Do ASIS (Australian Security Intelligence Service) carry guns?
Drawn from the ASIS webpage FAQ “Do ASIS officers carry weapons? Yes, but only in certain circumstances and not for offensive purposes. Recent amendments to our legislation empower ASIS to provide for the protection of our people. Schedule 2 of the Intelligence Services Act 2001 sets out the conditions by which ASIS officers are permitted to carry weapons for self-defence purposes only.” There is heaps of information on who ASIS are and what they do. In a nutshell though ASIS are our international intelligence agency and would do a lot of field work overseas as well as desk work. ASIS would be akin to the CIA an MI6 ASIO is akin to MI5 but also has affiliation to the CIA, but deals exclusively with domestic matters they are also unarmed and rely of the federal police for powers of arrest. Then there is DSD which is akin to the NSA Also DIO (Defence intelligence) which is tasked to provide Defence with it’s “intelligence” ONA and DIGO are also there to round out Australias intelligence
