovering of a spy network at the launch of his agency’s annual report. The Sydney Morning Herald February 23, 2023 The Russian embassy in Australia had not responded to a request for comment on Friday.ĪSIO was originally established in 1949 to probe the suspected leak of Australian government secrets to the then-Soviet Union, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.Įxclusive: Fake Russian diplomats revealed as heart of ‘hive’ spy ring in Australia There were concerns that publicly expelling the spies could lead to retaliation by Moscow against diplomats and other Australians living in Russia. The Russian spies were quietly forced out of Australia over the past six months with their visas not renewed or cancelled, the newspaper reported. The ring had operated in Australia for 18 months before it was uncovered and its activities were broken up by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), the country’s main domestic spy agency, the newspaper reported. The spy ring comprised purported embassy and consular staff as well as other operatives using deep-cover identities, The Sydney Morning Herald reported on Friday, citing unnamed sources with knowledge of the operation. Australia has exposed and quietly expelled a large Russian spy ring whose members were posing as diplomats, a local newspaper has reported just days after Australia’s intelligence chief revealed that his agency had scored a major counterespionage success.

The spy network