Te Putatara

a newsletter for the kumara vine
Issue No 5/00 - 15th May 2000 ISSN 0114-2097

"...you can muffle the drum, and you can loosen the strings of the lyre, but who shall command the skylark not to sing?" - Kahlil Gibran

All news tips welcome. Email putatara@maorinews.com

"Te Putatara" is a webzine by Te Aute Publications, P.O.Box 408, Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. Edited by Ross Nepia Himona. "Te Putatara" is published on the World Wide Web at: http://maorinews.com/putatara . At that URL all the back issues of "Te Putatara" have been indexed and are searchable. Copyright: Ross Nepia Himona. Feel free to print, copy and re-transmit but please acknowledge source.

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Putatara! Putatara!
Ki te whaiao, ki te ao-marama,

And let the trumpet sound,
"Putatara! Putatara!"
To signal your emergence
Into the dawn light,
The broad light of day.

contents

This Month

Maori Intelligence Service and The Dungeon Bar

Security & Intelligence: watching the watchers

Surveillance of Maori
Anti-Globalisation Surveillance
ECHELON Activism
Money Laundering
AIDS and Intelligence
Cyber-terrorism & cyber-vandalism
Parliamentary Intelligence & Security Committee
Officials Committee for Domestic & External Security Coordination
Inspector General of Intelligence & Security
External Assessments Bureau (EAB)
Domestic & External Security Secretariat
NZ Security Intelligence Service (SIS)
Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB)
External Intelligence Agencies
Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade (MFAT)
NZ Defence Intelligence
NZ Special Air Service (SAS)
NZ Police (Police Intelligence)
Armed Police Squads
Treasury & the Reserve Bank
Border Control
Fisheries Enforcement
Drivers Licences
Other Government Agencies
Banks
Political Parties

Living with Surveillance

Like Death and Taxes
Security for the Paranoid
The Real Threat?

Foreign Policy

Population Statistics for Asian & Pacific regions

World Trade Organisation

links
book reviews
letters to the editor
what's new in the website
you can have your say too

pop in to the Dungeon Bar

 

 

this month

 

I'm going to give Ko Huiarau a bit of a break this month. Evidence shows that the Te Putatara campaign has been successful in many instances, convincing people to withdraw their support for Ko Huiarau. In other cases it has drawn fierce criticism, from those whose minds are firmly in the Ko Huiarau camp (see 'letters to the editor').

The kumara vine whispers however that many in Ko Huiarau are finding their Taiopuru pretending king (James Ngatoa) to be a bit of an embarrassment. The whisper is that he is being eased out of the spokesmanship, and that perhaps Dr Bruce Gregory is to play more of a leading role. Maybe they're deciding to clean up their act. They'll need to get rid of all the false historical claims though, and stop making the outrageous funding promises they're never going to deliver on.

In this issue we focus on the Security and Intelligence agencies of the New Zealand Government. Just for a change. Little is known in Te Ao Maori about these agencies, and so much mythology exists around the name 'SIS', that I've decided to provide a fairly complete account of all the security and surveillance agencies that I know about.

This has been prompted in part by the 'security' people involved with the Ko Huiarau cult, who have built a myth around their supposed links with the SIS, and have used that myth to bully and intimidate people by claiming to have 'contacts' who can access phonecalls and emails. All rubbish of course - for Ko Huiarau anyway.

It has also been prompted by a book called State Secrets (1999, Ben Vidgen, Howling at the Moon Publishers) in which the author parades all the crazy conspiracy theories about Maori gunrunning, weapons stockpiles, and revolutionary warfare training, that have surfaced over the last 15 years or more. More rubbish.

Following on from that I take a brief look at New Zealand's eurocentric foreign policy, and a really interesting look at population statistics for the Asian and Pacific regions, in which we live, and build personal, cultural, political, trade, defence and diplomatic relationships. Or fail to build them.

But we open with a light-hearted look at the Maori Intelligence Service and the Dungeon Bar, with an invitation to join us in the Dungeon.

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Maori Intelligence Service
and The Dungeon Bar

 

Years ago, in the early days of "Te Putatara", I used to jokingly refer to a network of people who shared news and views, as the Maori Intelligence Service (a.k.a. The Kumara Vine). Some people got a bit paranoid about it, and the then Maori Trustee hired Trevor Morley, an expensive ex-policeman and private detective, to try to root out the network. He failed. But we had a lot of fun with him. And in the process built up a certain mythology.

The Head of the network was Keri Kaa's cat, Koha, and it was said that he operated his network out of a broom cupboard on the 7th floor of Maori Affairs. The old Dungeon Bar, next door to the old Maori Affairs building, was thought to be an iniquitous den of spies and informants. Actually, it was the favourite watering hole for Maori public servants, and if you went down there on a Friday night after they'd had one or two, or three or four, or five or six, you could find out anything you wanted to know - eventually. So long as you promised to treat it as CONFIDENTIAL.

