USA -

When Spies Fight

An ABC Australia production

June 2001 – 45 mins

Sandra Jenkins speaks for the first time about her husband’s death and the cloud of official suspicion that surrounded him in the last weeks of his life.

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Reporter: Andrew Fowler
Producer: Quentin McDermott
Research: Peter Cronau

ANDREW FOWLER: In the early Washington summer of 1999 an Australian intelligence officer committed suicide.

ALEXANDER DOWNER, FOREIGN AFFAIRS MINISTER: You know the central point here?

The central point here is this is a terrible human tragedy.

The central point here is that there is a widow and there are three sons.

ANDREW FOWLER: But Merv Jenkins's suicide was not simply a personal tragedy.

Four Corners briefly reported his death a year ago.

Since then, we've learned a lot more about the Jenkins story.

SANDRA JENKINS, MERV JENKINS' WIFE: He was angry because the CIA were upset that he wasn't passing over information that they really required.

ANDREW FOWLER: We've learned that in his last months Jenkins was distressed by a secret rift between Australia and its chief ally, the US.

During Canberra's most pressing foreign policy crisis since Vietnam, Jenkins had to cope with unhappy allies and confusing signals from his own bosses.

In the end, he didn't cope.

NOEL ADAMS, CO 7 SIGNIFICANT REGT (EW) 1992-93: He was clearly under enormous stress, you know?

You could see it in his face.

His eyes were sort of red-rimmed.

Er -- you could just see the pressure that he was under.

ANDREW FOWLER: Tonight, on Four Corners, the full story of a breakdown in intelligence sharing with the US and the breakdown of a man caught in the crossfire.

The story of Lieutenant Colonel Merv Jenkins begins and ends here, at the Royal Military College, Duntroon.

Here, the former intelligence officer refined his skills and philosophy.

ABC INTERVIEWER: The Royal Military College, Duntroon, has but a single purpose -- to train officers for what it likes to call "the profession of arms".

ANDREW FOWLER: At Duntroon, Jenkins was interviewed by chance for a Four Corners program.

ABC INTERVIEWER: What does honour mean to you exactly?

MERV JENKINS: Honour, loyalty, integrity, er --

Above all, er -- a respect within ourselves.

ABC INTERVIEWER: What do the words themselves mean to you?

What does honour, for instance, mean to you?

MERV JENKINS: Um -- pride within myself for what I'm doing.

ANDREW FOWLER: 30 years later, the career that had promised so much finished in a funeral at the church where he had prayed as a cadet.

Jenkins had developed into one of the military's best and brightest.

Lower ranks and the top brass alike crammed the chapel.

SANDRA JENKINS, MERV JENKINS' WIDOW: There were people at that funeral that I had never even met, because in the military, the spouse doesn't always get to meet everybody that -- the, um --

serving officer works with.

But it -- it was just wonderful.

I could not believe when I walked in there and the chapel was full.

ANDREW FOWLER: A With the help of Merv Jenkins's wife Sandra, and his mother Enid, Four Corners has sifted through thousands of pages of freedom of information material, and been given unique access to the former intelligence officer's personal papers.

ENID JENKINS, MERV JENKINS' MOTHER: What's disclosed in one document is not disclosed in another.

For example, blocked out in one copy.

ANDREW FOWLER: Yeah.

ENID JENKINS: There in another copy.

Yeah.

Right here.

Yeah.

ENID JENKINS: Yes.

ANDREW FOWLER: We've also talked to dozens of intelligence insiders and former colleagues in an attempt to unravel the puzzle of Jenkins's last days.

As so often happens with suicide, his family may never fully understand the death.

But our investigation raises real questions about the management of Australia's most important defence relationship.

Five years ago, Jenkins got what should have been his dream posting.

He came to Washington, the world capital of intelligence analysis, to liaise with the Americans.

It was a new phase of a brilliant career as an intelligence professional.

Jenkins had specialised in covert operations.

Within two years of graduating from Duntroon, he took over as the head of an elite and highly secret group of commandos known as 660 Signal Troop, providing communications for ASIS agents overseas.

NOEL ADAMS, CO 7 SIG REGT (EW) 1992-93: It comprised about 10 to 15 regular soldiers who were very highly skilled advanced radio operators and who also had Special Forces skills.

ANDREW FOWLER: As the years passed, Jenkins became deeply involved in specialised electronic warfare, which includes electronic games with enemy communications, jamming signals and sending out false messages.

