Links with the SIS

Inevitably, such tangible proof that the CIA does operate in New Zealand makes one wonder about its relationship with the SIS. Phillip Agee, an officer in the CIA for twelve years, described in an interview how the CIA combines with local Security groups:

"I worked very closely with the local police intelligence services we used the foreign intelligence service as if it were our own the most important thing was that these local groups would engage in repressive actions when we requested it."

There is also evidence that the CIA and the SIS have an unusually intimate relationship. In theory the CIA engages in no New Zealand operations without the knowledge of its New Zealand equivalent.

The response of the New Zealand press to the release of the files on February 19, at a press conference called by the Socialist Action League, was, to quote TV2 "hostile". One almost suspected a CIA plot.

The Evening Post attacked the revelation in two articles; one questioned the authenticity of the "alleged" files, and the other, a review of a TV1 interview with George Fyson, said in complete contradiction that the files had been public for several months! The same article scoffed at the lack of ".....facts, quotes from the files we got next to nothing." This when the Evening Post was in possession of a complete set of the files!

Again, the TV reviewer said "... revealing CIA secrets has become a stale old party game" - well, concealing them is an even older one, and hardly provides a service to the New Zealand public! This type of reporting is, at the very least, irresponsible.

The presence of the CIA or of any secret service in New Zealand is not something we should accept as inevitable, as does the daily press. The mere existence of these organisations discourages people from becoming involved in political protest. They are a direct infringement of our democratic rights.

The fact that the CIA and the SIS pay particular attention to the campuses should make us call all the more loudly for their removal. We must demand a full public inquiry into the activities of the CIA in New Zealand, and into the SIS, and we must demand that the CIA and the SIS and any secret organisation get off the campuses!

- Patrick Mulrennan