The Arming of Asia

(see page 7)

The Thai Navy's new aircraft carrier - a sign of the increasing and costly 'modernisation '
of Asia s military forces,

In this issue: �
• Inspector General whitewashes GCSB 2
• Waihopai admits MPs but keeps its secrets 4
• Canada needs more spies? 5
• British cut nuclear weapons 6
• The arms race in Asia - What is going on? 7
• New Zealand trains Indonesia's military 13
• US Government role in 1965f massacre 14
• Britain's nuclear shambles contaminates Scandinavia
and the Arctic ;5
• The perversity of US weapons procurement 16
• The US CIA and the drugs trade 17
• Spooky Bits - from the world of intelligence 18
 Inspector-General Whitewashes GCSB
"I am satisfied that the collection and reporting rules and others In the region. ("The equipment IS equally
[of the GCSB] are valid and appropriate. 1 am capable of receiving signals transmitted by radio and
satisfied that the operation of those rules more than satellite which do not include foreign Intelligence and
adequately ensures that the GCSB collects and which are domestic concerning and involving NZ
f!)
reports on foreign communication only. I am sure that citizens.
the rules and their operation have no adverse or
improper Impact on the privacy or personal security of Greig's report IS a preliminary one because the vast
New Zealand citizens." new expansion of Waihopai will soon give the GCSB
the capability to intercept telephone calls. (It currently
This is the conclusion of the report of Lawrence Intercepts e-mail, faxes and telexes.) With a second
Greig, New Zealand Inspector-General of Intelligence dish and radome (to be operational In September) the
and Security, prepared at the request of former Prime potential for uncontrolled spying on New Zealanders
Minrster Jim Bolger, and released in a preliminary Will be increased Immeasurably . The Inspector­
report in June. But critics of the GCSB will no! feel General believes that Walhopal " does not
satisfied witl1 thiS Investigation Greig " . .relied 00 Intentionally intercept the communications of NZ
information obtained in VISits to the stations at Citizens or collect information of a domestic nature".
Waihopal and Taogimoana and the bnelrngs He accepts that information is collected
received on the operations in each station " He " "unintentionally" but that the rules for dealing with
discussed wrth a number of staff there the operations information picked up in this way ensure NZ Citizens
[and] visited GCSB headquarters In Wellington." do not suffer. Readers will Immediately note that an
He also " . considered El number of documents organisation that we were formerly told never
pertaining to the definition and operation of the intercepted NZ communications now has rules for
collection and reporting rules." dealing Wllll these inte rce ptl ons l

In an odd reversal of Hollywood courtroom fiction this One of the worst features of this report is its total lack
former High Court Judge took in all the defence of defmition of "foreign intelligence". The spy
evidence and failed to hear the prosecution case. It is organisation's brief to target "foreign
hard to believe that he never talked with Nicky Hager, communications" is consistently used to defend its
author of " Secret Power', at any stage Hager's book, operations (implying domestic communications are
which created considerable furore in Europe, details separate) GCSB director Parker has refused to
most of the reasons for shutting down Waihopai. and respond to questions on what "foreign intelligence"
makes public much information critical of the GCSB means over Inany years. But the GCSB's big brothers
from insiders who gave a very different perspective to in Canada and the USA work to a definition of foreign
those Greig talked to. intelligence that regards any communication with one
leg outside the country as "foreign". The assumption
Furthermore there is no diversion from a very narrow that this must be standard practice for the GCSB is
brief which does not allow consideration of evidence not examined in Grelg's report It should be noted that
of the illegalitles of the GCSB's sister organisations all these organisations have "similar though not
(For instance, one Canadian Communications Identical" rules and common poliCy and operation
Security Establishment officer resigned In the early according to his report. Until it is clearly demonstrated
nineties because she objected to listening to the that communications between NZ citizens and
conversations citizens were haVing with the Korean overseas respondents are not being targeted the
and other embaSSies that were being targeted.) denials of the GCSB staff should be regarded as
standard practice" not eVidence
The Inspector-General states he was impressed by
the explanations of the staff and their desire to ensure To state that". any rnatenal which is Identified as
compliance with the rules; that he is convinced they being a New Zealand communication [emphasis
concealed nothing 01 did not mislead him added] is destroyed" does not address the issue
Presumably they would have told him if they had files Havll1g "ru!es" for the of "information
marked "Not For Minister's Eyes" (Inspector­ collected unrntent,onally" IS n()t enough I The fact that
"
General's eyes?) as the Joint Intelligence Committee where there there is CO!lection of intelligence or
did In Bntaln. if the GCSB IS indeed an
Even rn8terial in which New Zealand entities are identified
organisation that is remarkably free from all the fauits thelr identiftcation is in the finished
of similar spook it should have been Intelligence reports "is The rules
emphaSised that It commands the technology to regardinq utilisation of intelligence Involving New
intrude comprehensively and into the Zealand citizens or e ntities ,. may be excepted in
activities of and in this Gountry search and rescue operations and !n the search and

Peace Researcher 2
Identification of signals sources and devices".
