40 years of US Military Occupation at

Operation Deep Freeze

ABC members and supporters confront the American military and the NZ police at the Open
Day celebrations on 1 October 1995 at Operation Deep Freeze. A liS official had recently
admitted in the media that OI>F's first priority has always been military, not science.

In this issue: page

+ The Rape ofOkinawa- Massive Anti-Bases Protests 2

+ For Queen and Country - Some things rotten in the state of Britain 4
• Update on US military flights at Christchurch Airport 5
+ ABC visits I-Iarewood 40th Anniversary Open Day 6
• Book Review: lan WisharC s "The Paradise Conspiracy" 7
• The SAS - How little we know 9
• Champion Security - At world record prices 1 (J
+ CIA File 11
+ New Zealand, home ofthc world's first anti-nuclear prolest (August 1(45) 13
• More things rotten in the state ofBritain IS
• Spooky Bits 16
+ Waihopai Protest - January 1995 18
 THE RAPE OF OKINAWA
Marines Brutality Spark For Massive Anti-Bases Campaign

- M urray Horton

Working w i t h i n an exclusively Australasian the US officially apologising to the people of

framework, anti-hases activists have got used to
dealing to American spybases, transport bases, or
communications bases, But neither country,
f(lftunately, plays host to any US combat bases, We
tend to f(lfget that some of our Asian neighhours most
emphatically do. To the undisguised joy of the great
bulk of thc Philippines' people, the US military quit
that country in 1992, having failed to get a renewed
bases agreement ratified by the Philippines Senate the
previous year. That ended a 94 year occupancy of
Subic Bay Naval Base, Clark Air Force Base and a
host of lesser installations. Now the US is trying to
get its foot back in the door via a warship servicing
agreement at Subic Bay. But Uncle Sam remains
outside, trying to get back in. That was a great victory
for the anti-bases campaign, on a glohal scale.
Now another massive people's movement has erupted
in Asia against US bases and it's got the ruling circles
of both Japan and the US worried. It has blown up in
Okinawa, the southernmost island of Japan, the island
most heavily occupied by the US military, and has
led to a number of unprecedented things - huge
demonstrations; the US agreeing to let arrested troops
be held in Japanese custody; the local government
refusing to renew leases on land vital to the US bases:
Okinawa: and the US Commander in Chief of the
Pacific Command (ClNCPAC) being forced to retire
because of extremely ill advised comments.
All this was sparked by the September 1995
kidnapping and rape of a 12 year old Okinawall
schoolgirl by three US servicemen - two Marines and
a Navy seaman. It was a particularly brutal crime but
far from the fifSt. Most recently a US Marine stood
trial fi)r beating an Okinawan woman to death with a
hammer. Since the island reverted to Japan in 1972,
there have been 4,675 serious crimes involving US
personnel or their dependents (Time, 6/11/95). The
ugly side of a foreign military presence is all too
obvious on Okinawa - I vividly recall the observation
by New Zealand peace activist, Owen Wilkes, that he
had seen more Filipina prostitutes around Kadena Air
Force Base on Okinawa than at any of the US bases
in the Philippines.
Okinawa waS a fire just waiting for a spark to start it.
It has been roughly colonised, firstly by the Japanese,
then by the Americans, now by both working together.
"The bases represent the latest face of the hard fate
that Okinawa has endured since the once independent
kingdom, the heart ofthe Ryukyu
Island chain, was annexed by
Japan in 1879. The Japanese then
tried with p a r t i a l success to
exterminate the local culture and
language. Toward the end of
World War 11, 150,000 local
people - nearly a third of the
population - and 12,520 US troops
and 100,000 Japanese soldiers
died there in the bloodiest
campaign in the Pacific.

"The US retained control of the

island until 1972, when it was
returned to Tokyo. But the
islanders believe that Tokyo sees
Okinawa, one of the poorest
prefectures in Japan and the only
o n e with a distinctive non­
Japanese culture, as a second rate
part of the country. One measure

Page 2 Peace Researcher

of that disrespect is the heavy presence of US bases.
Nearly two thirds of all American service members
in Japan are stationed on Okinawa, which accounts
for less than 1% of the nation's territory" (Time, 2/
10/95).
There are 28,000 US troops on Okinawa (out of a total
of 45,000 in all of Japan). Seventy five per cent of the
physical area occupied by the US military in Japan is
on Okinawa. The 40 hases are vital to the Pentagon -
they are key to the US "defence" of South Korea
(which hosts 37,000 US troops) and the rest of the
region; they were a crucial staging area for US troop
movements during the 1991 Gulf War. Individual US
bases on Okinawa have functions ranging from air
bases to special warfare training areas.
Okinawa is a small island, 1500 kms south of Tokyo,
and such a huge military presence has been a long
term irritant to the locals. The bases intrude into
densely populated residential areas, being dangerously
close to houses and schools. Constant noise from jet
fighters coming and going is just one complaint. The
rape of a child by US servicemen has proven to be the
last straw.
Massive demonstrations began immediately the three
Americans were arrested, the biggest being one of
85,000 people or nearly 8% of the total population.
Their demand is simple - that the US military should
get out of Okinawa. The age old chant of "Yankee
Go Home" was heard, to the nostalgic surprise of
veteran reporters covering it.
The Old SOFA- Not So Comfy Any More
What adds insult to injury, not only on Okinawa but
throughout Japan, is the 1960 Status of Forces
Agreement (SOFA) between the US and Japan. When
Japanese police arrived to take custody of the three
arrested suspects, the US military police refused, citing
the relevant section of the SOFA - the US is only
obliged to hand over military suspects after they have
been indicted. (The US-South Korea SOFA is even
worse. There, accused U S personnel are not
surrendered t o local authorities until they are
convicted and have exhausted all appeals.) This
angered Japanese police and the broader Japanese
public.
As public fury mounted, the three suspects were turned
over to Japanese custody and the highest ranking US
officials have basically pronounced them guilty. The
US and Japanese governments have offered to
examine aspects of the SOFA. But the Okinawan
people have moved way beyond that. They want the
Peace Researcher
US off their island, with consolidation iuto fewer bases
as a very first step, and beyond that, a whole review
of the 1960 US/Japanese mutual security treaty. This
prospect evinces considerable alarm i n the
governments of both the US and Japan. It is seen as a
major threat by the US establishment Time has
-
devoted extensive coverage to it, including a cover
story (6/11/95, "The Fury Mounts"). An even more
significant media outlet, the Christchurch Press, ran
an editorial on it (10/11195, "US troops in Japan").
The ramifications of the US military being forced to
quit Okinawa and/or Japan are quite clearly
understood by conservatives throughout the entire
AsialPacific region.
Apart from massive demonstrations and constant
political pressure, the Okinawans have other effective
means at their disposal to make life uncomfortable
for both of their colonisers. 111e charismatic Governor,
Masahide Ota (inevitably described as a "leftist"), has
said he will refuse to sign lease renewals for 286
square kms of land occupied by bases. Thirty five of
2,900 property owners have said they will refuse to
renew. One lease is up for renewal now - a 71 hectare
plot occupied by a US Navy communications
installation. The owner, Shoichi Chibana, is an
Okinawan national hero for refusing to renew. (In
1987, Chibana publicly burned Japan's Rising Sun
flag in protest at this symbol of past militarism).
Former governors have overriden the wishes of
individual owners by signing lease renewals on their
own authority but Ota refuses to do this. He came to
office in 1990 on a promise to reduce the US presence.
Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama has the power,
with the help of the courts, to sign the leases himself.
So far he has refused to take that path, hoping to win
over the enraged Okinawans. That may be a hard job
- there is widespread outrage that in 1994, Murayama,
a socialist, dropped his lifelong opposition to the US/
Japan security treaty and to US bases on Japanese
soil. He is seen as betraying what he stood for and to
have become the front man for the Pentagon.
Hit The Road, CINCPAC
Both governments are very afraid of where all this
might lead and have confined themselves to very
reluctantly tinkering around the edges. Joseph Nye,
Assistant Secretary of Defence for Regional Security,
said: "Reopening the SOFA is a major issue. Before
you know it, we could have a mess on our hands"
(Time, 16110/95). But the SOFA has been changed -
Japanese police can now hold American military
suspects in Japanese custody, before they have been
indicted (a concession the Okinawans denounce as
Page 3
too little, too late). Nothing substantive regarding
Okinawa, or the Japan/US military relationship has
been addressed. Both governments hope against hope
that it will go away.
In the meantime, there has been a whole saga of
apologies and recriminations. Marines on Okinawa
were ordered to spend a day in reflection. US Defence
Secretary, William Perry, issued an "extraordinary
public apology to Japan", on behalf of all members
of the US Armed Forces (Press, 211 1195). President
Clinton has said he "deeply regrets" the incident. "We
do not condone any misconduct or any abuse of the
Japanese people" (Time, 21l 0/95).
stupid. For the price they paid to rent the car, they
could have had a girl" ie prostitute (Press, 20111/95).
So much for his day of reflection. That was too much
for his bosses - it was announced that he would retire
early. John Dalton, Navy Secretary, said: 'There is
no place in today's Navy for attitudes that reflect a
regard for women as property or that show
insensitivity towards the victim of rape and brutal
assault" (ibid). Some hope - in December 1995, the
US Marines on Okinawa announced that they were
investigating the alleged rape of a female Marine by
a fellow Marine.
The Cold War Is Not Over In Asia

