Enough Investigations: Confront the Real Threats
By A Disillusioned Immigrant – (name withheld on request)
In his “Brief on the Use of Informants in Intelligence Operations,” Paul G. Buchanan argues that the investigation of
undercover operations is a matter for parliament to investigate. I argue that the vast sums wasted to date in these
special investigations have been misdirected and that parliament should instead devote its attention to the real threats
to our future security. In addition, I argue that the substantial funds allocated for these counterproductive operations
should be re-directed to address those real threats confronting New Zealand and the world.
According to Abbots, Rogers and Sloboda of the Oxford Research Group, responses to terrorism to date may make “terrorist
attacks more likely, not less likely.” They argue persuasively that our future security is far more vulnerable to four
other factors: climate change/global warming effects; internecine competition for natural resources, especially oil;
increasing income inequalities and the marginalization of the poorer majority world; and increasing reliance on
militarily-forced solutions and the virulent spread of military technology.
In their slim 2007 manifesto, Beyond Terror: the Truth about the Real Threats to Our World, the analysts cogently
delineate these four interconnected, contemporary threats while persuasively demonstrating that terrorism is NOT the
greatest threat to our security. Indeed they argue that it is a poor relative of these far more important issues.
They conclude brilliantly that the WOT [War on Terror] has ‘hijacked’ various attempts to deal with these far more
serious issues. While governments are pursuing narrow national and economic interests, i.e., oil security, political
elites are distracted from the real threats thereby “causing their responses to these threats to be inappropriate and
wholly inadequate.”
Certainly the new government promises business as usual as it blindly accepts the lines that the NZ Police feeds it.
Feverishly, NZ bought in to the WOT in pursuit of favoured status with the U.S. and ultimately a free trade agreement.
From the draconian anti-terrorism legislation flowed budget & personnel resources to the Police who now must use them in order to obtain more resources, i.e., “use it or lose it.”
As Joseph Barratt pointed out in a 26 October 2007 article, in the year after the 11 September 2001 attacks, a special
investigative group focused on terrorism was established. He notes that by the end of 2002 “they began to find threats.”
[“Police ‘Terror’ Boss has History of Activist Harassment-Nicky Hager.” WWW.Scoop.NZ”]
As Paul Buchanan noted in his article, the first victim was Ahmed Zaoui. Chastened by the costly, spectacularly
unsuccessful prosecution of Zaoui, the Police then proceeded to launch Operation Eight, utilizing all its new
technological wizardry, along with paid informants. The estimated $8M cost of the 15 October 2007 operation has doubled
or tripled with the court costs for various preliminary and the subsequent six-week deposition hearings in Auckland.
This figure does not consider the Crown costs for the October 2008 Fairfax contempt hearing in Wellington, or the very
substantial costs to the defendants and their families to attend the various hearings.
The $20-$30M of taxpayers’ dollars thus far wasted on Operation Eight, while they would not have solved any of the true
threats to our security, would have made a contribution to their resolution. The addition of some ½ million dollars plus
expenses paid to an individual to spy on various groups that disagree with government policy should be aggregated in the
Crown’s ledgers. Finally, savings from the roll back of Police budgets and personnel to pre-WOT levels would fatten this
fund to address the four threats outlined.
New Zealand’s trade unions are boldly speaking truth to power. They will not tolerate quietly such abuses of basic human
rights. As pointed out in the Engineering Printing and Manufacturing Union’s 19 December 2008 statement: “In a free and
democratic society citizens have the right to organise and protest and demonstrate and should be able to do so without
being molested by the police.”
As the Oxford Research Group writers conclude, we are on a dangerous course. Confronting the real threats to our
security will require persistent attention and hard work, work that is not as sexy as chasing ephemeral ‘terrorists.’
Listen up, Political Elites!
ENDS