Australia: senior official discloses existence of foreign spy network. He recruited in particular a former political leader, academics and businessmen.
These extremely rare public revelations in terms of counter-espionage operations immediately provoked strong reactions, with voices raised to have the identity of the politician revealed. Australia is a member of the Group of 5 - the "Five eyes" - an intelligence alliance also including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and New Zealand, making it an attractive target for agents from countries such as China and Russia.