And heads have rolled. The three accused rapists face
a sentence of up to life imprisonment in a Japanese
prison. Noboru Hoshuyama, head of the Japanese
Defence Facilities Administration Agency, told
reporters in a bar: "This issue has been caused because
the Prime Minister is stupid" ie by not initiating the
lease renewal process (Press, 20/10/95). That was the
end of his job.
The highest ranking victim was Admiral Richard
Macke, Commander in Chief of the Pacific Command
(CINCPAC), commander of 330,000 US military
personnel. He really put his foot in it by revealing
rather too frankly the workings of the military mind.
Talking of the rape, he said: "I think it was absolutely
The central conclusion out of all this is that, although
the Cold War is over in Europe ("we" won,
remember?), it sure as hell isn't in Asia. The
demonisation of North Korea continues unabated and
the US is very keen to maintain a substantial military
presence in that part of the world. Japan is vital to
that global military scenario, and within Japan,
nowhere is more convenient than poor colonised
Okinawa, one of the most militarised places on Earth.
The only fly in the ointment is that the Okinawans
themselves have had a gutsfull of being an unsinkable
aircraft carrier for both the US and Japan, and want to
be rid of the whole lot. Theirs is a struggle that
deserves the fullest support from the anti-bases
campaign in this part of the world.

FOR QUEEN AND COUNTRY - SOME THINGS

ROTTEN IN THE STATE OF BRITAIN
BRITISH EXPORT SUCCESS?
Reports that British companies (including formerly state-owned enterprises) were willing to sell torture
equipment to other countries has got no response from the British Government except threats to prosecute
the producer of a TV programme which aired the story. Royal Ordinance apparently provided 8,000
electro-shock batons to Saudi Arabia, and another company supplied China with 300 in 1990. The batons
can paralyse or even kill without leaving tell-tale marks. [New Statesman 11 August 1995] Other reports
tell us that the Apartheid system in South Africa was able to operate the pass system in its latter years by
using computer equipment sold to the South African Government by the then British owned ICL company.

BRITISH MINISTERS LIE

In June this year a British Cabinet Minister was accused by the judge investigating the supply of British
defence-related equipment to Iraq of giving Westminster MPs false information. William Waldegrave is
said to have been behind a secret British decision to relax restrictions on sales of equipment to Iraq during
its war with Iran. This follows previous revelations that other British Ministers lied about related activities
in connection with illegal supply of machine tools to the Saddam Hussein regime. John Major is reported
to have written misleading letters about British policy in 1989, although some sources attributed this to
poor briefing by Whitehall officials.

Page 4 Peace Researcher

 UPDATE ON US MILITARY FLIGHTS AT
CHRISTCHURCH AIRPORT
US military aircraft continue to use Christchurch
International Airport for various purposes all of
which are accepted by the NZ government as
covered by the Antarctic Agreement of 1960. Our
last report on this subject was in the June issue (No.
S) in which we summarized five years of data (June
1990 through May 1995). The information
continues to be supplied to the Anti-Bases
Campaign by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and
Trade (MFAT) under provisions of the Official
Information Act.
The most significant addition to the data is the Ski­
Hercules category, seen on the graph as a line plot
over the bars. The Ministry began to supply the
Hcrcules information at the beginning of the
current onc-year period of blanket diplomatic
clearance for all US government flights. The ski
planes are the primary Operation Deep Freeze
cargo aircraft capable of working in the Antarctic
under a variety of snow and ice conditions. Unlike
the Starliftcrs and Galaxys of the Air Force, which
are strictly wheeled aircraft, the Hercules used by
Operation Deep Freeze are equipped with
rctractable teflon-coated skis and thus can land on
asphalt and under any temperature conditions in
any season on Antarctic snow.
The Ski-Hereulcs (designated LC-130s) are flown
by US Navy flight crews. Their missions are, in
our view, strictly for Antarctic logistics support, in
US Air Force and Navy Flights at Christchurch Airport
25
o Antarctic
220
.<: o Military
.!;1'l
<;:: � Ski-HerclIles
'l;i 15
c:
-
f
-
°10
'­
<l>
..0
E
� 5 I----�---I
6 7
Peace Researcher
contrast to the mixed role of the US Air Force
flights. The Hercules flight data will enable us to
calculate the proportion of the annual total of US
military flights dedicated solely to Antarctic
missions (Hercules and some Air Force) compared
to the proportion conducting militarylintelligence
business in whole or in part (Air Force).
The graph covers only about half the current
Antarctic season. Note the open bars which show
monthly Antarctic flight numbers. In June those
flights were Starlifters and tankers carrying out the
mid-winter supply drop at McMurdo. The single
Ski-Hercules appearances in June and July were for
maintenance by Air New Zealand under a service
agreement In August all of the Antarctic flights
were Hercules preparing for the upcoming
Antarctic season. Supply to the Ice began in
earnest in October at which time the still hard­
frozen Williams Field at McMurdo could
accommodate the Starlifters and Galaxys. Only
three i1ights were Hereules. In mid-summer the
supply flights are limited to Hercules.
Note the darker bars which continue across the
months in more uniform numbers (see data in the
June issue as well). The militarylintelligence
flights of Starlifters and Galaxys go to and from
Australia, not the Antarctic, and they continue year­
round. There appears to be an increase in military
flight numbers in 1995 compared to 1994.
1995
8 9 10 11 12
Month
Page 5
 ABC VISITS HARE OD PEN D
Greg Jones
On Sunday, 1s i of
October, the Christchurch
City Council and others
organised an open day at
the Christchurch
International Airport to
"celebrate" the 40th
anniversary of Operation
Deep Freeze.