Jenkins became commanding officer of 72 Electronic Warfare Squadron, based in Queensland.

His job -- to restructure the army's involvement in electronic warfare.

NOEL ADAMS: There were a lot of conflicting ideas about how that would be advanced and it was really going round and round in circles.

But he got in there and he drove it.

He went away for a couple of days and came back with a 40 page plan, which was then --

then was the flagship for that, er -- for that change over the, er -- over the ensuing years.

We worked together over many years.

ANDREW FOWLER: Noel Adams, a former electronic warfare commanding officer and intelligence analyst, knew Jenkins well and admired him.

NOEL ADAMS: The soldiers worshipped him.

He was very highly regarded by the troops.

He was a great natural leader and he produced results.

And, er -- so he was, you know, generally highly regarded.

Now, in producing results sometimes he got a few people with other vested interests offside, because he did drive things fairly hard to get this, er --

..to get 72 EW Squadron properly on the road.

ANDREW FOWLER: As an officer, Jenkins liked to make plans.

He forged a reputation as a strategic thinker -- a Mr Fixit.

His mind worked best with certainty, precision and control.

In 1990, now a Lieutenant Colonel, Jenkins quit the military.

Army rules and regulations had given him an environment in which he thrived.

But he'd found a better job.

It was still in high-tech intelligence, but it required him to become a Defence Department civilian.

PROFESSOR DES BALL, STRATEGIC & DEFENCE STUDIES CENTRE, ANU: I think that when he was confronted with people in their pin-striped suits he would have got very worried, because they're talking a whole different language to what he's been brought up in in military and defence intelligence and real questions of national security.

ANDREW FOWLER: The new job thrust him to the heart of a secret military agreement with the United States.

The US was perfecting high-resolution satellite pictures -- the gems of the intelligence world.

JEFFREY T.

RICHELSON, US INTELLIGENCE EXPERT: The United States has capabilities for producing a flood of data, both in terms of satellite imagery as well as communication intercepts.

And it's far more than the United States can hope to analyse.

So what often happens is that it will share its take from these collection systems with its UK/USA partners -- its Australian, Canadian, British and New Zealand partners -- and have them do part of the analysis.

ANDREW FOWLER: Jenkins was assigned to overhaul the satellite imagery strategy of the Defence Intelligence Organisation, the DIO.

PETER CZETI, AUSTRALIAN INTELLIGENCE LIAISON OFFICER, WASHINGTON 1995-98: The general game plan is that we contribute to the overall intelligence pool, for want of a better description, or material from what we know best, which is our region, and in terms --

And then we --

It's called 'burden sharing' is the official term that they use.

And that then we benefit from the labour of our partners and we're able to draw on material they provide on parts of the world that we can't cover.

ANDREW FOWLER: In 1996, Jenkins got the posting he wanted as DIO attache for North America.

His chief task was to improve the flow of information to the Americans, who were complaining that Australia wasn't pulling its weight.

Peter Czeti was his deputy.

We've been told that sometimes the Americans weren't impressed with the level of input that Australia was giving to this pool.

Some of the information wasn't being analysed.

We hadn't done our job.

PETER CZETI: It was a constant source of frustration and embarrassment, yes.

ANDREW FOWLER: When you say, "constant source of frustration and embarrassment," what do you mean by that?

What's the example?

PETER CZETI: Basically, that, um, we would be requested for intelligence material by our allies on numerous occasions.

We would make those requests and send them back to Australia and they sat there.

And I mean months, years, and they were never fulfilled.

And these were areas that we were experts in.

So there's no reason why we couldn't have provided the material, it's just that it never happened.

ANDREW FOWLER: The Jenkins family moved into the suburb of Arlington.

The house they chose was on Spy Hill -- a key landmark in the Civil War.

PETER CZETI: His role was to basically knock the office into shape and make it a far more active agent in helping determine the relationships between DIO and its agencies and its sister agencies in the States.

ANDREW FOWLER: Jenkins's task was to liaise with the Central Intelligence Agency, the CIA, and America's Defense Intelligence Agency, the DIA.

The DIA is headquartered here at Bolling Air Force Base to the south of Washington.

On the fourth floor of its embassy, Australia has another intelligence presence.

The Office of National Assessments provides overall strategic and diplomatic analysis to the Federal Government.

