Mike Burgess’s annual threat assessment warns social media is ‘amplifying’ an erosion of trust in institutions, promoting discord and heightening polarisationGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastAn Australian citizen working as a senior intelligence officer for Iran “orchestrated” a firebombing in Bondi, the country’s top spy has claimed, while a former Australian resident in Iraq allegedly directed an attack on a Melbourne synagogue.The alleged homegrown ties to Australia’s “summer of antisemitism” were contained in a wide-ranging speech given by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (Asio) director general, Mike Burgess, on Wednesday night. He said in the address that the “hatred of Jews is one thing virtually all the violent extremist cohorts have in common”.

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