Twenty something ABC

people turned up at noon
to impart some truths to
the party-goers. We came
with placards, banners,
and leaflets - one of which
quoted the w o r d s o f
National Science
Foundation head Charles
Paul saying that the
American priority at Deep
conversation. Then again, as Abraham Lincoln said,
Freeze had always been military. not the Antarctic.
"You can please half the people .H

Most of us were positioned just outside the main

However, the overall reaclioIl to our day's activities
entrance where we proceeded to attach banners to the
was positive and if we didn'l convert many people.
fence and hand out the leaflets. The Airport authorities
I'm sure at least we planted questions about US
objected to banners being hung on "their" fence and
activities at Harewood which will hopefully callse
so wc took turns holding them. We had friendly
many people to question what they read in
discussions with several police who were stationed at
newspapers/hear on the radio/see on television. If we
the airport. Wc explained we were hoping to speak to
keep presenting the evidence to the public, the US
Dr Charles Paul. and could they locate him') Ouc of
military machine at Harewood will not be able to
the older policeman identified Bob Leonard as a
continue to conceal its operations behind the mask
Lincoln University lecturer nice to know our profile
of support for Antarctic research. For some reason I
is worthy of their study after do/ens of protests over
keep thinking of the child who said "Look the
years of action against the liS military presence.
Emperor's not wearing any clothes". (Or William
Stringfellow: ''Exposure is disabling to the demonic.")
The reactions of the public were mixed. Some
obviously pigeon-holed us from a quite a distance and
called us "stirrers", "peddlers of bull-shit" or merely DEEP FREEZE FOR
used sign language, most of which I interpreted as
indicating they were not interested in meaningful US BASE STAFF
debate and didn't want the truth to intrude upon their
. The budget battle between Clinton and Congress
blissfully ignorant existences Bob also had a long
in November stopped pay for some workers at
standoff with police before they allowed him to
Christchurch's Harewood base. Three "non­
distribute leal1ets inside the base fence.
essential" civilian staff from the US Navy's
electronic calibration section were sent home for
When some of us offered to talk or explain further
nearly two weeks. Although the staff were later
our position w e were sometimes confronted by
reinstated with back pay the matter raises once
defensive reactions, but also by constructive and
more the old issue of workers' rights and the
positive comments. It showed m e that it can
power of the US military at Harewood to over-
sometimes be counterproductive to thrust pamphlets
=r e t' .
�u: . f �
:::
into people's faces if you want t O�h: v.::: ...:a
a:.: se I = = = = == ======
�
__