They may also be excepted where " . . . the
information relates to terrorism and other criminal
activities. . . ". Setting aside where a loophole
involving searches for "identification" might lead,
we have a major window of opportunity here for
spying on "criminal" activities, which, for any other
organisation. would require a warrant. And how
does the GCSB define "terrorism"?
It is of considerable concern to note that
Inspector-General Greig, in his investigation of
the Security Intelligence Service break-in of a
Christchurch political activist's house, concluded
there was no "illegal" act involved. We can only
conclude that the victim, or someone visiting him,
fell into the "terrorist" category which allows the
SI S to operate against them without doing
anything 'illegal'. There would be a gruesome
consistency in the GCSB taking the same
approach.
At no time does the I nspector-General confront
the issue of GCSB allies using Waihopai or
Tangimoana to spy for their own purposes, or
even to feed information back to NZ spooks.
Greig considers only material selected as
"requirements of the New Zealand Government"
and not material requested by other governments'
agencies. Although GCSB staff must key in the
computer information to target sources of interest
requested by its allies, the process of
discrimination or oversight of such output is not at
all clear. And in the past one way of spying on
your citizens has been to ask your allies to do it
and pass back the information, enabling 'plausible
denial' to the charge of spying on your own
citizens. Hence the question must also be asked
directly whether the UKUSA allies ever spy on
New Zealand citizens, or their own, using GCSB
facilities. (It should, however, be noted that in a
recent letter to Co-editor Warren Thomson, Prime
Minister Shipley categorically denied UKUSA
allies ever used Waihopai to spy on New
Zealanders.)
The recent European Union report expressing
concern about the activities of the GCSB's
UKUSA partners points to matters of vital concern
untouched by Greig's report. The Inspector­
General was not asked to look at the wider
issues. The issues of what damage Waihopai
does to Pacific citizens are much broader than
just the national privacy issues, critical as these
are. If anyone wants a lesson in how spying for
your country, or on behalf of other governments,
can damage a country's diplomatic and trade
interests they only have to look at the furore over
Australia's espionage on behalf of the Americans
when the Australians bugged Chinese and other
embassies in Australia. Or one could cite ASIS
Peace Researcher - Page 3
officers bugging Kuwait offices on behalf of
Britain, in competition with Australian companies,
or Canadian and American Governments using
interceptions to manipUlate trade negotiations, or
British spies favouring UK weapons
manufacturers by listening to information on arms
deals. A recent Canadian report tells the Ottawa
Government that more trade information could be
collected by covert means although this is a
sensitive issue with regard to its trading partners.
[See this issue page 5]
How can we mediate credibly in Bougainville
while spying on the combatants and passing the
information to Australia? How can we be sure that
the monstrous technology piloted by the GCSB
secret operatives will never be used for political
manipulation in this country? How can we be sure
that the lack of control or unauthorised spying
revealed by former officers of Australian and
British intelligence organisations do not go on
behind the 'cross my heart' testimony of the
GCSB officers? This report is unconvincing on the
privacy issues given the history of the spook
agencies, and considering the wider
condemnation of the odious and dangerous
nature of the global electronic spy web, NZ
citizens should be working harder than ever to
close down the spy facilities of the GCSB. We
should give other, more open, government
agencies the resources they need for collection of
information and fund research organisations to
supply intelligence that the New Zealand
Government (and not its manipulative cronies)
really does need.