The Defence Intelligence Organisation, where Jenkins worked, and the Office of National Assessments dealt separately with the CIA.

It was a time the Americans needed Australian expertise to help understand the events which would culminate in the downfall of Soeharto's Indonesian regime.

The CIA became concerned that information was being held back.

PROFESSOR DES BALL: ONA during that period was really quite complacent.

The view in ONA was that not only is Indonesian stability essential to Australian security, but because of our close intelligence and military links with Indonesia, we could pretty much guarantee that Indonesian stability and hence, indirectly, our own security.

And the notion that there was some finite length of time on Soeharto's life or on his reign or on his tenure never seemed to have crept into ONA analysis up until 1998.

ANDREW FOWLER: What did the Americans, and the CIA in particular, think of the kind of analysis they were getting through their major liaison partner in Washington?

PROFESSOR DES BALL: I think it's quite clear that CIA thought that the material coming from ONA was quite inadequate.

It was inadequate because it was insufficiently detailed.

It was inadequate because it tended to be anodyne, rather than coming to sharp conclusions.

ANDREW FOWLER: How best to deal with the Americans caused a rift.

Merv Jenkins and ONA liaison officer Clare Birgin, disagreed over the level of independent contact Jenkins should have with the CIA.

According to Sandra Jenkins, the CIA started applying pressure.

SANDRA JENKINS: He was angry because the CIA were upset that he wasn't passing over information that they really required.

And that they, that the CIA expected a lot more out of Australia.

They expected a lot more information.

ANDREW FOWLER: What did he say about the refusal to hand over information?

Or about the problem --

SANDRA JENKINS: Just, just shrugged his shoulders and I said, "I don't know what we can do about it."

He said, "I've been trying and trying to make Australia see reason for it, but -- " ANDREW FOWLER: Professor Des Ball is an expert on Australia's intelligence relationship with the United States.

He's looked into the embassy's intelligence operation during Jenkins's attachment.

PROFESSOR DES BALL: The atmosphere was one of tension, it was one of noncooperation.

Ah, some people who are familiar with it have described it as poisonous.

ANDREW FOWLER: The mood was so bad that Richard Smith, ONA's Director General, made a special trip from Canberra to try to sort out the mess.

In February 1998, he met his ONA colleague Clare Birgin and other senior embassy intelligence officers.

The meeting concentrated on the escalating crisis in Indonesia and on demands from the CIA for more intelligence.

When the meeting ended, Jenkins was convinced he had approval to continue passing Australian Eyes Only, AUSTEO material, to the US.

The embassy's defence counsellor, Pat Carroll, took the same understanding away from the meeting.

BRIAN HATCH, JENKINS FAMILY LAWYER: Merv was left with the impression that he had the authority to hand over what are called AUSTEO documents.

And he then operated with that authority.

Other people at the same meeting did not come away with exactly the same view.

Some agreed with Merv, some didn't entirely agree.

So we had a situation of a senior intelligence liaison officer in Washington acting under verbal instructions which could have been misinterpreted.

ANDREW FOWLER: Jenkins's problems with ONA continued.

He would soon also be having problems in his own office.

Wing Commander Steve Butterworth had just arrived to work with Jenkins and another DIO liaison officer, Dennis Magennis.

Peter Czeti, Merv Jenkins's friend and second-in-command, was leaving.

The Jenkins family threw a hail and farewell party.

The party atmosphere soon evaporated.

The relationship between Jenkins, and Butterworth and Magennis, was soon as cool as the weather.

Their job was to liaise with the Defence Intelligence Agency here at Bolling Air Force Base.

As uniformed soldiers, Butterworth and Magennis disliked the authority Jenkins, now a civilian, exercised over them.

Instead of acting as couriers between Jenkins and US intelligence agencies, they started opening the mail he sent to his American counterparts.

BRIAN HATCH: They say they discovered what are called AUSTEO documents.

An AUSTEO document is 'Australian Eyes Only' and is supposedly not to be handed on to a foreigner.

ANDREW FOWLER: In June 1998, Jenkins made what he later admitted was an error.

He'd written a classified report about how best to improve intelligence sharing amongst allies.

He tried to pass it on to Defense Liaison at the British Embassy.

Again Jenkins's own people opened his mail.

Jenkins appears to have been reprimanded by his boss in Canberra, Doug Kean, who told him, "Until matters are clarified, "you are to pass no AUSTEO material to allies."