Page 6 Peace Researcher

 lan Wishart's uThe Paradise Conspiracy"
(HowlingAt the Moon Productions, Auckland 1995)
Book Review by Nuclear Free Kiwis
Banana republics are countries ruled by multinational
companies, corrupt politicians, money-grubbing
businessmen, and "goon" gangs. While this might
not yet be an accurate picture of New Zealand in the
mid-1990s, there are elements emerging that indicate
a pattern more familiar in the Third World. Sometime,
early next century the pattern could become much
more obvious. This is the real warning of "The
Paradise Conspiracy", [an Wishart's gripping and
detailed expose of the "winebox" affair, along with
the wider background to this affair. Winston Peters
aside, Wishart is the televisionjoumalist who has done
most to rip the lid off the winebox conspiracy for the
New Zealand public. The affair, of course, is still in
progress with the Davison Commission of Inquiry
unravelling more of its machinations as time passes.
At this stage, some of the elements of banana
republicdom are still pretty shadowy. But, then,
elements like death squads have always been shadowy
entities. Undoubtedly, tbe most serious charge in "The
Paradise Conspiracy" is the suggestion that if a
particular New Zealander named in the book "was
murdered, then the evidence points to the involvement
of state security organisations - either the Security
Intelligence Service or the Special Air Service" (p.
325).
The person concerned was Paul White, the 26 year
old second-hand computer dealer who died in a
mysterious car crash in Auckland on September 5,
1992. White had claimed to have been in possession
of some Citibank computer disks that were allegedly
very revealing about political corruption in New
Zealand, as well as recent and current secret activities
by New Zealand special forces overseas. The covert
side of the former Australia, New Zealand, United
States defence pact (ANZUS) certainly continues in
full today. One aspect identified by White related to
arms sales by a New Zealand company.
At the time of the media reports of Paul White's death,
alarm bells with sinister overtones were ringing loud
for some of us. White's death seemed just too
conveniently coincidental and conveyed the hallmarks
of a specially contrived "hit". This impression was
rapidly reinforced by the strangely precipitous way
the whole case was buried by the authorities, and a
clean bill of health proclaimed to the world. The
missing disks with the vital information have never
Peace Researcher
appeared and most of the secrets that White said he
had learnt seem to have been buried with him.
Much of the early part of the "Paradise Conspiracy"
sets the scene for the winebox affair with Wishart's
investigation into White's allegations and the
"spooky" events culminating in the computer dealer's
death. Wishart paints these incidents, and the
following sequence of events described in the book
as: . . . "war on the streets of New Zealand, and the
public never knew. Like the plot of a Cold War spy
novel, it was a clandestine campaign of dirty tricks,
international intrigue, kidnap attempts, death threats,
beatings, buggings and break-ins" (p.2).
Paul White had been subject to an injunction by
Citibank for the return of a collection of about 90
computer disks which had accidentally fallen into his
possession after the sale of some redundant Citibank
computer hard ware. Citibank had come to realise that
there was highly "confidential" information on these
disks, with a small number containing especially
inflammatory material, and wanted them all returned.
One of White's allegations was that "the disks showed
a US$50,OOO payment by a multinational company to
a member of Parliament" (p. 15). This money had
been deposited in the tax-haven of the Bahamas. It
was ironic that this sum of money was also the finder's
fee that White asked ji"Om Citibank for returning the
disks.
The story has certain very murky dimensions well
described by Wishart. For example, if Citibank had
really wanted the disks with the greatest of urgency,
it could have immediately paid over the $50,000
which, for a bank like Citibank, would have been only
a small cost. Instead, Citibank preferred to work
through the legal system. At the same time, it was
clear that White was under close surveillance for at
least two months, the sort of surveilllance that only a
security service would mount since any filll-time
private investigators would have cost a lot more than
$50,000 (p. 16). A white Toyota Hiace van with tinted
windows that kept watch on White and also, 011 one
occasion, journalist Fran 0' Sullivan' s apartment
"during a 1993 meeting with a key source on the
BNZ's dealings with Fay Richwhite", was shown to
have had the false registration plate ofNE9l18. When
Wishart traced this registration, he found it in fact
belonged to a similar vehicle owned by a woman in
Page 7
Gore. Her vehicle had stayed in Gore all the time.
This is only part of the mysterious ring that Wishart
shows to have been quickly closing in around Paul
White. D u r i n g this period, Wishart was in
communication with MP Winston Peters. We can
only hope that Wishart informed Peters of more than
what has so far come out in public about alleged
political corruption in New Zealand, and whatever
other significant information might have been on the
computer disks. Peters and his lawyer have apparently
been under surveillance too.
One point well worth noting is that "a large number
of upper echelon security firms now have former
spooks and troops on staff' (p. 19). A network is
clearly developing within New Zealand, comprising
a web of connections among current and former
intelligence and security people, and the military,
which could be mobilised for repression if ever the
position of the rich and powerful were under threat.
As the international "New Right" continues to hand
over most of the functions of national government to
multinational finance and big business, it is conserving
a central core of operations of which the most
important is the control of intelligence/security forces,
however privatised elements of these may become.
More than ever before, such agencies are becoming
the coercive arm of vested economic interests. While
they can be in competition as shown by recent US­
Japanese conflict, they have common enemies - in
particular, those working for social justice and
economic change.
As he came under growing pressure, Paul White got
a visit from a man claiming to be an SIS agent,
warning him of "a search warrant executed" on his
flat in a couple of days time by the police if he did not
hand over the disks to the security service. This police
raid happened as predicted. Various other strange and
unpleasant things also happened. For instance, the
police confiscated White's files (except for several
missing disks) and amazingly enough allowed
Citibank to have access to them, even though this was
evidence subject to criminal proceedings. Indeed,
Wishart also portrays a persuasive case of a police
cover-up of White's death that points to the highest
levels of the government. Wishart identified scratches
on White's car which could have been evidence of
the vehicle having been sideswiped off the road.
White claimed to have found on the Citibank disks
evidence of shady dealings involving "big New
Zealand corporates", as well as "a US$50,000
payment to another senior National MP via an account
at Citibank Nassau, in the Bahamas" (p. 37).
Page 8
The connection with the winebox affair comes through
White's claims of massive "money laundering" and
tax evasion scams being carried out courtesy of the
Cook Islands' tax-haven (p. 29).
For spook monitors, it is the first 150 pages of the
book which hold the most interest. After that, Wishart
gets immersed in the story of unmasking the winebox
conspiracy with European Pacific and the bunch of
scumbags associated with it. This is all very important
but since television has focus sed on the business
machinations, what is most new and revealing is the
'
spooky stuff about White's death and the role of
intelligence/security agencies in big business,
especially the protection of what may prove to be
criminal activity.
Throughout the book, there is a hero who pops up
from time to time - Winston Peters. Wishart gives
him full credit and rightly so. In a graphic, humorous
phrase, Wishart portrays Peters in Parliament, blasting
the National government, as "the one megaton nuclear
teddy bear from hell" (p. 240). Only a few journalists
like Wishart resisted the concerted corporate media
attack to discredit Peters. We owe them both, as does
what is left of New Zealand democracy in general, a
huge vote of thanks.
Nuclear Free Kiwis has been a strong critic of Peters
in the past. We once had an article in Peace
Researcher (first series, June, 1988, no. 1 9), raising
questions about his role in the "Honolulu loans seam"
(called by the media the "Maori Loan Affair"). This
gave all the indications of a CIA-engineered covert
operation to destabilise the Labour government of the
day over its anti-nuclear stand. At that time, Peters
was the "nuclear teddy bear from hell" for the Labour
government, laying waste to its conventional defences.
Now that more of the evidence is on Peters'
parliamentary performance, we can consider him as
a maverick MP, a cannon capable of independent fire
as well as unwitting calibration by the CIA.
It is ironic, of course, that Peters' activity on the
winebox affair mirrors to some extent his activity in
relation to the "Honolulu loans seam". Both scandals
concern devious Pacific island-based financial
manipulations that Peters brought to public attention.
Indeed, the Cook Islands was deeply implicated in
the "Honolulu loans scam", and Wishart recounts this
first seam to help give the background to the winebox
conspiracy. The description here is part of an
interesting. wider discussion of shady business dealing
and spook agencies.
In the coverage of such things on the sweeping scale
Peace Researcher
of this book, it is very hard to be absolutely accurate.
Wishart mistakenly ascribes the existence of the CIA­
connected Centre for Strategic and International
Studies at Washington DC's Georgetown University
to the aggrieved reaction of master spook, Ray Cline,
against New Zealand's anti-nuclear stand (p. Il l ).
In fact, the Centre predatcs the ANZUS crisis and
Cline was already operating out of it in an effort to
establish an ANZUS "think-tank" targeted at New
Zealand.
But this is only nit-picking at a book which deserves
