[asia-apec 1049] APEC-related break-in story (NZ)

[Gatt Watchdog]

Letters to the editor
letters at herald.co.nz



NZ Herald. March 18 1999

Secrecy slip by Clark has SIS fuming
By Eugene Bingham

Labour leader Helen Clark has let slip why intelligence agents
broke into activist Aziz Choudry's house, saying they were not
actually after him.

Her disclosure of sensitive security matters is understood to have
left the Government and the service fuming, although both refused
to comment yesterday.

Helen Clark, who as Leader of the Opposition receives regular
briefings on state security, refused to comment further yesterday.

In a magazine interview she said two Security Intelligence Service
officers who were caught breaking into Mr Choudry's Christchurch
home were interested in overseas visitors staying with him.

It is the first time anyone in authority has alluded to the reason
for the bungled 1996 break-in.

The details are deemed so secret that the Government is arguing
through the courts that it should not have to reveal them to a
High Court judge in private.

Helen Clark's statement has credence because she would have been
briefed on the case by the head of the SIS, Don McIver.

"The hardest thing for me on this is there are a lot of things I
can't say as I'm one of the few people the SIS briefs about the
general nature of the activities," she told North & South
magazine.

"They burgled [Mr Choudry's] house, yes, but not because of him,"
she said.

"I think it's clear to everyone that it was not aimed at him.  He
had visitors who were of interest and when you've got people
coming to New Zealand on visitors' visas who have got links with
groups who could have an interest, someone will make inquiries."

Mr Choudry, who is suing the SIS over the break-in, said the only
person staying with him at the time was Dr Alejandro Villamar
Calderon, a Mexican researcher and campaigner.

Dr Calderon had been invited to a free-trade conference organised
by Mr Choudry and fellow anti-Apec campaigners in Christchurch.

But Mr Choudry said he doubted the service would have been
interested in Dr Calderon and the Mexican had not even been
invited to New Zealand at the time the Prime Minister signed a
warrant authorising the SIS operation.

"The warrant was issued in September 1995.  I had my first
face-to-face contact meeting with Alejandro in November...and he
was not invited to come until late December 1995"

ENDS

GATT Watchdog media release 

MEDIA RELEASE
18 March 1999

WHO IS TELLING THE TRUTH? APEC DAMAGE CONTROL MOTIVE SUSPECTED

It seems that the SIS and GATT Watchdog finally have something in
common as both are angry - albeit for different reasons - over
Helen Clark's comments in the April 1999 edition of North and
South magazine that the SIS broke into Aziz Choudry's house
because of their interest in someone staying at his house who came
to New Zealand on a visitor's visa, said spokeswoman Leigh
Cookson.

"It is not the first time I have heard this rumour.  I wonder why
Ms Clark finds it necessary to repeat this dubious assertion every
time she is asked about the case.  Ms Clark's "slip" goes hand in
hand with the cosmetic changes made to the definition of security
in the SIS Amendment Bill No 2.  We can only assume that this
assertion is designed to allay the very real fears that New
Zealanders who are organising in opposition to this year's APEC
meetings may have their homes invaded by the SIS".

"I pointed out to Ms Clark during the GATT Watchdog submission to
the Intelligence and Security Committee on the SIS Amendment Bill
that the only visitor on a visitor's visa staying at Mr Choudry's
house during the time the SIS broke into his house (during a GATT
Watchdog organised alternative conference on APEC) was Dr
Alejandro Villamar Calderon, a Mexican academic and government
employee.  Neither GATT Watchdog nor Mr Choudry had met Dr
Villamar when the interception warrant was issued on 5 December
1995. It is impossible for the warrant to have been issued because
of SIS interest in Dr Villamar's visit to Mr Choudry's house when
neither man knew the other at the time unless the SIS have some
ability to see into the future that they are also keeping secret."

The warrant issued by the SIS supposedly authorised the
interception of 'any oral, written and/or electronic
communications of some person or persons for a period of twelve
months from the date of the warrant.  Obviously the SIS could not
have planned to intercept communications relating to Dr Villamar
in September 1995.

"It would seem that either the SIS Director-General Don McIver
misled Ms Clark about the reason for the warrant or she has some
other reason for telling this story.  I suggest that if it is the
former that she should talk to Mr McIver again and ask him to
explain how a warrant supposedly aimed at a visitor no-one had met
in September 1995 could have been issued."

"It seems obvious that Ms Clark's remarks about the case fall into
the category of political damage control over the Labour Party's
support for the SIS Amendment Bill.  A Bill which if passed still
allows the SIS to break into the houses of New Zealanders who are
opposed to the policies of the government - something Labour hopes
to be later this year"