Prime Minister John Key has downplayed "suspicious" behaviour by groups of Israelis after the February 22 quake, which sparked an investigation into a possible hacking of the police national computer.
Speaking to reporters in San Francisco this afternoon, Mr Key said there was a police and SIS investigation because of the rapid way in which the Israelis left the country after the February earthquake.
"In the view of the agencies there was no link between those individuals and the Israeli intelligence agencies."
He said he spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu only once and there no request to facilitate the removal of the Israelis.
A Southland Times story this morning claimed the activities of a number of Israelis following Christchurch's February earthquake raised the suspicions of the Security Intelligence Service (SIS).
Mr Key said the Government took the security of New Zealand and New Zealanders "very seriously".
"That's why the relevant agencies conducted a thorough investigation.
"The unusual circumstances which triggered the investigation was the rapid departure from the country of the three surviving members of the group of Israelis in question.
"Security agencies conducted the investigation and found no evidence that the people were anything other than backpackers," Mr Key said.
While there have been reports that one of the Israeli men who was killed in the earthquake had five passports on him, Mr Key said this was incorrect.
Mr Key said his advice was that the man was found with only one passport, of European origin.
A false alarm, it would seem...
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- Three Israeli men died in the 'quake after their van was crushed by falling rubble
- Other men in the van left the country within twelve hours
- The Israeli Prime Minister rang his New Zealand counterpart several times on the day of the earthquake
- One of the dead men had multiple passports
- An Israeli rescue squad was removed from the Red Zone because it was not accredited by the United Nations
- There has been an attempt to load malicious software onto the Police National Computer system
John Key, as Minister responsible for the SIS is saying little at this stage, but we've just heard Barry Soper on Newstalk ZB suggest that the PM might give more information later in the day. We will await that, and any further revelations with considerable interest.
In the meantime we will say this; if even some of what has been alleged today is true, in particular the attempt to access the police computer system, the New Zealand Government must leave its Israeli counterpart in no doubt whatsoever that such intrusions cannot and will not be tolerated.
18 comments:
I don't think there was any attempt to load software onto the police computer system - that was just juicy speculation on the part of the writer.
The SIS have long track record of incompetence – recall Zaoui.
I suspect Key has been given summary from a similarly inadequate investigation and the leak to the Southland Times is by someone in the SIS pissed off with the inadequacy of the investigation and who actually wants the SIS to do its job properly and be more accountable.
Welcome Toad! Doesn't the SIS's bumbling go back even further; the the William Ball Sutch case?
Nice to have you stop by; do call again!
Well done, Toad.
If you grit your teeth and hang on by your fingernails until your arse hangs out, but tomorrow you might still just a conspiracy theory to which you can still cling.
@Inventory2 5:34 PM
Indeed it does. Meat pies and Penthouse magazines; Rainbow Warrior fail - the only terrorism ever in NZ and they didn't have a clue.
I could go on, but don't think I need to.
Adolf, no conspiracy theory. Just the usual bumbling incompetence from the SIS. I don't oppose security intelligence services in principle - just that they should be both competent and accountable to the people whose interests they are supposed to be defending.
I'm leaning towards the "unsubstantiated fiction" theory. Good investigative journalism has uncovered the published facts, but they have been linked together in a highly speculative manner.
Also some of the facts have been incorrectly listed; Only 1 of the 3 dead Israeli men was in the van that got crushed, the other 2 were 3 or 4 blocks away. The only mentioned link between these 2 men and the victim in the van is the fact that they are all Israeli. If that's enough to prove collusion then we should also question the Japanese, a number of their nationals (way more than 3) were found in the CTV buildings ruins!
...as for the victim having more than 1 passport:
- it is commonplace to have a 2nd passport, more than a few kiwis also carry British or Irish passports etc.
- the report says he had 5 passports, Key says he had a European passport, the Israeli ambassador to Australia and New Zealand said he had 2. If he had 5 were they all his, or did some of them belong to others in the van. Unlike most readers, I saw this man in the van, I tried to rescue him until I realised there was no way he could have survived. If he did have their passports in his posession there was no way they would have been able to get them from him.
Unfortunately most of what we have read, including some of what I have stated is pure conjecture. To accuse the Israelis of covert espionage in NZ, or to accuse the NZ government and it's intelligence gathering agencies of incompetence based on this report is also premature speculation!