the widest readership that we can help give it. "The
Paradise Conspiracy" has been written by a journalist
who made considerable sacrifices and took great
personal risk to expose a lot of dirty work in our own
THE SAS 0& HOW LITILE WE KN
In June of this year a member of the New Zealand
Army was killed while on active duty with British
forces in Zimbabwe. Lance Corporal Daniel Flannigan
was killed, not by enemy action, but by a rampaging
elephant. The army maintains a strict policy of never
identifying members of the Special Air Service (SAS)
or disclosing details of their training or operations.
But army sources said Flannigan was based at
Hobsonville Air Base, the main quarters for the SAS,
and was almost certainly on exercises with the British
in this capacity.
Very occasionally, references to activities of the New
Zealand SAS come to light. But the operations of this
elite unit are mostly kept secret and little is known
about where or how they operate. lan Wishart's
"Paradise Conspiracy" [see book review in this issue]
contains some intriguing references to SAS actions,
and asserts that "successive New Zealand
Governments have been prepared to lie to the media
and the public about the NZ involvement..." in various
overseas operations.
Wishart sought information about SAS activities
through the Official Information Act, but got very little
back because most material is classified. He
particularly wanted to confirm information that he had
been given from reliable sources that elements of the
New Zealand SAS had been involved ill action during
the Gulf War, in Cambodia, and in other undisclosed
theatres. The official answer was that no serving
soldiers had been involved, nor had SAS people from
this country been in overseas advisory or combat roles
since the Vietnamese War. However, Wishart points
out that John Pilger foundBritish SAS operatives were
Peace Researcher
country where the ruling "establishment" has
strenuously tried to keep as much of it as hidden as
possible. There is ohviously plenty more to he told
yet.
("The Paradise Conspiracy" [August, 1995] is now
available in some bookshops. It can also be obtained
by ringing the free phone number: 0800 747 007; or
by applying to Insight Data NZ Ltd, PO Box 90-160
AMSC, Auckland, ph (09) 3580055; or direct from
the publisher, Howling at the Moon Production
Company, PO Box 16233, Sandringham, Auckland.
It costs $34.95 for mail-order delivery; the bookshop
price is cheaper.)
W
Warren Thomson
removed from official employment when used in
Cambodia, and thinks evidence of a NZ SAS role in a
number of war zones around the globe is strong and
merely managed to provide for deniability.
What role SAS soldiers have been playing overseas
may be difficult to judge. But their presence has been
confirmed from various sources, and the official line
of no operations overseas since Vietnam seems thin,
if not downright lies. In the early eighties two SAS
members died in the crash of a US military plane in
the Philippines. Before the ANZUS row the SAS
participated in counter-insurgency exercises at Subic
Bay that included assassination techniques. One
former British SAS officer told Wishart he had worked
alongside New Zealanders who fought with the British
in Oman sometime between 1972 and 1974. The same
person said that NZ SAS arc regularly attached to
British units, and have served in combat roles in
Northern Ireland and other places, including the Gulf
War.
In 1989 wc learned that covert missions had been
undertaken deep inside Indonesia during the
Malaysian troubles in 1965-66. The missions were
highly classified and officially denied for over twenty
years. Former Colonel David Moloney, in charge of
the last SAS detachment in Borneo, said the
operations were mostly for reconnaissance, but the
New Zealanders were involved in "ambushes in
defence". [NZ Sunday Times, 25 June 1989] Moloney
did not believe anyone from this country had been
killed in the operations, and said that one SAS member
won a decoration for bravery. The Sunday Times
article makes the point that while these activities were
Page 9
 totally concealed from the New Zealand public, the
Indonesians knew about them all the time.
The Australian SAS will play a key role in security
for the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000AD, standing
by to deal with any hi-jacking or serious terrorist
activity. The NZ SAS carries out similar training to
storm buildings or aircraft under the control of
"terrorists". During the 1987 Fiji Coup, Prime
Minister David Lange ordered an SAS detachment to
fly to Fiji where an Air NZ jet had been hi-jacked by
an Indian, to proteci NZ citizens in the aircraft or other
danger areas in Fiji. The soldiers were heading for
Auckland to board a plane when they were recalled.
The NZ Defence Chiefs had opposed the wishes of
the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defence, and
the operation was abandoned. (The hi-jack crisis was
solved when the 747's flight engineer hit the hi-jacker
over the head witb a bottle of whiskey.)
In tbe December 1995 edition of the journal L obster,
John Newsinger discusses the recent autobiography
of Peter de la Billiere, long time Director ofthe British
CHAMPI N SECURITY
AT W ORLD RECORD P RICES
South Korea spent over $65 million dollars to guard
against terrorists or subversives interfering in the 1988
Olympic Games. This mega international event is a
bonanza not only for the advertisers, but also for the
security agencies. Already the Australian Security
Intelligence Organisation has launched a recruiting
drive to ensure its readiness for the 2000AD Olympics
in Sydney. And a top ASIO official is reported as
criticising organisers for not reacting quickly enough
to growing terrorist threats. The initial $Aus30 million
security budget is now promised by the NSW police
chief responsible, to "rise substantially". Some left
wing groups in Australia have pointed out that the
games w i l l g i v e spook agencies the perfect
opportunity to crack down on "subversive" groups
and increase surveillance of political opponents of the
government.
Over 20,000 people will be mobilised to provide the
security for the Atlanta Olympics in 1996. But the
organisers are depending on electronic gadgetry and
good intelligence data, rather than force and firepower,
to ensure that the sports games are safe from terrorist
ones. A system of access control to sensitive locations,
costing around $US 25 million, will track everyone
coming or going with encoded identity cards and
surveillance cameras.
Page ID
SAS. Newsinger shows that the book is another of
the currently prolific genre of SAS bero worship that
substitutes "tales of SAS prowess for any serious
consideration of tbeir military effectiveness". He
states that "while there is no doubting tbe courage,
fitness, or endurance of the SAS [often under 1
appalling conditions" their role in Malaya, the Middle
East, and Northern Ireland is grossly exaggerated. The
article suggests that in Northern Ireland, where the
NZ SAS may have been involved, the secret war
waged was probably responsible for strengthening
IRA support, and generating further violence.
Much remains to be uncovered about the operations
of the New Zealand SAS. Whether their activities
would be applauded by the public of this country, or
condemned, we won't know until much more
information is available about the covert activities of
the organisation. Some Cabinet Ministers are briefed
on SAS operations, but the media, and the public, are
left totally in the dark. Another black hole in our
democratic solar system.
OM
About 10,000 military personnel from tbe army and
the marines will be kept close at hand but out of sight.
They will not be in combat uniform. Other security
groups will include private security teams, state
troopers, municipal and county police, and elements
. from the FBI, the US Customs Service, and the Bureau
of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. The Dallas police
chief has been recruited to run the security operation,
heading a committee of local, state and federal law
enforcement agencies. The committee will be
responsible for assessing potential threat from the
intelligence data collected, and formulating strategies
to deal with possible problems.
In Australia the Oklahoma bombing and the Tokyo
subway attack have been used as reasons to boost
security measures for the Sydney Olympics. Current
plans are under wraps because the NSW State
Government has banned anyone from talking to the
media about the subject. However, the Sydney
Morning Herald [4 November] reports that infra-red
surveillance cameras will cover every Olympic venue
and transport route throughout the city, and that
Australia's Special Air Service Number One squadron
will be available on 24 hour standby to deal with any
terrorist attack.
Peace Researcher
The newspaper says that in the event of an attack the
1973 National Anti-terrorism Plan would come into
play, with the Protective Services Co-ordination
Centre (PSCC) taking control. The area would be
sealed off and the PSCC, which carries out two
exercises each year, would direct the operations of
the state counter-terrorist squad, Federal Police, ASIO,
and the army. Apparently the last time the National
Anti-Terrorism Plan was put into operation was during
the Hilton Hotel Bombing in 1978.
Political commentators have said that Olympic Games
CIA FILE
CIA REPORTS QUESTIONABLE
CIA officers sent at least 35 intelligence reports to
the White House and the Pentagon without disclosing
that the information was coming from Soviet double
agents. Suspect reports went to Presidents Reagan and
Bush, and at least one to Clinton before he took office
in January 1993. CIA Director John Deutsch says that
some of these were flawed reports about the former
Soviet Union which were known or suspected to come
from enemy agents or assets controlled by the Soviet
security forces. A classified report presented to
Congress by the CIA at the beginning of November
suggests the information passed on by double agents
may have influenced Washington's weapons
purchases by giving an inflated picture of Soviet
military capabilities. The revelations came as part of
the assessment of the damage done to the CIA by
Aldrich Ames, the mole who betrayed several top US
agents to the Soviets between 1985 and 1994. Ames's
treachery had made it difficult to get good information
from the Soviet Union, partly because of the loss of
agents and partly because he revealed US information
gathering techniques to Moscow. Over the same 1985-
