Desperate spies, desperate measures
So, it seems the SIS is at it again. Its case against Ahmed Zaoui is so embarrassingly weak that it’s started interviewing his friends in the Algerian refugee community to see if they can get some dirt that way.
It’s the SIS’ job to gather information on individuals it considers a danger to New Zealand’s national security. So, the interviews per se aren’t a problem, except in that they illustrate that the information they have so far has failed to convince any legal authorities that Mr Zaoui actually is a threat to our national security.
No, the problem is one of process. There are several problems with how the SIS agents went about interviewing Zaoui friends. They are:
- Some of the refugees were asked about their applications for residency or citizenship before being asked about Zaoui. The impression was thus being given that not cooperating with the interviews could adversely affect their chances of staying in New Zealand.
- The agents didn’t inform the refugees that they were under no obligation to talk about other people. They also turned up at some of the refugees’ homes unannounced - these weren’t official, professional interviews set up in advance, and conducted in a public place or SIS office. They were intimidating and intrusive.
- The interviews were conducted in English, not Arabic, and no interpreters or lawyers were present. The agents didn’t inform the refugees that they had a right to have their lawyers with them during questioning. These circumstances would have added to the stress and confusion of the situation.
- One of the agents identified himself as from the ‘mukhabarat’, the word used by Algerians to describe their government’s hated and brutal secret police. Either this agent was ignorant of that words connotation for Algerians, or he was trying to use it to intimidate the refugees further. It would have been like turning up at a German’s house in the early 1940s and saying you’re from the “Gestapo”.
Keith will be raising these issues with the Prime Minister. There appears to be an urgent need for a widely-understood protocol for SIS questioning of refugees.
May 29th, 2005 at 8:01 pm
This might surprise you, but if this story pans out — and post-’Operation Leaf’, I still have a pretty big question mark over the Sunday Star-Times’ credibility — SIS agents should be going fishing on their own time, preferably while looking for another job. I think the issue is bigger than ‘process’ - if Zaoui is part of a vast terrorist conspiracy, it just beggars credibility that his friends would spill their guts when a couple of MIBs rock up to the front door.