Sam; thanks for your contribution, and big ups to you for your effprts to help down there in the aftermath of the quake. You and many others like you are the unsung heroes here.
Storm meet tea-cup.
The Israelies have better things to do with their time, like dealing with noisy neighbours in the Gaza strip and in Lebanon.
Must be a quiet news week.
There was a high-level investigation launched around this case, yes?
There are details of the case Key said he's won't share with the public, yes?
Actually Robert, I was wondering whether you've been a double agent all along, and whether you might be Fred Tulett's informant...
I've been wondering that too Inv2!
"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."
What are your thoughts Inv1?
I thought I made my thoughts pretty clear yesterday Robert; did you not read all the way to the bottom? Allow me to refresh your memory:
In the meantime we will say this; if even some of what has been alleged today is true, in particular the attempt to access the police computer system, the New Zealand Government must leave its Israeli counterpart in no doubt whatsoever that such intrusions cannot and will not be tolerated.
No need to get tetchy I2! I was asking what you thought about the two points I made.
Apparently the "rescue team" was hired by the families of the other 2 Israelis. Their whereabouts were not immediately discovered as they were not part of the group that left the country that night.
I2
I posted this over at kiwiblog on this subject
So Ross this is what we know about Tulett’s article (that you claim was accurate) other than the whole intention was to create the impression that Mizrahi (and his colleagues) were/are Israeli spies:
1 – His claim of 5 (amended to 5 or 6 on TV) passports is unsubstantiated by anyone. The article says just that it is “reported”. He can’t even use his SIS source as evidence of this. The SIS investigation as reported by Key states there were 2 passports – 1 of European origin but hey if you want to believe they were spies then stick with 5.
2 – He tells a story about the existence of SAS troops in the Red Zone and justaposes that with the story about the unauthorised Israeli USAR team. What the hell has the presence of SAS troops in the Red Zone got to do with the Israelis? Ah perhaps the SAS were called in to deal with an unruly and unauthorised Israeli spy clean up squad masquesrading as a SAR team – that’s the inference. Nothing sinister about some of the many Army personnel from Burnham being assigned to duties in the Red Zone nor the fact that some of them may be in the SAS. As we now know the family of Ingel and his travelling companion paid to have this team come to NZ and now that team’s head Hilik Magnus Denke claims they never strayed into the Red Zone at all. So we have a worried wealthy father paying to have an expert team try to find his son’s body but Tulett wants us to believe that its all part of an Israeli government plot to spring the spies out.
3 – Tulett can’t even get the office of Ambassador Shemi Tzur right – somehow coming all the way from Australia where he says he’s based sounds just that little bit more sinister than coming down from Wellington where he’s actually based.
4 – Tulett actually writes that Key “fielded” 4 calls from Netanyahu. Fielded implies received or a connection was made between the two PMs – sounds so much more sinister than the truth which is that 4 attempts at calls were made to a very busy John Key and that the two leaders spoke once. But of course the fielding of 4 calls from the Israeli PM adds juice to the inference that the Israelis were frantically trying to get their spooks out and called on Key to assist.
5 – Then there’s the claim of accessing the Police national computer via the Israeli forensic expert who did get accreditation and worked in the Red Zone. That claim was categorically denied by police who actually carried out a thorough forensic check on any unauthorized access to their network. Oh but of course the Police were likely told by the PMs office to say that huh. But we get the picture – just make the inference that a breach MIGHT have happened and we have yet another damning piece of possible evidence of spying activity.
6 – Key confirmed that he signed off on the search warrants authorising the SIS to forensically examine all of Mizrahi’s belongings found in the van including electronic items such as his cell phone and there was no evidence from that examination that pointed to him being a spy.
7 – Exhibit 5 the Facebook tributes page – who knows who set it up? Not everyone is on Facebook and maybe his family and friends had no knowledge of this page hence the lack of activity.
The only remotely suspicious activity was the quick departure and indeed we know it was this that triggered the SIS inquiry.
If all of the above is your standard of accurate then you need your head read. Just because 2 Israelis were caught trying to obtain NZ passports a few years earlier does not make every Israeli backpacker a spy. And if all these people are guilty of is finding a way to flee a frightening earthquake zone and go back to their home country as fast as possible well then I assert there is not much to lose sleep over.
yeah! ...and all that too!
;-)
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