New Zealand base in Afghanistan was secret CIA station, book claims
September 1, 2011 1 Comment
Nicky Hager
By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
A Kiwi “peacekeeping” and “civil reconstruction” base in Afghanistan was a secret station for the US Central Intelligence Agency, according to a new book by New Zealand’s preeminent investigative writer. Nicky Hager first made international headlines in 1996, with his groundbreaking book Secret Power: New Zealand’s Role in the International Spy Network. In it, he revealed the existence of the UK-USA Security Agreement and of ECHELON, a US-managed signals intelligence (SIGINT) collection and analysis platform that serves as an intelligence-sharing mechanism between UK-USA signatories. The publication of his latest book, entitled Other People’s Wars: New Zealand in Afghanistan, Iraq and the War on Terror, is scheduled to coincide with the ten-year anniversary of 9/11. The book focuses on —among other things— the Bamyan Province base in central Afghanistan, which serves as the center of operations for the New Zealand Provincial Reconstruction Team in the Central Asian country. It serves as a symbol of New Zealand’s cautious contribution to the NATO-led war in Afghanistan, by allowing Kiwi forces to participate with boots on the ground, while performing strictly noncombatant functions, officially described as “peacekeeping” and “civil rebuilding”. But Hager’s book alleges that the “noncombatant” mission of the Bamyan base was simply a cover, devised by the New Zealand Defence Forces’ public relations apparatus, and aimed at pacifying the country’s population. The real mission of the Bamyan base, says Hager, was to “help the Americans” by essentially concealing a covert CIA station. The author further alleges that the Kiwi forces at Bamyan were instructed to keep the presence of the CIA team secret. This they did, even as they shared daily meals with American spies in civilian clothes, who refused to disclose even basic details of their mission to their New Zealand guardians. Hager alleges that New Zealand’s defense establishment took the decision to help the CIA as part of a broader strategy of rapprochement between Wellington and Washington. Why rapprochement? It was in 1984, when, under mounting popular pressure, New Zealand’s Labour government of David Lange voted to bar nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed ships from entering New Zealand territorial waters. At the time, the nuclear ban imposed by New Zealand was heralded by the global nuclear disarmament movement as a major victory. But Washington did not see it this way. Read more of this post
intelNews.org 
Soldier with far-right links becomes first convicted spy in New Zealand history
August 19, 2025 by Joseph Fitsanakis 1 Comment
According to reports, a member of the New Zealand Defence Force, who has not been named, drew the attention of the authorities in the aftermath of the 2019 Christchurch shooting. The attack was carried out by Australian white supremacist Brenton Tarrant, who stormed a mosque with an automatic weapon, killing 51 and injuring nearly 100 people. The terrorist attack sparked a widespread investigation into far-right militancy in the Australian and New Zealand armed forces, which continues to this day.
The soldier was found to have contacts with a number of local far-right groups, including the Dominion Movement and Action Zealandia. Government prosecutors said that, while observing the soldier’s activities, government agents found out that he had “made contact with a third party, indicating that he was a soldier” and signaling his desire to defect to a foreign country. They eventually approached the soldier using an undercover officer who pretended to be a representative of the country whose officials the soldier had previously contacted. The soldier told the undercover officer that he was prepared to “get a covert device into army headquarters” and offered to provide “mapping and photographs” of classified government facilities.
During his trial, the soldier pled guilty, admitting that he had tied to spy for a foreign government, and adding that his ultimate goal was to “leave New Zealand and get to what I thought was safety”. Following the soldier’s conviction, the three-judge military panel said it would announce the sentence later this week. The country for which the convicted soldier offered to spy has not been named.
► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 18 August 2025 | Permalink
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