This is a transcript of the story that appeared on the Channel Nine “Sunday” program on the 25th Aug 2002.
Aug 26 2002 – The attacks on America nearly a year ago continue to have an impact on the way governments and their intelligence services operate around the world. Sunday’s John Lyons looks at how September 11 has changed the way ASIO, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, has operated.
Lyons takes the example of Zak Mallah, an 18-year-old orphan currently stacking shelves at a supermarket in Sydney. To his colleagues and even some intelligence operatives in Canberra, he’s merely an exuberant teenager who talks tough, but has never harmed a soul. But to Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, and the Director-General of ASIO, Dennis Richardson, he’s a major threat to Australia’s national security. So great a threat that he has been refused a passport