Maori Affairs minister, Koro Wetere, was reported to be concerned that I had too many informants within the Department of Maori Affairs, and other places. The truth was that politicians,officials, and hangers-on in Maori Affairs were so predictable that you could write the news before it happened, secure in the knowledge that they would read it and comply. True, e hoa ma, absolutely true.

[There's a great deal of predictability about the present lot as well. For example, you can bet your bottom dollar, that as part of the new "closing-the-gaps" government strategy, Ngatata Love at Te Puni Kokiri will try to re-instate or re-invent the Community Division of the old Maori Affairs Department, or something that looks remarkably like it. His whanaunga and adviser, Neville Baker, used to be head of the Community Division at the height of its infamy. Old minds with old programmes are even worse than old minds with new programmes, but they are totally predictable, and it's all about power not community].

At that time though, in the late 1980s they were doing their best to ensure that there were no leaks from the Department of Maori Affairs, an effort doomed to failure, given that the Maori definition of CONFIDENTIAL is that you're not allowed to tell a Pakeha, and a SECRET was something you learned in the Dungeon Bar over a beer or three. A TOP SECRET took at least six beers to be revealed.

There were some great personalities down there in the Dungeon. There was Jake and the Fat Man, all three of them, and the Philosopher-in-Residence, about twenty of them. Every time a new Pakeha face showed up we wondered what the SIS were doing in our bar. The Chocolate Pimpernel always used to drop in whenever he was in town, which was often. Wi Kuki Kaa, most famous Maori actor in all of Rangitukia, frequently regaled us with his political insights and wisdom. Rana Waitai used to be there every Friday night, dressed like an off-duty policeman. Tika, some of us remember him when he was a policeman. John Paki and Pat Park and RanaWaitai used to be as thick as thieves.

Nifty Neville often popped in. Wira Gardiner used to be there before he became famous. Ripeka Evans too, but she was already famous. The Chairman of the Dungeon was Ross White, and he knew all of Nifty's secrets, but only told us half of them. John Gill and Pete Little both knew heaps of secrets about Maori Affair and never told a soul, not even after ten beers. Tamati Reedy hardly ever appeared, but he didn't know any Maori Affair secrets anyway; he was only the boss.

I could go on forever - it was a veritable Who's not Who of all Maoridom. Koha Te Ngeru was always there, but disguised as someone else, and spying on Maori Affair.

We didn't have the internet and email in those days, and the fax was just catching on. You needed to go to the Dungeon Bar to catch the goss. Even Maori from out in the provinces used to head for the Dungeon Bar to catch up on the goss when they were in Wellington. The Dungeon Bar has long since disappeared.

Anyway, a few of us have recently opened a bulletin board called the Dungeon Bar, in memory of a hallowed old institution from another era, where we share information, news, views and comments, and maybe a little intrigue. Membership is open to all, and names are not necessarily used. Many people use a nom-de-cyberspace.

Go to http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/dungeonbar if you're interested in dropping by the Dungeon Bar, the first Maori CyberBoozer. Join as a member.

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Security & Intelligence
watching the watchers

 

Surveillance of Maori

For many years I've heard Maori people going on about how they are being watched by the SIS (New Zealand Security Intelligence Service). I have to say that such speculation is almost always wishful thinking. Which is not to say that we're not being watched. However there are many more watchers than the SIS. In this article I'll describe most of them.

The degree to which the Government and its watching agencies have Maori under surveillance fluctuates, depending on the general level of paranoia about us.

One such period of intense paranoia started with a long lead up period from the era of protest in the 1970s, including the 1975 Land March, and land occupations, going on to the 1981 Civil War waged by Muldoon against the populace (Springbok Tour), and on into the Treaty activism and continued occupations of the 1980s.

By the late 1980s, after the 1986 so-called Maori Loans Affair, and after the two Fijian coups, paranoia was rampant, in Government and in the general white population. There were media reports of gunrunning, weapons stockpiling, and revolutionary warfare training. The Lange Government was particularly paranoid about the threat of Maori revolution, or at least by the notion that foreign agencies might be using Maori activism to destabilise the government.

We were aware at the time that some people in the Government security and intelligence system also developed a degree of paranoia, and Maori individuals and groups were targeted, sometimes illegally.

Subsequent Governments have dampened down the level of Maori protest by adopting the Treaty rhetoric as their own, and by entering into the settlements process. I believe they were motivated more by their fear of Maori activism, than by any altruistic motive, or belief in the Treaty of Waitangi. On reflection I think that there's no doubt that the period of Maori protest and activism, from 1970 to 1990, frightened them into making a lot more concessions than they might otherwise have done.