But within days Kean had modified his instructions, this time saying, "I recognise there will be occasions "when the well-considered passing of AUSTEO material is justified."

Significantly he added, "You may now resume passing appropriate material."

Three weeks later, Warrant Officer Magennis was still unhappy.

His anger was fuelled by an official plan to move Jenkins out of the embassy and into the Bolling military compound with Magennis and Butterworth.

He wrote a furious letter, claiming Jenkins's actions --

"..were barely one step removed from treachery".

On the planned office changes, he could not rule out the possibility of physical violence erupting.

And he warned, if the DIO didn't stop what was happening --

"..external means must be found".

The working relationship between key Australian intelligence staff in Washington had all but collapsed.

At the same time the CIA was getting upset.

It complained to the embassy about liaison with Australia's ONA.

Four Corners has learned that the CIA was concerned about the way the ONA conducted its business.

For the next five months, an uneasy truce appeared to settle over the embassy.

However, within the DIO office, relationships were no better.

Jenkins's career seems to have hit its first real turbulence.

Ambitious for further promotion, he applied to head up a new satellite imaging organisation back in Canberra.

Despite being asked to apply, he didn't get the job.

In early 1999, an old military friend, Canadian diplomat David Burke, met Jenkins.

The Australian had six months left of his posting.

COLONEL DAVID BURKE, CANADIAN DEFENCE ATTACHE BEIJING: I felt a sense of frustration on Merv's part.

They were packing up to go home, to return to Australia.

And at that point, he wasn't clear what job he would be going to back in Australia.

And he was just a bit frustrated.

It's a kind of an 'end of a posting' syndrome, not sure what's going on in the future.

There may have been expectations of something that wasn't falling into place.

But he was a little bit frustrated.

ANDREW FOWLER: In April, Noel Adams, who'd also worked as a strategic analyst for ONA, went to see Jenkins.

NOEL ADAMS, FORMER ONA ANALYST: We were originally going to have some lunch, but because of the pressure of work, he said to just come into the embassy and we'd have a cup of coffee.

So I went in to see him in his office there.

ANDREW FOWLER: What did he tell you?

NOEL ADAMS: Well, initially we were just going to have a 10 minute talk, but when I first saw him he was clearly under enormous stress.

You could see it in his face.

His eyes were sort of red-rimmed.

You could just see the pressure that he was under.

And having worked with him before on many occasions, I thought -- you know.

It shocked me.

I was dismayed to see how he was.

So we just talked generally about the pressures he was under.

ANDREW FOWLER: Jenkins's working environment wasn't getting any easier.

Trouble was escalating in East Timor.

Meanwhile, Australia was negotiating a new agreement over the CIA's joint US-Australia spy base at Pine Gap, near Alice Springs.

Pine Gap controls satellites which eavesdrop on countries from Iraq to China and Indonesia.

Jenkins hinted there was pressure on that front as well.

NOEL ADAMS: He didn't go into any detail, just that he felt we were at a watershed.

We had to, ah -- find a way forward and demonstrate the importance of the relationship.

That was about all he told me.

ANDREW FOWLER: And the US was putting pressure on him over those joint facilities?

NOEL ADAMS: Ah -- I gathered that from the conversation, yes.

PROFESSOR DES BALL: They would have been playing very hard there and Merv's job would have been to play as hard back.

He would have been in a very difficult position.

ANDREW FOWLER: The following week, Jenkins drove to the CIA headquarters at Langley, Virginia, on the outskirts of Washington.

His diary shows the focus of the CIA's attention.

The briefing on Indonesia is clearly marked.

But information flow with the Americans wasn't the only issue.

Communication within his own embassy appeared to be a problem as well.

Sandra Jenkins says that on May 13 Jenkins received a phone call from the ambassador Andrew Peacock, who regarded Jenkins highly.

He wanted to know why he hadn't seen some recent intelligence.

SANDRA JENKINS: And he got quite upset with Merv and very, very angry with Merv over the phone.

So much so that it did have an impact on Merv.

He was really upset, really hurt to think that he was doing his job and now all of a sudden he wasn't being listened to.

ANDREW FOWLER: Sandra Jenkins's understanding is that her husband had given the material to ONA, but it hadn't reached the ambassador.

Sandra says the source of the problem became clear the next day.

SANDRA JENKINS: Merv received a phone call from the ambassador, apologising to him and spent 10 minutes apologising to him on the phone.