1994 period the CIA distributed 95 reports from
double agents and other questionable sources, but
often failed to tell policy-makers it had doubts about
the reliability of the material. Congressional leaders
have disagreed on the impact of the revelations. There
is difference of opinion on how much of the
information given to the CIA was genuine and whether
it did have significant impact on US policy and arms
purchases. The Sydney Morning Herald [11
November] reports that sources who have seen the
damage assessment say it is careful not to declare that
Russian spies were the decisive factor in convincing
Washington to make needless and costly purchases
of new weapons. The House Intelligence Committee
chairperson, Larry Combest claimed "controlled
Peace Researcher
tend to attract small numbers of nutters who can be
extremely dangerous. An academic who specialises
in study of terrorism, Ms Jenny Hocking, is quoted as
saying that the current terrorist threat is seen to come
most likely from the Middle East, and that there is
very little history of domestic terrorism in Australia.
This is hardly likely to stop the Australian intelligence
agencies doing all they can to use the huge resources
thrown into the four yearly spectacle as a boost for
their organisations, and even more to make up ground
lost in recent years through criticism of their
undemocratic and over-extended domestic operations.
information" passed on by Soviet agents was acually
genuine and offered by the KGB to establish the
credentials of its double agents with the CIA. Arlen
Specter (surely a name for James Bond to consider)
Republican chairperson of the Senate Select
Committee on Intelligence, maintains that the
misinformation has cost the US "billions of dollars".
One of the officials responsible for CIA oversight,
Inspector-General Frederick Hitz, has recommended
that over a dozen CIA officers be held responsible
for their roles in the affair. Most of these have already
retired. According to Time Magazine [13 November]
the Hitz man also recommended that the last three
agency Directors (Webster, Gates, and Woolsey)
should also be held accountable. nme says "The latest
scandal has sent morale at the agency to rock bottom.
Disgusted with incompetence by higher-ups, many
younger spies are resigning." The debacle again points
up the inanity of setting up massive intelligence
organisations which work in a twilight zone to the
extent that it is impossible to decide whether
infomation collected is reliable or bogus.
CIA lOSING TO DEFENSE?
In the CIA File of last issue [October 1995] we noted
a report that the Defense Intelligence Agency was
gaining clout at the expense of its CIA rival. Its
internal reorganisation of the intelligence sectors of
its constituent services, and its control of a large part
of the intelligence budget put the DIA in a very strong
position. In L obster, December 1995, Alex Cox notes
that the CIA is feeling threatened: the CIA has already
lost control ofthe eavesdropping agency, the National
Security Agency, to the military, and future covert
operations are likely to be more under the control of
the DIA's National Military Collection Agency.
Covert operations will be run by the new Defense
Human Intelligence Service (DHIS). While CIA
Page 11
Director Deutsch is nominally in charge of the DHIS,
Cox says t h e military will have day-to-day
responsibility.
IVY LEAGUE LAWYER fiGHTS THE CIA
Jennifer Harbury, wife of the murdered Guatemalan
rebel leader Efrain Bamaca Velasquez, known as
Everardo, and a Harvard educated lawyer, is suing
the CIA over the death of her husband. He had been
tortured and killed in 1992 on the instructions of
Colonel Julio Alpirez, a Guatemalan intelligence
officer on the payroll of the CIA. She spent two years
confronting Guatemalan and US authorities using
hunger strikes as a way to demand official action and
promote media investigation to find out what had
happened to the rebel leader. Harbury learned that
the US Embassy in Guatemala had actually received
a CIA report saying that Everardo had been captured
alive, so his subsequent torture and death were known
to them. The case has caused more damage to the CIA
and two officers have been given early retirement. It
seems that the bad old days of CIA backed repression
in Central America are yet to end. An inquiry was
launched by the White House into allegations that the
National Security Agency and other intelligence
groups had shredded evidence relating to this case.
Time MagaZine has reported CIA Director John
Dcutsch as announcing that ten agency officials would
be dismissed, demoted, or reprimanded for having
mishandled information regarding human rights
abuses in Guatemala. [9 October1
HONDURAS LEGACY
Human Rights Commissioner Leo Valladares says that
US and Argentine military personnel were involved
in the "disappearance" of suspected leftists in the
1980s. He alleged that Honduran death squads, trained
by the CIA and Argentine advisors, kidnapped,
tortured and killed 184 people. [Christchurch Press,
4 November]
CIA SPIES ON TRADE NEGOTIATORS
The CIA played a major covert role in US-Japanese
trade negotiations over the last year when the two
countries were involved in a stand-off over car
imports. A front page report in the New York Times
said the Americans had used electronic eavesdropping
equipment to spy on Japanese officials and business
executives. Mickey Kantor, the U S trade
representative, received daily CIA briefings on what
the Japanese were saying amongst themselves, both
in Tokyo and in Geneva. US television has also run
stories that the CIA tapped phone calls made by
Akitane Kiuchi, an envoy involved in the talks, and
the Agency also spied on Ryutaro Hashimoto, Japan's
Page 12
trade Minister. This is further proof of the way US
intelligence is being used for economic espionage to
openly advantage American business interests. The
Japanese Government has complained to the White
House but indications are that knowledge of the
bugging was widespread and the media exposes are
being shrugged off. Japanese security experts have
speculated that the CIA itself fed the story to the NYT
in order to boost its own importance. The CIA has
been working hard at economic espionage in Japan
since the late 1970s. Security amongst Japan's
bureaucrats and business executives is said to be lax,
partly because of the extra costs involved in tight
security measures. The Australian Bulletin
[Newsweek section, 3 I October1 says thatthe Japanese
Doomsday Cult, Aum Shinrikyo, was found to have
sensitive Mitsubishi files on new ann our for tanks,
had broken into a laser-research facility near Tokyo,
and had floor plans for several electronics companies.
On the other hand Japan's own spies are regarded as
masters of economic espionage and have been spying
on the French, British and Americans for decades.
AND SEXIST TOO
In June this year a gronp of women who are suing the
CIA over allegations of rampant sexism in the
agency's overseas stations, rejected the offered
settlement of $US one million. The plaintiffs, acting
on behalf of about 350 colleagues, want more money
as compensation for gender-based discrimination in
the Directorate of Operations. This is the division of
the agency responsible for spying and covert action.
(Last year in New Zealand an ex-spook had similar
problems trying to get a judgement against the SIS
on grounds of sexual harrassment.)
lANGLEY LOOKS TO ESP FOR HElP
Amongst the Especially Silly Programmes instituted
by the CIA over the last twenty years have been a
series of attempts 10 use ESP, Extra-Sensory
Perception. Psychics were used to try and scan inside
the house of Panamanian dictator Manuel Norriega
by the Director of Army Intelligence, and the military
and CIA have over the years tried to find infonnation
by using people who claim to have extraordinary
powers to see what other spies or satellites cannot.
Psychics were employed to try to locate Colonel
Muammar Gadaffi before bombing his house in 1986.
Attempts were also made to find the whereabouts of
General James Dozier, kidnapped by the Red Brigade
in 1981, and more recently to find Plutonium in North
Korea. The CIA funded research into ESP because of
concern over Russian developments i n
parapsychology and the potential of 'psychic warfare'.
Peace Researcher
 New Zealand, home of the
world's first anti-nuclear protest
only days after Hiroshima
When thefirst
might well think - if, by then, people bother to think at all - that the Golden Age ofmankind came to an end with the
end ofthe present war. Looking back, they might see that, although technological progress continued, freedom of
thought, ofspeech, and ofscientific discovery came to an end in 1945.
Sunday 6th August 1995 was the fiftieth anniversary
of one of the twentieth century's most important
events: the dropping of the first atomic bomb on the
Japanese city of Hiroshima.
Soon afterwards, in Christchurch, one of the twentieth
century's most important thinkers gave a lecture which
may have been the world's first anti-nuclear protest.
That the world does not know is a product of some
unique circumstances.
In 1945 Karl Popper was still relatively unknown. His
first published work, Logik der Forschung (The Logic
of Scientific Discovery), had been published but not
translated into English. His second, The Open Society
and its Enemies, had been written but not published.
He had just begun to attract attention in England when
war broke out. To escape Nazi rule in his native
Austria, he then spent eight years in the obscurity of
a small university college in Christchurch, New
Zealand - admittedly Ernest Rutherford's alma mater,
but his fact was not widely publicised at the time.
To deepen the obscurity, Popper's lecture was not a
public occasion but one of a series on Scientific
Method which he was giving as part of his job as a
lecturer at Canterbury University College, the
forerunner of the modem University of Canterbury.
From 1937 to 1945 Popper enlivened the drab scenes
of provincial life in Christchurch with his European
manners, his strong Viennese accent and his single­
minded academic professionalism. He inspired an
intellectual excitement that lives on in the memories
of former students and colleagues.
John Pollard, chemistry student at the time,
remembers "As soon as Popper announced that he
would discuss Hiroshima in his weekly lecture, the
whole college was buzzing with anticipation. When
the time came Room 15 [Popper's lecture room1 was
Peace Researcher
by Giyn Strange, Christchurch
Karl Popper, August 1945