Consequently, for the moment, the level of paranoia about Maori, in Government and in the security agencies, seems to be at a relatively low level.

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Anti Globalisation Surveillance

However, there is ample public evidence that the NZ Police and the NZ Security Intelligence Service (SIS) are both closely monitoring the Aotearoa New Zealand manifestation of the worldwide anti-globalisation movement. This is a growing mass movement being organised globally using Internet communications very effectively.

Some of the visible targets of the movement are the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the World Trade Organisation (WTO, formerly GATT), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank (WB), the Asia Development Bank (ADB), World Economic Forum (WEF), Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC), North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI), and the trans-national corporations (TNA).

Massive demonstrations focused on disrupting the international meetings of some of these organisations have been organised in London, Toronto, Seattle, Davos and Washington over the last two years. In Aotearoa New Zealand, activism was focused on the APEC conference in Auckland last year. The Mayday 2k demonstrations around the world this year were part of this movement, and similar demonstrations are planned in Australia by the S11 Alliance on September 11th 2000.

[In September the World Economic Forum will hold the Asia-Pacific Economic Summit, "Asia/Pacific in the 21st Century: Leveraging the new drivers of growth." The summit is jointly sponsored by the Business Council of Australia and the Australian Davos Connection (the Australian arm of the World Economic Forum)].

Some of the strategy for the anti-globalisation movement is promulgated by the International Forum on Globalisation, a high powered think tank in the USA, which represents over 60 organizations in 25 countries. Websites (such as the Peoples Global Action site) and email lists are used to disseminate information about planned protests. There is also a lot of international participation in these demonstrations, which presumably gives the SIS legal sanction for surveillance of the movement here.

New Zealand groups involved in the movement against globalisation are CORSO, GATT Watchdog, Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa (CAFCA), Christian World Service, the NZ Trade Union Federation (TUF), a number of small Maori groups, and conservation and environmental groups. All have international networks.

Given the impetus that the worldwide movement is building amongst a broad range of groups opposed to the modern version of capitalism, and the increasing participation of large numbers of students, this movement is only going to get bigger, and will be around for a long time. Some predict that it will grow to be bigger than the Anti-Vietnam War movement of the 1960s and 1970s.

Amongst the Paranoid Right they are already looking for boogie men under the bed, and some are starting to speculate that funding must be coming from Libya's Moammar Gadhafi, or Iraq's Saddam Hussein, or Afghanistan's Osama bin Laden.

You can be sure that surveillance by the Police and the SIS will increase as this movement gains more momentum.

You can be sure also that the Labour/Alliance coalition government will continue to quietly sanction this surveillance. Despite it's claim to democratic socialism, the present Labour Party remains committed to the "Golden Straitjacket" of the Washington Consensus economic ideology, which embraces the globalisation of finance and trade.

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ECHELON Activism

A second major issue is worldwide activism against the ECHELON global electronic surveillance system operated by the National Security Agency (NSA) of the USA, in which our own Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) is thought to participate. NZ Police and the NZ SIS will be closely monitoring those activists as well.

So if you're Maori, and involved in that, you can expect to come under their scrutiny.

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Money Laundering

A third thing they will have under surveillance is the movement of cash into and out of the Pacific, especially the money laundering operations of the worldwide Russian crime sydicates, the Columbian drug cartels, various international financial scams, and possibly the millionaire Osama bin Laden who hides out in Afghanistan, and is known to fund terrorist movements. Small Pacific Island states have come under a lot of scrutiny for allowing some of this money to be laundered through banks set up specifically for that purpose.

They failed miserably in tracking the activities of the Winebox people.

Those of you planning to move your millions around the Pacific will be caught up in this financial surveillance.

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AIDS and Intelligence

The latest revelation from the USA Intelligence community is that they now consider AIDS to be a major threat to World stability and security. How long will it take before the NZ security and intelligence community adopts this analysis? The mind boggles about the internal and external surveillance they will now carry out, involving international and national Health authorities.

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Cyber-terrorism & cyber-vandalism

There has been no information made public about New Zealand's ability to combat either cyber-terrorism or cyber-vandalism. However the USA already has a huge budget and a number of agencies dedicated to this activity. Computer security experts have identified a number of super-viruses with the potential to be far more destructive than the ILOVEYOU worm & virus.

The recent global attack by ILOVEYOU will probably give some impetus to New Zealand's efforts, and an excuse for a much higher level of surveillance. Surveillance of all computer users in New Zealand is not far away. As internet communications technology becomes more and more integrated, to include cellphones and other fixed and portable access devices, we can expect to be monitored on the move, as well as at the desktop computer.