ANDREW FOWLER: Why was he apologising?

SANDRA JENKINS: Because he obviously realised that that was what Merv had been doing.

He'd been passing all those documents to that person and the ONA person hadn't been passing them on.

ANDREW FOWLER: 24 hours later, a dramatic, unconnected event occurred.

A young Australian former DIO officer flew into Washington from London.

Jean-Philippe Wispelaere had more than 1,000 high-resolution US satellite photographs and documents for sale.

He'd stolen them from the DIO in Canberra and touted them around Asia.

Now lured to Washington by the FBI, he was caught in their trap.

The arrest of Wispelaere sorely embarrassed Australia.

For Jenkins the timing could not have been worse.

BRIAN HATCH: Foreign Affairs had been spooked by the Wispelaere matter.

And they thought this was another way that someone was doing something they didn't like, and they were going to charge in and try and, I think, nail someone.

ANDREW FOWLER: As Wispelaere was being questioned by the FBI, half a world away, militias in East Timor were gearing up for a campaign of further violence.

Australia had staked its reputation on a view that the upcoming independence vote could be handled with adept diplomacy.

Foreign Affairs downplayed reports that the militias were backed by the Indonesian army.

The Americans wanted to know more.

DIO in Canberra seemed to advise Jenkins that sensitive information might embarrass Australia's foreign policy, but also hinted he could pass it on with care.

He received an e-mail passing on a message from his boss, Doug Kean.

It was classified 'Secret AUSTEO', the subject, 'Timor Issues'.

It said, "Issues are becoming extremely sensitive.

"As there are foreign policy implications, "it is imperative that extra care is taken "with the passing of material to the US and Canada."

Although the DIO denies it, Peter Czeti says there was a history of DIO giving the Americans Foreign Affairs, or DFAT, material.

PETER CZETI: Merv would have just done what he was asked.

If he was told to deliver a particular piece of information to an individual, and not broadcast that fact, then that's what he did.

ANDREW FOWLER: How sure are you that he did receive the authority to pass information that was DFAT information to the Americans, without telling DFAT?

PETER CZETI: I was involved in meetings where that was openly discussed.

And it was decided at the meeting that was how it should be conducted.

And the meeting occurred between DIO management and Merv.

ANDREW FOWLER: Jenkins was increasingly out on a limb, having to interpret what his bosses wanted, dealing with an unhappy CIA, in dispute with ONA and his own colleagues.

One colleague, Wing Commander Butterworth, now took his grievances to the embassy security officer.

They included a fresh complaint -- that Jenkins had asked an American to deliver an unlocked diplomatic bag.

It was a trivial incident, but the investigation was now out of Defence, and into Foreign Affairs' hands.

The push for an immediate response came right from the top of the Foreign Affairs Department.

At their insistence a joint investigation with the Defence Department was launched.

Within days investigators arrived in Washington.

In essence their brief was to investigate whether Jenkins had illegally handed over material marked 'Australian Eyes Only' to the US.

PETER CZETI: The catalyst for that particular investigation had absolutely nothing to do with Merv.

It was basically the -- um --

the frantic activity that happened after the Wispelaere issue.

ANDREW FOWLER: As the investigators began interviewing staff at the embassy uncertainty prevailed.

Many of Merv's colleagues and friends were unsure how to react.

Jenkins was on leave in Canada, and the investigators knew that.

PETER CZETI: I really feel that the reason they went after him, and I do mean went after him, in the United States, was because that was where he was most vulnerable, rather than letting him come back to Australia and conduct the interviews back in Australia.

ANDREW FOWLER: Apparently tipped off, Jenkins arrived back unexpectedly in Washington.

He went straight to the embassy where he was officially told he was under investigation.

SANDRA JENKINS: I walked in the front door.

Merv greeted me at the foot of the stairs and said --

He looked extremely white, very distressed -- very concerned is a better word -- and said that he needed to tell me something that was really, really important that I don't tell a soul because he has been told himself not to tell anybody about this.

ANDREW FOWLER: Two days later at home he received a phone call from the embassy.

SANDRA JENKINS: And it was one of the investigators requesting a meeting the next morning.

And I suggested that he --

He got off the phone and he said to me "It's happening tomorrow at 10 o'clock."

I said, "OK."

I said, "I suggest you take somebody with you."

ANDREW FOWLER: Jenkins took his friend and colleague, Pat Carroll.