jam-packed. People were elbow to elbow and sitting
in the aisles". As well as a better than usual turn-out
of students and staff, there were some interested
members of the pUblic. Also present was a reporter
from the city's evening newspaper, whose subsequent
article contains the only known written account of
what Popper said.
Reliance on a hastily-compiled newspaper report is
not always safe. Indeed, in its next issue the
newspaper published a response from Popper who
took issue with parts of the original report. He did
admit, however, that it represented the gist of his
lecture very well. So long as his contested points are
allowed for, we can assume that it gives a reasonably
clear description of his ideas.
First it must be said that Popper's lecture was not
simply anti-nuclear. He felt that nuclear power had
much potential for good. He even felt that the Allies
were rigbt to develop the bomb when they did. It
was, he said, far better than letting the Germans beat
them to it, which would have been "infinitely worse".
Despite the newspaper's sensational headline - "Grim
Forecast for Future of Civilisatiou" - Popper made no
predictions. As he said in his reply, he regarded
historical prophecy as a form of "intellectual
charlatanry". But he was interested in the possible
ways in which the new power might be used. Drawing
a large question mark on the blackboard he proceeded
to discuss what we would now call the "worst case
scenarios" of the postwar period.
The first of these concerned the future of scientific
research. A possible result of the timing of the
discovery of nuclear power was that it might come
under political control. Had the discovery come in
peace time and been put to peaceful uses, he said, the
results would have been so much better. Discovered
Page 13
 in wartime and put to warlike use, it meant that
governments were almost obliged to take control in
order to protect their citizens from the potential
indiscriminate use of so massively destructive a
power.
As Denis Hogan, another chemistry student in 1 945,
points out, this had not seemed possible before the
war, when nuclear research had been conducted by a
multinational group of scientists who had collaborated
freely and openly exchanged information in the belief
that science was beneficial to humankind and therefore
transcended politics. Popper, knowing that physicists
would uot want the responsibility of controlling the
dangerous knowledge they had unlocked, could see
little alternative to government control.
From here his fears for the future began to escalate.
Not just science but all learning might come under
threat from unscrupulous governments. "Once a
political dictatorship has control of the dangerous
departments of physics and chemistry, what will be
done with the rest? ... Control of one science will
spread to others as the ruling hierarchy strives to guard
the secrets of power."
He jokingly imagined a time when we might still be
allowed to study botany and even elementary biology,
and if our minds are still unsatisfied, perhaps we might
be permitted to carry out researches in Sanskrit", then
added: "Better blow up the whole show, than confine
human minds by locking the doors of knowledge."
Placed in the context of a world war which had turned
him into a refugee, Popper's fears of political
dictatorship seem a natural personal reaction. There
were other personal elements in his reaction too.
Before coming to New Zealand, Popper had enjoyed
close personal and professional links with many top
scientists. In his lecture Popper mentioned Niels Bohr,
one of the principals of the team, "not only a great
scientist, but a modest and humble man, and a good
man in the highest sense of the word". He added that
there were "probably no people in the world, not even
in Japan" more unhappy than the men who penetrated
the nuclear secret. He felt for the predicament of his
personal friends, and he was in the process of realising,
on the even of his return to Europe later in 1 945, that
things could never be the same after the war as before.
To the comments quoted at the head of this article he
added that the atomic bomb had brought "the end of
most of those things that made life really worth
living", and "1, for one, have rather liked the old world
as I have known it".
Page 74
Clearly, however, the Bomb created a dilemma for
Popper that rose beyond mere persona considerations.
In his view all good teaching lay "on the borderline
of knowledge" . The intellectual freedom that he most
prized had led to its development, yet now that it had
been developed, it threatened to circumscribe the very
freedom that had produced it. That was one problem
which, as an academic, he felt keenly.
But there were also moral and spiritual difficulties.
To create artificial borderlines beyond which teachers
and students could not proceed, would be to diminish
freedom of enquiry and, ultimately, freedom of
speech. People were in danger of being told what
they were allowed to think. This, he said, could
produce a "tremendous spiritual loss to mankind", and
the fight to preserve intellectual freedom would not
be an academic issue but a moral one.
Referring to the nuclear secret he said that some people
would say that mankind was not ripe for such a
discovery, but in his opinion this was nonsense.
"There is nothing wrong with mankind. those who
say there is are those who wish to control the lives of
other, to make the rest of humanity conform to the
pattern conjured up by their own minds."
He concluded: "The fundamental struggle in life is
the moral struggle to limit the power men wield over
their fellow men".
The reason why we should concern ourselves with
words spoken - even if by so eminent a thinker as
Karl Popper - on such an obscure occasion, in such
an out-of-the-way place, 50 years ago, is that they are
still bitingly relevant to the 1990s.
In the scientific field Popper's worst fears have not
been realised. Although the nuclear secret has been
jealously guarded, there are plenty of other fruitful
fields of research, and in many of these progress has
continued unabated. Limitations have been imposed
as much by industrial secrecy, funding cuts and public
morality as by political influence. However John
Offenberger, a refugee student from Austria in the
1 940s and friend of Popper's from that time until the
philosopher's death in 1994, points out that in a survey
recently conducted by the New Zealand Association
of Scientists only about 50% of more than 700
respondents said that they could share ideas freely.
Intellectual freedom, for many, may already be a thing
of the past.
In our society, to judge from such diverse examples
as French nuclear testing in the Pacific and the
creeping disease of political correctness, there are still
Peace Researcher
plenty of minorities who are keen to make other
"conform to the pattern conjured up by their own
minds". There is no doubt that the "moral struggle"
of which Karl Popper spoke continues after fifty years
of "peace".
Room 1 5, i n Popper's day the largest lecture room in
Canterbury University College, is still there as part
of the Arts Centre of Christchurch, an institution
created when the university outgrew its central city
site and moved to the suburbs. As the University
Theatre, Room 1 5 is now a venue for experimental
work by drama students of the University of
Canterbury. Protected by artistic licence at least, a
spirit of free enquiry pervades the place where Popper
made an important plea for it survival.
Popper's insistence on high academic standards has
Reprinted by permission of the author and ChemNZ (NZ Institute of Chemistry)
fOR QUEEN AND COUNTRY - MOR E THINGS
ROTTEN IN THE STATE Of BRI TA I N
SKElETONS FROM WESTMINSTER'S
CUPBOARD
British Government research into the effects of nuclear
radiation, carried out between 1 955 and 1 970,
involved secret experiments on the bones of dead
children. Pregnant women were also used in radiation
experiments. These allegations are made in a British
Channel Four documentary reported in the Guardian.
In the 1 960s the British Government also authorised
secret germ tests on the London Underground to find
out how a biological weapons attack would affect the
system. Spores from bacteria were found to have
travelled 1 6 km along one of the underground lines.
At the time scientists did not have full knowledge of
the properties of bacillus globigii - the bacterial
species utilised in the experiments. [Press, 23/31l995]
New Statesman [ 1 1 August 1 995] revealed that the
British Ministry of Defence tested LSD on soldiers
between 1 962 and 1 972. The experiments were carried
out at Porton Down chemical warfare facility. In one
1 964 experiment a small group of soldiers was given
LSD doses ranging from 75 to 200 micrograms
(enough to trip for 12 hours or more). "After 70
minutes, the levels of incapacitation and the
breakdown of communication between sections of the
unit was such that all activity was terminated. It was
concluded that men given a drug such as LSD would
be incapable of effective military action." In the US,
soldiers who underwent similar tests complained their
mental health was harmed.
Peace Researcher
been identified as the catalyst that, after the war, turned
New Zealand universities from little marc than
overgrown post-secondary schools into modern
research facilities. His legacy in this regard is well
known. His anti-nuclear stance, though less well
known and less well documented, descrves to be
recognised as well.
The former Room 1 5 is part of a protected historic
place - the Arts Centre of Christchurch .. but is not
singled out as having any special significance of its
own. As the site of what was quite possibly the
world's first anti-nuclear protest, uttered just a few
days after the catastrophic possibilities of nuclear
power had been demonstrated to the world, perhaps
it should be.
Glyn Strange, © 1 995
NUCLEAR REACTOR
CLOSE TO MElTDOWN
A British nuclear reactor came close to meltdown after
an accident in 1 993 and only luck helped avoid the
most serious incident to hit Britain's nuclear industry
in recent history. The information became public
during a court hearing in which Nuclear Electric, the
operator of the plant, admitted four charges under the
Health and Safety Act. The BBC reported that plant
officials in Anglesey (North Wales) waited nearly ten
hours after the accident before closing down the
reactor. [Christchurch Press, J 4 September 1 995]
British newspapers have reported several other serious
incidents in the past few years, some at other Nuclear