 

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Parliamentary Intelligence & Security Committee

This is a statutory committee of Parliament, but it is not a select committee, and it does not report its deliberations to Parliament. It comprises the Prime Minister (Clarke) and two MPs nominated by her (currently Cullen and Anderton), and the Leader of the Opposition (Shipley) and one MP nominated by her (currently Prebble).

It receives regular briefings from the security and intelligence agencies.

The Committee's functions are as follows:

The committee's deliberations are not made public.

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Officials Committee for Domestic & External Security Coordination

This committee is probably comprised of various heads of agencies, such as the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Ministry for Defence, Ministry for the Prime Minister and Cabinet.

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Inspector General of Intelligence and Security

The principal role of the I-G is to assist the Minister in the oversight and review of New Zealand's intelligence and security agencies and in particular:

The present I-G is the Honourable Justice Laurie Greig, a retired Judge of the High Court, appointed by the Governor-General on the recommendation of the Prime Minister.

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External Assessments Bureau (EAB)

Formerly known as the External Intelligence Bureau and before that the Joint Intelligence Bureau. This agency sits within the Department for the Prime Minister and Cabinet.

Responsible for reporting to Government on political, economic, diplomatic and military matters around the world, particularly those of special interest to New Zealand. Collates, analyses and reports on intelligence information received from New Zealand's other intelligence agencies, and information received from overseas intelligence agencies.

No doubt it has some role in directing New Zealand's intelligence collecting efforts towards specified targets.

In the 1988 the Director of the then EIB admitted to a Dominion reporter that Maori individuals and organisations were under surveillance. He was almost immediately removed from his job and sent to a diplomatic post in the Pacific Islands. EIB was then renamed EAB and moved its offices to within the Ministry for Foreign Affairs building.

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Domestic & External Security Secretariat

This group is a service section within the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, and advises the Prime Minister on security and related issues in New Zealand and overseas.

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New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (SIS)

Headed by a Director who reports to the Minister in Charge of the NZSIS who is almost always the Prime Minister.

The SIS is responsible for the surveillance of foreigners acting against the interests of New Zealand, and for the surveillance of New Zealanders acting in concert with foreigners or foreign states against the interests of New Zealand. This is their political and economic counter-espionage role. The SIS maintain a desk dedicated to the counter-terrorism role as well.

The Parliament recently passed an Act allowing the NZ SIS to break-in to private properties.

It is also responsible for 'vetting' New Zealanders who are put into positions requiring them to have access to sensitive Government material. There are two basic levels of vetting. Negative vetting is a check of existing records to clear a person for access to material up to and including SECRET. Positive vetting is a substantial check, including with friends and associates, to clear a person for access to TOP SECRET material. Vetting is a major aspect of their work, measured both in time and money.

It is their counter espionage role that gets most people upset. People are under the impression that if there is any surveillance being conducted at all, then it is the SIS that is doing it. However, the SIS is forbidden by law from surveillance of New Zealanders who are not involved with agents of a foreign nation intent on espionage in New Zealand.

As a rule of thumb, if you are actively involved with agents of a foreign power who are thought to be acting against the interests of New Zealand, then you should assume that you are being watched by the SIS. If you're just the normal radical Maori activist then you're almost certainly not being watched by the SIS, but you could be under the surveillance of other agencies such as Police Intelligence.

There have however been confirmed instances where the SIS, or SIS officers, have illegally exceeded their mandate.

In 1996, agents of the NZ Security Intelligence Service were caught in the act of breaking into the Christchurch home of GATT Watchdog activist, Aziz Choudry, during activities opposing an APEC Ministerial Meeting in Christchurch. Aziz had been under SIS scrutiny for some time, for reasons undisclosed, and he had been in contact with some Maori on the APEC issue. Aziz sued the Government for damages.

In 1999, after a lengthy legal and political saga, the Government settled the case out of court for an undisclosed amount and apologised to Aziz (after having changed the law to legalise, retrospectively, all SIS break-ins).

In the late 1980s at least two SIS officers were conducting illegal surveillance operations against Maori, against the orders of their superiors, and they were subsequently dismissed from the SIS. They had also been involved in leaking stories of Maori gunrunning and revolutionary warfare training to the media. One of these officers also made a clumsy attempt to recruit an informer from within the Department of Maori Affairs. The whole episode will make a good "Keystone Cops" article at some time in the future.

During that time I became aware that there were a number of Maori who acted as informers for the SIS, who were prone to making up all sorts of fantastic stories about Maori involvement with Libyans and others who were involved in international terrorism. A leading light in the present Ko Huiarau movement was one of those "Walter Mitty" informers.

There are quite a few people in the Maori world who claim to have close ties with the SIS, and who tell tall tales in order to enhance their own mystery and mystique. As another rule of thumb if someone tells you that they're involved with the SIS, they're probably not.