The Foreign Affairs representative, a former Federal Police officer, pointed Jenkins to a section of the Crimes Act on information handling, which carries a jail sentence.

Jenkins conceded he HAD handed over his own AUSTEO document on intelligence sharing but argued that the 1998 meeting with ONA chief Richard Smith had given him permission to do so.

BRIAN HATCH: From hearing the tape and reading the transcript the interview starts with Merv seemingly unconcerned and happy to explain what had been going on.

By the end of the interview he seems quite despondent, and gives the impression that he believes he's being set up.

ANDREW FOWLER: Jenkins said he was angry he had borne the brunt of Canberra's failure to solve the problem of US access to Australian intelligence.

He also said there had been no compromise of Australian sources.

SANDRA JENKINS: At 12 o'clock I got a phone call saying he's on his way home.

I said to him, "How was it?"

He said, "Bloody awful."

That was the word he used.

Those two words -- "Bloody awful" -- stick in my mind.

I said, "What do you mean?"

He said, "Oh, I'll talk to you later."

He was so convinced that he was looking at a jail term that he had me convinced.

ANDREW FOWLER: Jenkins, a man who as a cadet had talked of integrity and honesty was now accused of disloyalty.

He had told investigators he believed he had no case to answer but now he questioned himself.

He wrote an email to his boss, Doug Kean.

He said he was experiencing, "a range of emotions, "from frustration to anger to remorse.

"The pressure on me to pass on info has been intense and is building."

He added, "Sorry for the trouble caused.

"I would like to talk to you some time in August '99 if you are free."

SANDRA JENKINS: He then picked me up from work about 5:30 and he was quite happy.

He was smiling, quite happy.

I thought everything was OK.

He'd been doing a bit of packing Friday afternoon.

ANDREW FOWLER: Jenkins was a man who liked order.

His diary shows his detailed plans for life when he returned to Australia.

An entry for a Sunday ten weeks away promised time in the garden.

In his now uncertain world, Jenkins reached for certainty.

He made one last plan.

SANDRA JENKINS: He seemed very, very relaxed.

He was smiling all the time, just --

Not overly happy, just smiling.

But I think he had made up his mind what was going to happen.

He had decided what he should do.

ANDREW FOWLER: Around midday on Saturday, the day after the interview, and the day before his 48th birthday, Jenkins disappeared for several hours.

He took some personal financial documents to a friend for them to witness his signature.

He also wrote notes to Sandra, his children and a colleague.

Jenkins repeatedly apologised that he'd let them down.

That night, out on the deck of their home, Jenkins phoned his mother.

ENID JENKINS, MERV JENKINS' MOTHER: "Hello, Mum."

I said, "Oh, I was going to call you tomorrow for your birthday."

He said, "I'm just getting in first."

ANDREW FOWLER: And what else did he tell you?

ENID JENKINS: Oh, I probably --

I can't remember much.

But he said, "Oh, well, I have to go now, Mum."

After we'd talked for a bit.

"It's a beautiful evening here in Washington.

"Sandra and I are going for a walk."

So I said, "Have a lovely birthday, Merv."

ANDREW FOWLER: Next he phoned his son, Paul, in Australia.

SANDRA JENKINS: Yes.

ANDREW FOWLER: And what did he say to him?

SANDRA JENKINS: He had to look after me.

ANDREW FOWLER: When you heard him having that conversation --

SANDRA JENKINS: I was angry, very angry with Merv, purely because Paul was so far away.

I didn't know what the story was.

And so when the conversation finished I called Paul back and reassured him.

I just said, you know, "Dad's in a spot of bother.

"Nothing that can't be fixed."

And I thought I was reassuring him.

I think I did reassure him at the time but of course the next day, history.

ANDREW FOWLER: That night you spent some time talking, didn't you?

To Merv.

SANDRA JENKINS: Yeah, On and off all night.

ENID JENKINS: She said that he was telling her what a marvellous wife she'd been.

What a marvellous mother she was.

How much he loved her.

I don't know what else.

SANDRA JENKINS: That was a very restless night, a very restless night.

And I heard Trevor come in and he, um -- he spoke to Merv and said, you know, we'll go off and buy your birthday present, you know, on Sunday --

on the next day.

And, um --

ANDREW FOWLER: Because it was Merv's birthday the next day?

SANDRA JENKINS: Yep.

And then he went off to bed.

He went downstairs.

