National security

• Anthony R0bins
• 13 years ago
• Categories: disaster, International, Spying
• Tags: israel, national security

One of the most annoying things about living in a small, insignificant country like NZ, is the way that the bigger players treat us with impunity. Even within our own borders. Of course the prime example is the 1985 bombing of the Rainbow Warrior by agents of the French foreign intelligence services. That was a highly visible event, and two of the agents involved got caught. But what of other operations? What else goes on in NZ that we never become aware of?

Obviously the current case in point is the presence of what appear to be a group of four Israeli agents in Christchurch. This has come to light one of them was among those tragically killed in the February earthquake. A detailed article in The Press (/ Southland Times / Fairfax) summarises a huge amount of detail:

•  The member of the group who was killed, Ofer Benyamin Mizrahi, was found to be carrying “at least five passports” ( Key now says two passports).
• In the hours after the quake an Israeli Ambassador and a Civil Defence chief left for Christchurch, and the Israeli PM made four calls to John Key.
• The three surviving companions of Mizrahi left  NZ within 12 hours.
• “An unaccredited Israeli search and rescue squad was later confronted by armed New Zealand officers and removed from the sealed-off “red zone” of the central city.”
• “That confrontation is understood to have led to intense diplomatic exchanges between New Zealand and Israel”.
• There were  SAS troops in central Christchurch following the quake, but but the Defence Force denies that they were there to deal with an Israeli rescue squad.
• It was subsequently realised that  Israeli forensic analysts could have accessed the national police computer database and installed a back door.
• An urgent security audit was ordered which (we are told) has not turned up anything conclusive.  Police said yesterday they were confident their computer system was secure.
• Security analyst Paul Buchanan believes that the four Israelis were probably searching for identities they could steal (New Zealand passports are valuable).  A similar Israeli operation was uncovered in 2004.
• John Key declined to answer questions over the spy allegations.
• Phil Goff says that Key should “come clean” and give the public more information.

Allegations of spying have received “angry” denials from the Israeli Ambassador and a similar response from the local Jewish community (see discussion by Audrey Young).  A TVNZ piece originally titled “Key says not in ‘national interest’ to discuss spy allegations”  has since been updated to read “Questions remain over Israeli spying claims”.  There’s a good overview of coverage in NZ Politics Daily (at time of writing only online here).  Tracy Watkins at Stuff says what many of us will be thinking:

Key will have to say more on Israeli spy claims

John Key’s reaction to today’s allegations about Israeli citizens operating out of Christchurch at the time of the earthquake is extraordinary.

Key was repeatedly asked today whether he could confirm or deny the facts of Fred Tulett’s explosive story carried by Fairfax today but refused, because he “deemed” that it was not in the national interests for him to do so.  But he left enough unanswered questions that no-one can seriously believe it is in the national interest to let the story lie. …

But what Key can’t or won’t offer assurances on is what the Israelis were up to. His answers to date only fuel the perception that they were engaged in clandestine activity. …

At the moment, the huge blanks in Key’s response will only allow the impression to take root that maintaining good relations with Israel is what passes for the Government’s “national interest” test.

I couldn’t have put it better myself.