The SIS has links to similar overseas agencies such as ASIO in Australia, the FBI in the USA, and MI5 in the UK.

Some interesting developments are taking place in those agencies. ASIO in Australia has been empowered by legislation to indulge in computer hacking, and also to give ASIO acess to taxation and financial transaction records. The MI5 in the UK has built a facility which will allow it to eavesdrop on all Internet communications in the UK. In the UK, Internet providers will be forced to provide access for this surveillance, and all users of electronic encryption keys will be forced to provide their keys to the spies.

Will the NZ SIS eventually gain similar powers? Watch this space.

[In New Zealand at the moment, Internet providers can be forced to provide information to the Department of Internal Affairs, which is responsible for tracking pornography and pedophilia networks on the Net, and has a unit conducting low-level Internet surveillance].

For details about a similar organisation and operations go to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS).

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Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB)

The GCSB operates the Tangimoana and Waihopai electronic intercept facilities. It has been described as the most secret organisation in New Zealand, and as being the largest and most significant intelligence agency.

At their website (search on GCSB) they describe their role thus: "The Government Communications Security Bureau is an intelligence and security agency which produces foreign intelligence information and at the same time ensures the protection of government classified or sensitive information from unauthorised disclosure."

They are a large organisation compared to the SIS, and like the SIS, are not legally allowed to operate against New Zealand nationals in New Zealand.

There is much current debate over what they do get up to, particularly in relation to the world wide ECHELON electronic intercept satellite system. Nicky Hager wrote a book exposing their activities. There is speculation world wide that ECHELON is able to sweep up any radio, satellite, phone, fax, data or email communication.

"In the greatest surveillance effort ever established, the US National Security Agency (NSA) has created a global spy system, codename ECHELON, which captures and analyzes virtually every phone call, fax, email and telex message sent anywhere in the world. ECHELON is controlled by the NSA and is operated in conjunction with the Government Communications Head Quarters (GCHQ) of England, the Communications Security Establishment (CSE) of Canada, the Australian Defense Signals Directorate (DSD), and the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) of New Zealand. These organizations are bound together under a secret 1948 agreement, UKUSA, whose terms and text remain under wraps even today." (ECHELON: America's Secret Global Surveillance Network by Patrick S. Poole).

See also Nicky Hager's book, "Secret Power", Craig Potton Publishing, 1996,
and "Puzzle Palace" by James Bamford, 1983.

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External Intelligence Agencies

New Zealand has no formal agency that equates to ASIS in Australia, the CIA in the USA, and MI6 in the UK. These agencies operate outside their own countries, collecting intelligence information, and also conducting some operations against foreign nations.

It seems likely however that there would be some mechanism, possibly within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, or the EAB, to coordinate information gathering by New Zealanders overseas, and by New Zealanders travelling overseas (such as journalists and businessmen).

There have been reports in the media from time to time that New Zealanders have been members of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS), and that ASIS has New Zealand's agreement to use New Zealand citizens as agents. There has been some media speculation over the years that ASIS might sometimes act on behalf of New Zealand's interests. There has been been no confirmation of this, but given the closeness of the Australian and New Zealand intelligence communities, it seems likely.

See "Oyster, the story of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service", Brian Toohey & Brian Pinwill, Heinemann, Australia, 1989.

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Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT)

The role of every New Zealand Embassy and High Commission includes the collection of information about their host country, as well as to represent the interests of the New Zealand Government to the host government. In that sense every New Zealand overseas post is part of the intelligence collection process.

We have solid evidence also that under the somewhat paranoid government of David Lange these overseas posts were also used to monitor and conduct surveillance against some Maori trade and cultural delegations, particularly into the Pacific Islands (hence the EIB admission that Maori were under surveillance). Lange openly admitted that he had Rocky Cribb monitored on a trip to Japan.

There have also been reports that NZ SIS officers serve in some of these posts where a high volume of security vetting of potential immigrants is necessary.

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New Zealand Defence Intelligence

Defence intelligence operates at two levels. There is firstly the normal military intelligence which can be described as battlefield inteligence. This is the capacity to find out everything it can about the enemy on the battlefield. Then there is strategic intelligence, through which Defence aims to gather as much information as it can about possible future enemies and their military forces.

Defence Intelligence operates closely with and shares information with the other security and intelligence agencies, in New Zealand and overseas. NZ Defence also maintains Defence Attaches and Advisers in some embassies and high commissions, with an overt (i.e. declared) intelligence gathering role.

Many former Defence personnel work in both the SIS and GCSB.

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New Zealand Special Air Service (SAS)

Much humbug is written about deniable and other covert operations conducted by the NZ SAS. Much of this has surfaced recently in a 1999 book by Ben Vidgen (State Secrets, Howling at the Moon Publishing). Vidgen is described as a "defence intelligence analyst formerly attached to the Royal New Zealand Army." He was a low grade intelligence clerk in the Territorial (part-time) Army.

