ASIS in Chile 1973 An ASIS station was established in Chile out of the Australian embassy in July 1971 at the request of the CIA and authorised by then Liberal Party Foreign Minister William McMahon. New Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam was informed of the operation in February 1973 and signed a document ordering the closure of the operation several weeks later. On 1 July 1973, the ASIS station in Chile reported that it had shut down and destroyed all records. However, the last ASIS agent did not leave Chile until October 1973, one month after the CIA-backed 1973 Chilean coup d'état had brought down the Allende government. Two officers of ASIO were also based in Santiago, working as migration officers during this period. pp78-92, 2015 in 40 Years are Nothing: History and memory of the 1973 coups d'état in Uruguay and Chile Edited by Pablo Leighton and Fernando López, The incident was one of two that caused a confrontation between Whitlam and Bill Robertson, the director-general of ASIS, which culminated in Robertson's sacking on 21 October 1975, with effect from 7 November, just four days before Whitlam's own dismissal in the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis. Whitlam said Robertson had disobeyed instructions by delaying the closure of the ASIS station in Chile in 1973 and not informing Whitlam that ASIS had an active agent in East Timor in 1975. Robertson disputed the details in a personal statement lodged with the National Archives in 2009.
ASIS in Chile 1973 An ASIS station was established in Chile out of the Australian embassy in July 1971 at the request of the CIA and authorised by then Liberal Party Foreign Minister William McMahon. New Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam was informed of the operation in February 1973 and signed a document ordering the closure of the operation several weeks later. On 1 July 1973 the ASIS station in Chile reported that it had shut down and destroyed all records. However, the last ASIS agent did not leave Chile until October 1973, one month after the CIA-backed 1973 Chilean coup d'état had brought down the Allende government. Two officers of ASIO were also based in Santiago, working as migration officers during this period pp78-92, 2015 in 40 Years are Nothing: History and memory of the 1973 coups d'état in Uruguay and Chile Edited by Pablo Leighton and Fernando López, The incident was one of two that caused a confrontation between Whitlam and Bill Robertson, the director-general of ASIS, which culminated in Robertson's sacking on 21 October 1975, with effect from 7 November, just four days before Whitlam's own dismissal in the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis. Whitlam said Robertson had disobeyed instructions by delaying the closure of the ASIS station in Chile in 1973 and not informing Whitlam that ASIS had an active agent in East Timor in 1975. Robertson disputed the details in a personal statement lodged with the National Archives in 2009.