Electric plants, and some at the British Nuclear Fuels
facility at Sellafield.
NUCLEAR SUBMARINE LEAK (I)
The HMS Sceptre, a British nuclear submarine, was
recalled from patrol in early August when radioactive
leaks were discovered i n both the primary and
secondary cooling systems of its nuclear reactor. The
Defence Ministry has insisted there was no danger,
but there has been very critical comment on the
condition of similar boats in the past. Pat Davis, who
ran a long campaign i n the 1 9808 to claim
compensation from the British Navy for radiation
damage to her submariner husband, was burgled,
beaten, harrasssed and put under surveillance for
attempting to publicise the issue.
Page 75
 RABIN'S KILLER WORKED FOR
iNTElLIGENCE
Yigal Amir, who assassinated the Israeli Prime
Minister in early November, worked for Israeli
Intelligence in 1992 on a three month assignment in
Latvia, Eyal, the right wing extremist group that
assisted him in the killing, has extensive links to Shin
Bet, the Israeli security service now known as Shabak,
These are the conclusions of extensive investigation
by the British O bserver, detailed in the Christchurch
Press [25 November], Shyam Bhatia, author of the
report, says "evidence piles up that Shabak was aware
of the identity and intentions of Rabin' s killer for
weeks and even months in advance" and that "there
are also reliabJe claims that Shabak belped fund Eyal
and that several members of it were key informants",
The Observer article relates that Amir underwent a
fundamental change when he witnessed the Israeli
pullout from Gaza - a move very much contrary to
his nationalist ideology, It describes the "battle"
between left and right within the intelligence agency,
It states that many Shabak departmental heads
opposed military withdrawal from Palestinian centres,
and some resigned when a new Shabak head was
appointed who was believed to have the intention to
come down on right wing groups,
Avishai Raviv, a key figure in EyaJ, and close friend
of Amir, has been revealed as a Shabak agent It is
clear that the security service knew of Amir's
intentions but failed to stop the assassination either
because they could not believe a Jew would kill
another Jew, or even for more sinister reasons,
Another possibility is incompetence - the officer
responsible for Rabin's safety is said to be "wholly
unsuitable for the senior position to which he was
appointed",
FRENCH NAVY SECRETS HACKED
Secret French and Allied naval data was accessed by
hackers in July this year, according to the satirical Le
Canard Enchaine, The weekly says data on the
acoustic signatures of ships - used to distinguish
friendly and hostile vessels - was broken into, and
that the Defence Ministry in Paris had confirmed the
story, [Christchurch Press, 2 1 September 1995]
US KEEPS INTERCEPTS SECRET
Washington is refusing to make public intercepted
communicat i o n s which implicate the Serbian
President, Slovodan Milosevic, in last summer's
Page 16
massacre in the United Nations declared safe zone at
Srebrenica, The Sydney Morning Herald [9
November] reports that a senior U S official has
confirmed the existence of transcripts which show the
involvement of the senior Serbian commanders, The
International War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague has
criticised the with-holding of crucial evidence, but a
White House Spokesperson said there are "certain
types of intelligence information onr Government
cannot share with the international community", In
the past the US intelligence community has been
extremely reluctant to allow the publication of any
information obtained by electronic eavesdropping,
RIGHT MURDERS ASIO SPOOKS?
Right-wing extremist groups in Anstralia have been
accused of killing three people they believed worked
for the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation
or some law enforcement agency, ASIO has revealed
that over the last five years, three people were
murdered because they were thought by Neo-Nazi
organisations to have infiltrated their groups, Two
killings took place in Perth and one in Sydney,
[Christchurch Press, 3 November 1995]
HONDURAN INTELLIGENCE OFFICIALS
DISAPPEAR
In October six people who were key witnesses in an
Honduran investigation into political disappearances
have themselves vanished, Human Rights groups say
that the six have probably been killed to block an
investigation into political killings in the 1980s, Those
who have disappeared in this case are intelligence
officials from various parts ofthe country who would
probably have been called to testify about past killings,
SOUTH AFRICAN SPY CHIEF SHOT
Muziwendoda Mdluii, appointed security chief at the
National Intelligence Agency after South Africa's first
open elections last year, was found dead in his car
early in October. The Johannesburg newspaper
Sunday Independent reported that Mdluli had been
investigating the possible involvement of fellow
agents in the failed coup in the Comoro Islands and
unnamed intelligence sources said this may have led
to his death, The death initially appeared to be suicide
but old-guard spooks with the agency in apartheid
times have been blamed for the killing, [Christchurch
Press, 10 October 1995]
Peace Researcher
 GUilT AND ANXIETY fOR FORMER STASI
OFfiCERS
Although most people who worked for the East
German secret police (the STASl) before 1990 have
not been gaoled by the courts, many are apparently
suffering anyway. The downfall of the organisation
left agents with "angst in the structure of their
personalities" according to a Berlin psychologist
working with former agents. Their identities were
founded on the security of believing that they were
working for the right cause, now swept away with the
Berlin Wall. Some have become seriously disturbed
as the result of guilt feelings over those they have
harmed. The head of the STAS! in its last years,
Wemer Grossman, is not repentant or apologetic. But
he has expressed regret at the way that sex was
sometimes used to manipulate people, and for tricking
a West German woman into believing she was
working for MI5 with the end result that sbe was jailed
for passing on information. At the height of its power
the East German secret police employed 85,000
people, paid up to half a million informers, and kept
files on one third of its own citizens. [New Scientist,
4 November 1995]
UNDER COVER GUILT
Other undercover operatives have previously made
comments that they have felt bad about the people
that they became friendly with while reporting on their
activities. In the curious case of Wendy Holland, the
woman who spied in this country for Australian spook
agencies, one of the few regrets she expressed was
the spying on members ofthe NZ-USSR Society. She
felt they were nice people and felt bad about betraying
them. In the recent furore about the addiction problems
of undercover cops in New Zealand, a former woman
officer said she liked the lifestyle and people she was
involved with and couldn't tolerate the hypocrisy of
her work. Jude Williamson is quoted in one woman's
magazine as saying she started to think "These people
aren't criminals. We're making them into criminals."
[ Woman 's Day, 20 November 1995] Some years ago
a person who had taken a prominent part in progressive
political groups i n this country went around knocking
on doors of former associates and apologising for
reporting on them. He had been informing on their
activities for over twenty years.
US DENIES WHITlAM INTERVENTION
"The US State Department has again formally denied
any United States involvement in the dismissal of the
Whitlam Government. But it has left nnanswered
suggestions by the former Prime Minister, Mr Gough
Whitlam, that the current US Secretary of State, Mr
Warren Christopher, referred to US interference in
Peace Researcher
Australian domestic politics." [Sydney M orning
Herald, 1 1 November 1995] Whitlam has stated in a
new book that Christopher told him in 1977, when he
was then Assistant Secretary of State for Asia and the
Pacific, that "the US would never again interfere in
the domestic political process in Australia". The
Herald writes that "The reported Christopher
comments appear to lend credibility to a theory,
widely discussed in the aftermath of the dismissal [of
Whitlam] that the US Central Intelligence Agency had
been involved".
PARTIAL BAN ON lASER WEAPONS
In October a UN-sponsored conference to review
the 1980 Treaty on Certain Conventional Weapons
produced a document aimed at banning laser
weapons designed to blind enemy soldiers. The
International Committee of the Red Cross had
campaigned hard to get a complete ban on all
battlefield laser weapons, but opposition from the
main arms-producing states meant that lasers used
for destroying enemy equipment are still
permissable. Proposals to outlaw the production
and stockpiling of laser weapons failed. The ban
011 anti-personnel lasers has to be ratified by 20
nations before it comes into effect.
The United States was one of the strongest
opponents of any ban, but New Scientist [21
October] reports that the Pentagon has cancelled
its plans to buy laser weapons which would have
been used by infantry to blind opposition. An army
spokesperson said the decision was motivated in
part by a desire to prevent blinding weapons falling
into the hands of terrorists, but NS says the sheer
bulk of tile equipment would have been a factor: it
was to be mounted on top of an M-216 rifle, and
weighed 19 kilograms.
NO AGREEMENT ON LAND MINES
The Vienna Conference also sought agreement on
new rules to reduce the risk posed by mines to
civilians, but was "... unable to reach agreement
on stronger restrictions on the use of anti-personnel
mines". [Christchurch Press, 14 October 1995] The
Secretary-General of the UN, Boutros Boutros­
Ghali, had urged the conference to ban landmines
altogether. Twenty thousand people, mostly
civilians, are killed or maimed by landmines every
year. According to the UN about 100,000 mines
are cleared annually, but more than two million laid.
Proposals to use only "smart weapons" which self­
destruct after a set time were rejected on grounds
of cost.
Page 1 7
 fpiday. Januapv 26 -

�unday January 2B
T he Wcll hopai spy base i nte rcepts c ommunicat ions coming
Into o r out of New Zealand and its P a c i f i c ne i g hbours .
T h is top sec ret Inte l l i gence gathering IS part o f British and
American operations t hat a re c losed to sc rutiny by NZ
Members of P a r l i ament.

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