The SAS has two main roles. In their straight military role they are responsible for reconnaissance and sabotage behind enemy lines, with emphasis on reconnaissance. In New Zealand they also maintain a counter-terrorism force which may only be used when formally authorised by the Government.

They train with many other special forces in other parts of the world, to increase their knowledge and skill. This often gives rise to speculation that they are somehow involved in operations in support of other countires. They also train members of other special forces.

As with the SIS, there are many wannabe SAS types out there who claim to have been members of the SAS, and who tell fantastic tales about their dreamed up exploits. One of these Walter Mitty types is an informant for Ben Vidgen, codenamed by Vidgen as CASPER.

The outstanding thing to note about present and former NZ SAS soldiers is that they don't ever talk about the SAS to anyone outside the SAS community, not even to other soldiers.

There is no doubt that former SAS members have gone on to serve in other special forces, particularly the British SAS, where their skills are highly prized. Commentators often wrongly asssume that they are somehow still part of the NZ Army, involved in deniable operations.

There has been some speculation that as part of their surveillance training the SAS may have been involved in support of the NZ Police, particularly in the detection and silent observation of marijuana plots. This has not been confirmed.

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New Zealand Police Intelligence (Criminal Intelligence Service)

The SIS gets blamed for much of the activity of this branch of the Police. They are involved in the collection, collation and dissemination of information and intelligence about any potential criminal activities in New Zealand. This includes potential criminal activities by you radical Maori activists out there.

A large part of the failed INCIS computer system was to be in support of Police Intelligence.

Their information comes from the observations and information gathering activities of all branches of the Police, from informants, and from the criminal records maintained by the Police and the Courts and Corrections.

Prior to major events such as the Queen's visit in 1990, or APEC in 1999, they have mounted major intelligence gathering and surveillance operations against known and potential activists. They have a wide circle of informants in those groups, including Maori informants.

As a recent High Court case has shown, where a judgement was awarded against the Police in favour of anti-APEC activist Dr David Small, the Criminal Intelligence Service also considers itself to be a Political Intelligence Service, and acts accordingly. See Dr Small's Media Release. See also Request for Inquiry into Police Criminal Intelligence Service.

Police Intelligence people routinely pose as news cameramen before and during anti-Government demonstrations, building their databases of surveillance information.

Of late I have been particularly interested in the other photographic resources they have available to them. There are cameras in the international airports filming all travellers, street cameras in high crime areas such as downtown Auckland (19 the last time I heard), street light cameras at busy intersections in the cities (known to have been used to film Maori demonstrations), cameras in every ATM machine, and of course the speed cameras. Now we have the Photo ID drivers licences. Big Brother is not only watching you, he's taking your picture.

There seems little doubt they maintain an extensive database of Maori activists.

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Armed Police Squads

You all know about the Armed Offenders Squads (AOS) that get called out to incidents involving armed offenders. These are ordinary policemen, who serve in the many branches of the Police, who have been specially trained. It is not full-time job.

Next is the New Zealand Police Special Tactics Group (formerly Anti-Terrorist Squad) which is drawn from members of the AOS, and which receives specialised training similar to the training of the SAS counter-terrorist group. The ATS is however nowhere near as highly trained as the SAS.

The Diplomatic Protection Squad (DPS) provides bodyguards and residential security for the Governor General and the Prime Minister, and is responsible for the security of cabinet ministers, diplomats, and visiting dignatories. They have been described to me by an insider as a bunch of cowboys.

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Treasury and the Reserve Bank

Not often thought of as intelligence and surveillance agencies, these two organisations are able to monitor the flow of cash into and out of New Zealand, and various other financial operations. They have extensive links with financial institutions inside and outside New Zealand, and one of their main roles is the gathering of financial information (apart from their role in building economic fantasies called financial policy).

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Border Control

Passport control, customs and agricultural control, and the NZ Police are the main agencies involved in border control. Extensive intelligence networks are used by these agencies to enforce border regulations. They also have links with similar agencies in other countries, and share information with them.

It is possible also that there is a largely volunteer coastwatch organisation recruited from yachting, fishing and other coastal communities, watching the coastline and reporting unusual and suspicious activity.

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Fisheries Enforcement

Offshore fisheries are protected by a combination of Navy, Air Force and Fisheries craft. There are also Fisheries Officers on board foreign vessels, legally fishing in our waters. I'm not sure but I presume that these days satellites are used as well.

Then there are the fisheries protection officers, or rangers, including a network of voluntary rangers, policing the inshore and inland fisheries.

And there are the covert fisheries protection people, who operate their own intelligence collection, including undercover officers. So if you're into trout or paua poaching man, get paranoid.