And he was in the basement.

He had a room down in the basement.

And then -- that was about 2:45, I suppose.

And then I -- I started to go off into a deep sleep again.

And the last thing I heard was my bedroom door closing.

Because it used to jam.

So I heard him pull it tight.

I woke up the next morning and Merv wasn't there.

I went to say happy birthday to him.

And I thought, "Oh!

Where is he?

Six o'clock and he's up!"

Then I, um -- went to the bathroom.

I came back out and there was a note on the desk --

..telling me to scatter his ashes in Fadden, our house.

I then rang a friend.

'Cause I don't know what's happened, but I think he's done something to himself.

I was quite hysterical, actually.

And she said, "You've got to go and find him, "because if you don't, the kids will."

And so I did.

I went downstairs.

I was hoping to find him asleep on the sofa.

Maybe he'd taken some sleeping pills.

But he wasn't there.

I opened the venetian blinds, the vertical blinds, and I saw him standing outside.

I thought he was standing out --

looking down at the ground, because the stairs came down from the -- back, um -- balcony on an angle.

And I was looking through.

I could see him standing there.

I followed his body down and he was --

..he was hanging.

ANDREW FOWLER: The day Jenkins killed himself, Australia's Foreign Minister arrived in the US.

Later, accompanied by the ONA's Clare Birgin, he expected to field questions about the suicide, but not the investigation.

ALEXANDER DOWNER, FOREIGN AFFAIRS MINISTER: -- You know, the central point here?

The central point here is this is a terrible human tragedy.

The central point here is that there is a widow and there are three sons.

That is the central point.

And the issue of the inquiry is a very, very minor issue.

BRIAN HATCH: Foreign Affairs' first response was to blame Merv.

No-one simply said, "We got this wrong and now a man is dead."

Had they done that, I don't think we'd be here talking.

SANDRA JENKINS: I'm angry because they're not accepting accountability, that they're responsible for pushing Merv to the edge.

And they did.

ANDREW FOWLER: Following sustained pressure from the Jenkins family and lawyers, the Government set up an inquiry.

The inquiry's report makes clear that any security breaches by Jenkins were minor and did nothing to harm Australia's national interest.

The full report is still classified.

But Four Corners has seen a copy.

It is highly critical of DIO's senior management, for its failure to establish a clear, functional relationship within the office -- a relationship described by witnesses as being 'poisonous', 'hopeless' and 'dysfunctional'.

It says that the initial instructions to Jenkins gave little direction on his relations with the DIA.

The report says there was nothing improper in the processes used by the investigators, but adds that the way the Crimes Act was used could be seen as oppressive and, in a security investigation, counterproductive.

The full truth about what happened to Merv Jenkins may never be known.

Much of the official record still remains classified.

The Office of National Assessments has refused to answer any questions from Four Corners.

Foreign Affairs still maintains that the allegations against Jenkins were serious and warranted immediate attention.

DIO says it's reformed its management practices.

Both Foreign Affairs and Defence refuse to comment on intelligence matters.

None of the ministers or senior officials involved in these events agreed to be interviewed.

Sandra Jenkins is suing the Federal Government for compensation.

But she wants more than that.

She blames her husband's death on the failure of the Government to properly manage its intelligence relationship with Washington.

She wants a full and public inquiry.

SANDRA JENKINS: Bring everything out in the open.

I want it all to be out in the open.

And I want Merv's integrity restored.

I mean, it's one thing to clear his name and everything else, but I want to restore his reputation.

And I want to make sure that things are put into place, guidelines are put into place.

Something's put into place to stop this from ever happening to anybody else.

I don't want any other family to go through what we've been through.

That's what I want.

ENID JENKINS: I want to know that the thousands of young men and women employed in the defence force are properly managed.

That there's a duty of care and it's important.

And that they will be looked after and managed properly.

I can't accept --

There's too much going on --

..that we don't get proper answers for.

ANDREW FOWLER: Isn't the world of intelligence and intelligence trading always going to be a very rough area to work in?

ENID JENKINS: Yes.

No doubt.

But there's a culture there that --

..excludes -- people --

..being honest and having integrity.

And being accountable for what they've done.

And it's the 'old boy' stuff again.

You know?

Here's the bottle of whisky.

Here's the gun.

You know what to do.

ABC INTERVIEWER: What does honour mean to you?

MERV JENKINS: Um -- pride within myself for what I'm doing.