Top spy 'embarrassed' over breach

The Government's top spy admits to being embarrassed over an attack on the Waihopai spy base.

Three Christian peace activists who attacked the Marlborough base yesterday were "warped and nonsensical", said Government Communications Security Bureau director Air Marshal Bruce Ferguson.

Damage to the Marlborough base is estimated at more than $1 million.

Ferguson said the security breach was "of major significance" and the agency was "annoyed" and "embarrassed".

The base's intelligence output, understood to feed into a United States-led global network, had not been compromised, he said.

Samuel Peter Frederick Land, 24, a farmer, of Hokianga, Adrian James Leason, 42, a teacher, of Otaki, and Peter Reginald Leo Murnane, 67, a Dominican friar, of Auckland, have been charged with intentionally damaging a satellite dish, the property of the bureau, and entering a building with the intention to commit a crime.

At yesterday's bail hearing in the Blenheim District Court, Judge Richard Russell remanded Leason and Murnane in custody without plea to reappear in court on Monday. Land's bail application was adjourned until Monday, and he was also kept in custody.

The group, identifying itself as Anzac Ploughshares, cut through three electrified security fences and dodged infrared cameras yesterday morning to deflate with a sickle a 30m-high white globe covering one of two satellite dishes.

The group, whose London-based parent body has attacked US and British military bases, said its action was a response to the war on terror.

Murnane was one of the Auckland Dominican friars who housed Algerian asylum seeker Ahmed Zaoui for three years.

The group said the Waihopai base, near Blenheim, was part of the international Echelon spy network, whose eavesdropping fed intelligence to the US National Security Agency and played a key role in the invasion of Iraq.

Ferguson took the unprecedented step yesterday of addressing the allegations. Journalists contacting the bureau were given a cellphone number to call him.

Asked by The Press about the activists' motives and claims, he said: "That is their beliefs. As with many of these groups, their beliefs can be quite warped and quite nonsensical and very much aligned with whatever particular persuasion they come from."

Green Party MP Keith Locke said Ferguson's criticism of the peace activists was inappropriate for the head of a security agency in a Western democracy.

"I know some of the people involved and I know they have very strong consciences, and they are very strongly motivated by a Christian peace ethic," he said.

"In some ways, these people just represent the tip of the frustration in the general community," he said.

"I can imagine people in the community who are very strongly opposed to (US President) George Bush's policies. I can imagine their frustration boiling over if they think Waihopai is serving that policy."

Ferguson said the bureau, not the police, was responsible for base security.

He visited the base yesterday to inspect the damage and spoke to Prime Minister Helen Clark, promising a full review of security.

The white dome was to protect the satellite dish from the weather, rather than conceal the direction it was facing, as many people believed, he said.

"This shouldn't have happened. It has happened. My role now is to ensure that it does not happen again," Ferguson said.

"There will be a full review to ascertain how and why this happened and what failed. I'd have to say it is pretty obvious that something did because they got through.

"I will put in place other measures to ensure that it doesn't happen again."

Ferguson is the former chief of the New Zealand Defence Force and took over the top spy job in November 2006.

Asked about US and British reactions to the breach, Ferguson said he had not had any contact with overseas intelligence agencies.

Ploughshares spokeswoman Manu Caddie said the planning involved two months of texting, emails and phone calls, which were apparently not intercepted.

"We were expecting not to get anywhere close to it," she said.

"I guess it shows that the system doesn't work that well."

Ferguson said the bureau was prevented by law from intercepting the communications of New Zealand citizens and concentrated solely on foreign intelligence.

Clark condemned the attack as criminal and a "senseless act of vandalism".

She said the cost of repairs would ultimately be borne by the taxpayer.

 

- © Fairfax NZ News