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Drivers Licences

The new driving licence with digitised photograph and signature is the largest registration and surveillance operation ever undertaken by the State against its citizens. Little wonder that 800,000 people have refused to change and are now driving illegally.

You can be 100% sure that your digitised photo and signature, presently held in the computers at the Land Transport Safety Authority (LTSA), will eventually find their way into the Police Intelligence computers. Not this year perhaps, but sooner rather than later.

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Other Government Agencies

The IRD, and WINZ, and the Health system, and ACC and a whole bunch of other agencies have huge databases of information about citizens, which is supposed to be secure, and is supposed to be private, but don't bet on it.

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The Banks

Even if you don't have a lot of money the bank has a lot of information about you, and where you spend your money. Even private detectives seem to be able to access this information. The IRD and Police certainly can.

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The political parties

Last but not least, the political parties operate extensive information gathering systems. They have an enormous amount of information about lots of people, some of it highly accurate, and some of it pure rumour and speculation. Politicians also get letters from all sorts of wierd people complaining about people they don't like.

But in the hands of the politicians, the quality of information doesn't matter. If you're thought to be politically unreliable you won't get appointed to any boards or committees, and you'll be on the blacklist until the next Government gets in. Then, if you're like me, you'll still be politically unreliable.

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Living with Surveillance

 

Like Death and Taxes

Every country, both large and small, keeps watch on foreigners, and on its own citizens, and Aotearoa New Zealand is no exception.

In this country it hasn't been particularly effective. There was massive Police and SIS surveillance during the Anti-Vietnam War period, and the government still lost on that issue. Massive surveillance during the anti-apartheid years and the 1981 Civil War, and they lost again. Surveillance of the peace and anti-nuclear movement didn't win them that one either. Nicky Hager clearly won his battle with them, hands down, through the publication of "Secret Power".

And in one form or another they've been spying on Maori political activity since they first arrived in these lands - the Rev Carl Volkner died for it in 1865.

You could build a case that shows that political surveillance is largely irrelevant, hasn't changed the unfolding of events, and can be safely ignored, except for the annoyance of it.

Whatever approach you take, sanguine or paranoid, like death and taxes, it's there.

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Security for the Paranoid

If you're involved in anything illegal, including conspiring with foreign agents to bring down the Government, or just consorting with foreign nationals who are themselves under surveillance, then you ought to be paranoid, and to assume that you're under surveillance as well.

But you ought to note that ordinary old conspiracy to bring down the Government is not illegal. It's your democratic right, and all political parties are dedicated to bringing down the Government, when they're not in Government. It is the right of Maori to continue to conspire to bring down the Government, and it's definitely not illegal, unless you plan to use armed force to do it.

It is also not illegal to demonstrate and protest, unless you plan to do something illegal while you're at it, like looking at a Pakeha policeman in an unfriendly manner.

If you want to be paranoid, and insist on being paranoid, even if you're not up to anything illegal, or not even likely to get up to anything illegal, then that's your prerogative.

Without being paranoid, I have always operated on the basis that someone might be listening and watching anyway, and good luck to them. I've found that the more information you give to people, the less notice they take.

But, for the paranoid, here's some easy to follow rules:

 

The Real Threat?

Personally, I think that the data collection and surveillance carried out through the Photo ID Drivers Licence, the Community Services Card, the IRD computer system, the WINZ computer system, the Justice system, the Police Intelligence system, and the data matching and sharing that is possible through combining these surveillance resources, is a much greater threat to society and democracy than the activities of the SIS. It is the information on these systems that will eventually be available to the instruments of State control, be they the SIS, or the Police, or whatever new agencies might be set up in the future.

That's what we should really get paranoid about, but most citizens sleepily and unknowingly accept this creeping and growing surveillance and control system without a murmur of dissent.

Then you need to ask, who are the people in the welfare and unemployment databases, the justice and courts databases, and the Police databases? A hell of a lot of Maori people, that's who.

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Foreign Policy

 

The Intelligence agencies are also responsible for gathering foreign intelligence in support of New Zealand's foreign policy.

The main acknowledged targets of NZ intellligence gathering have been the nations of the South West Pacific, with high priority given to French activity during their nuclear testing at Moruroa. South East Asian countries would also be high on the list of priorities, and beyond that the remainder of the Asia Pacific region. Information is gathered by NZ agencies, and from the intelligence agencies of allied countries such as Australia, USA, UK and Canada.

Regardless of the information gathered, it is the politicians who determine our foreign policy, and they tend to ignore anything they don't want to hear, and to go with their own prejudices anyway. Invariably and regardless of the political persuasion of the government, New Zealand's foreign policy is eurocentric, and reflects white concepts and values.