Warren Thomson
fA copy of the Inspector-Genera/'s Report is
available from Box 2258, Chch, for $2J
GCSB BUDGET
Officially the allocated budget of the
Government Communications Security Bureau
for 1998/99 is $19,092,000. This is the same
amount as the 1997/98 year. The Prime
Minister, in a letter to Co-editor Warren
Thomson, states "All costs associated with
[Waihopai] are met from within
Vote:Communications Security and
Intelligence. There is no expenditure over and
above the annual sum voted by Parliament, as
such expenditure would be unlawful". A full
accounting of the costs associated with
Waihopai expansion would be fascinating I
PR suspects that some of the millions being spent
on increasing Waihopai's spying capacity has been
spent on putting the spies through a hospitality
course. When members of the ABC turned up
unannounced at the inner gate, in November 1997
(see PR 14), the base commander, Bruce Miller,
turned us away. Surely it can't just have been the
fact that we were wearing white coats, joke shop
masks, and stating that our business was to apply
for jobs as spies? When list MPs Marian Hobbs
(Labour) and Rod Donald (Alliance) asked to be
admitted to the base during the January 1997
national protest they were turned away (see PR 12).
But things are looking up. In May 1998, Rod Donald
turned up u nannounced at the gate. Not only did
Bruce Miller let him into his office, he gave the
wandering MP a cup of tea. For his part, Rod
reckons he left the place no wiser than he was
before. In June Rod was one of three Opposition
MPs who made an announced visit - the others
being Tim Barne!t, Labour MP for Christchurch
Central, and fellow Alliance list MP, Matt Robson.
Rod noted that photographs and mementos
showing relationships with sister spooks had been
cleared away for this announced visit, leaving empty
walls and bookshelves.
Peace Researcher - Page 4
The MPs' very well informed guide was "Secret
Power" author, Nicky Hager. Miller allowed the MPs
in but turned away Nicky, citing a trespass order
against him. He did, however, allow Nicky to
accompany the MPs from the road as far as the
inner gate. Miller was polite but basically told the
MPs nothing, nor did he show them anything of
what Waihopai actually does. No matter - Nicky had
already given them a very detailed account of that
Rod stated that the purpose of the visit was to find
out who runs Waihopai and whether the taxpayer is
getting value for money for the $20 million spent on
the Government Communications Security Bur.eau
(GCSB), which runs it "Quite frankly, I think the
people of Marlborough would rather see their
hospital stay open than this spy station expanded"
(New Zealand Herald, 18 June 1998). Funnily
enough, there was no mention of closing Waihopai
or abolishing the GCSB when the Government was
slashing hundreds of millions from its spending.
Much easier to bash beneficiaries.
So if you're out for a Sunday drive in the vicinity of
Waihopai, pull up to the gate and r.ing the bell. At the
least you should expect a cup of tea, Scones with
jam and cream wouldn't go amiss either. You can
expect service with a smile - after all, you're paying
their wages,
Canada Needs More Spies?
This article, from The Ottawa Citizen [15 June
1998; Jim BronskillJ illustrates moves in the
governments and intelligence agencies of many
countries to justify spying by creating wider and
wider playgrounds for the spooks to exercise their
expensive gamesmanship, Frequently commercial
and environmental needs are now given as areas of
opportunity for intelligence agencies suffering
underemployment since the demise of the Cold
War, PR would argue that the history of
incompetence and illegality of the agencies means
properly funded research and analysis in more open
and specialised departments would produce much
better, and much more democratic, results,
"A federally commissioned study says Canada
needs secret intelligence more than ever now that
the Cold War is over Communist spies may no
longer be a threat, but Government decision makers
require sensitive information about trading partners,
human rights abuses and environmental issues
such as overfishing, argues the study, It calls for an
independent task force to conduct a sweeping
review of the spy community and determine whether
Canada's undercover agencies are up to the job,
"'The end of the Cold War requires intelligence to
be reinvented," concludes the study, "Old ideas
need to be turned on their head', The paper was
prepared for the Privy Council Office, which
oversees Canada's intelligence agencies, by
political scientist Stuart Farson of Simon Fraser
University in British Columbia" 'People have been
talking about intelligence for years in this country',
Mr Farson said in an interview, 'But nobody, as far
as I know, has ever said, 'well, what do we actually
need'?', "The disintegration of the Eastern Bloc has
dramatically affected the intelligence world, notes
the study, 'There is no longer one single,
overarching threat Instead, an array of lesser but by
no means insignificant problems exists', The
globalisation of the world's economy means more
opportunities for Canadian businesses, but also
greater risks from unstable countries and corrupt
markets, Mr, Farson says these uncertainties create
a need for trade-related intelligence -- information
that Canada could gather in a clandestine manner.