In our immediate region of SE Asia and the SW Pacific this is of course the ultimate arrogance, as white people comprise only about 22 million in this region of over 400 million, with Indonesia alone comprising 216 million of that. That meagre 22 million (less than 6%) acts as though the great white colonial rajah still reigns supreme. Sooner or later they got a surprise coming. Big big surprise. (See Population Statistics link below for further comparisons).

"We in New Zealand should not simply be critics on the sideline saying what is still to be done. We should be actively and constructively involved in working with new governments in both Indonesia and East Timor to secure freedom and economic progress in those countries, who are part of our region." (from a speech by Phil Goff, making some enormous assumptions about our role in their region)

You can see why they're trying desperately to tie the whole world into the new globalised economy and culture, with a new wave of colonisation, led by the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and World Trade Organisation.

New Zealand also acts in concert with the Commonwealth in setting much of its foreign policy. Despite the fact that non-white nations are a majority in the Commonwealth, it is still a white man's club pushing eurocentric concepts and values.

And increasingly our foreign and economic policy is being set by the iron triangle of the WTO, IMF and World Bank. Member governments conspire together to set policy in secret, guided always by the economic ideology of the Washington Consensus, and the globalisation of economies and cultures, and they ignore their own citizens and pressure groups.

"In fact, the Planet does have an emerging de facto form of world governance. The WTO, IMF and the World Bank all play a major part, as does United Nations system and the UN Security Council. It is certain that this de facto governance will increase as the number of multi-lateral Conventions and agreements increase." (Peter Ellyard, "Ideas for the New Millenium", Melbourne University Press, 1998).

This is the governance, trade policy and foreign policy that none of us gets to vote on. Neither this government nor the last has taken these issues of national sovereignty to the polls.

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World Trade Organisation

 

"The World Trade Organization (WTO) is among the most powerful, and one of the most secretive international bodies on earth. It is rapidly assuming the role of global government, as 134 nation-states, including the U.S., have ceded to it vast authority and powers. The WTO represents the rules-based regime of the policy of economic globalization. The central operating principal of the WTO is that commercial interests should supersede all others. Any obstacles in the path of operations and expansion of global business enterprise must be subordinated. In practice these "obstacles" are usually policies or democratic processes that act on behalf of working people, labor rights, environmental protection, human rights, consumer rights, social justice, local culture, and national sovereignty."

- from the International Forum on Globalisation

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Links

http://shns.scripps.com/shns/story.cfm?pk=SUPERVIRUS-05-07-00&cat=II Superviruses
http://www.pgpi.org/ Pretty Good Privacy high grade encryption
http://www.gcsb.govt.nz/index.htm GCSB
http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/sispies.htm Spies, Secret Services ...
http://www.fas.org/irp/eprint/sp/ "Secret Power" by Nicky Hager
http://watserv1.uwaterloo.ca/~brobinso/cseukusa.html The UKUSA Community
http://www.magnet.ch/serendipity/hermetic/crypto/echelon/echelon.htm ECHELON
http://fly.hiwaay.net/~pspoole/echelon.html More on ECHELON
http://hammer.prohosting.com/~penz/issues/sisbackg.htm NZ SIS
http://www.dpmc.govt.nz/ Department of the Prime Minister & Cabinet
http://www.mft.govt.nz/ Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade
http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/apect.htm Peace Movement Aotearoa (globalisation)
http://www.ifg.org/ International Forum on Globalisation
http://www.agp.org/agp/index.html Peoples Global Action
http://www.thenation.com/thebeat/ Nation Magazine, The Online Beat
http://www.apec.gen.nz/ Anti-APEC99
http://www.globalpolicy.org/globaliz/ Globalisation links
http://www.cia.com.au/serendipity/cia/cia_oz/cia_oz1.htm The CIA in Australia 1986.
http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/dungeonbar the Dungeon Bar, home of the MIS
http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/asianintelligencesresources Asian Intelligence Resources
http://www.stratfor.com/ Global Intelligence Analysis
http://fas.org/ Federation of American Scientists (very good intelligence analysis)
http://fas.org/irp/wwwinfo.html Information Warfare
http://maorinews.com/putatara/populat.htm Population Statistics

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what's new in the website
"from Hawaiki to Hawaiki"

9 May 2000 - Book Review: Only Their Purpose is Mad
9 May 2000 - The Ko Huiarau File
9 May 2000 - Wayfinders 7, a poem
8 May 2000 - Book Review: the lexus and the olive tree (globalization)
7 May 2000 - Book Reviews, a new section in the website
7 May 2000 - Wayfinders 6, a poem
7 May 2000 - Wayfinders 5, a poem
4 May 2000 - Population Statistics aound the Pacific & Asia
19 Apr 2000 - Whakapapa on the World Wide Web

or go to the what's new page for more details

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