"'Ongoing covert monitoring of principal players,
particularly regarding their communications, may
prove to be prudent,' says the study, 'This is
obviously a very sensitive issue as such collection
would be primarily aimed at countries with whom
Canada has significant trading relationships',
Canada's signals intelligence agency, the
Peace Researcher - Page 5
Communications Security Establishment, has a
mandate to collect the radiO, fax and computer
transmissions of states and corporations, providing
the ability to keep an eye on foreign partners [the
CSE is the GCSB's Canadian partner in the UKUSA
Agreement, See PR 12, Ed ] ,
"Other intelligence needs include information and
analysis on epidemic diseases, greenhouse gas
emissions, crop projections and fish stocks, For
example, Canada has used submarines and
satellites to monitor foreign vessels that were fishing
dwindling stocks off the East Coast Mr Farson
argues there is also a strong need for reliable data
to assist Canadian peacekeeping missions, monitor
human rights in other countries and determine the
best candidates for foreign aid,
"The Canadian Security Intelligence Service [see
PR 14, Ed,] responsible for catching spies and
terrorists, has only limited authority to operate
abroad, Although Mr Farson doesn't rule out giving
CSIS foreign responsibilities, he says the real
challenge is making sense of the deluge of
information already landing on Ottawa desks, 'I'm
open to the idea of a foreign intelligence service, but
only after we've got a very clear idea of what our
needs are', A special Senate committee is about to
examine how well prepared Canada's intelligence
agencies are to handle terrorist threats, But Mr,
Farson believes the Government must draw on
outside expertise and take a broader, more
comprehensive look at whether the agencies are
ready for the new era, or still living in the past",
US MILITARY POLLUTION
IN CANADA
Peace Researcher often runs items which refer
to the enormous cost and problems created by
pollution from the American military's sites at
home and abroad, The Bulletin of Atomic
Scientists [May/June 1998] reports that it was
estimated a billion US dollars was needed to
clean up the Pentagon's sites in Canada,
Canadian defence officials thought it was
unlikely they would be able to get Washington
to pay that money so have accepted $US252
million in cash and $US100 million credits to
purchase new military hardware - from the
United States of course!
British Cut Nuclear Weapons
The British Government is intending to cut the
number of its Trident nuclear warheads by half. It is
also going to disclose more information on its
defence posture, revealing the number of warheads
and missiles it has, and their explosive power, For
some years the British Labour Party had a policy of
unilateral nuclear disarmament which was scrapped
in the early nineties when the Blairites - with the
emphasis on the right - decided such a policy was
politically disadvantageous, Robin Cook, the current
Foreign Secretary, was, in former guises, a staunch
advocate of unilateral disarmament His recent
reincarnation is given support by a new poll that
suggests a good majority of United Kingdom
citizens may no longer want to be 'protected' by
nukes,
According to the Gallup opinion poll 59% of
respondents believe the country would be more
secure without nuclear weapons, and more than
half (54%) feel it is unnecessary to have the Trident
nuclear submarine fleet on 24-hour patrol, They say
it should be taken off patrol and its warheads
removed to storage ashore, A further 87% believe
Britain should help negotiate a global treaty to rid
the world of nuclear weapons,
The Labour Government has completed the
withdrawal of RAF nuclear bombs, begun under the
previous Tory administration, Britain's nuclear
'deterrent' now comprises three nuclear missile
submarines, and it is expected that the fourth UK
Trident submarine - aptly named Vengeance - will
be launched at the Barrow-in-Furness shipyard in
Cumbria sometime in September, although the
exact date has yet to be confirmed, The policy has
been to keep one of the Trident missile submarines
always on patrol and this will continue,
In mid July a Trident sub nearly suffered a major
disaster when its power failed and it went into an
uncontrolled dive, The Royal Navy has a number of
nuclear-powered attack submarines without the
Trident missiles, There have been several incidents
in which these have had potentially dangerous
problems with their nuclear components, and
several cases where the submarines have become
entangled in the nets of trawlers and almost sunk
them,
At present the Trident subs can carry up to 96
warheads, The new proposal will reduce the
number to 48 (3 warheads on each of 16 missiles)
and reduce the stockpile of operationally available
warheads from 300 to 200, The Government may
also scrap an order for seven more Trident missiles
- saving 100 million pounds ($NZ 250 million), Last
Peace Researcher - Page 6
year the Defence Minister stated "Remaining
acquisition costs for the Trident system, as of
September 1996, stood at just under 1,5 billion
pounds [more than 3,5 billion $NZ), Operating costs
will average 200 million pound per annum over a
30-year in-service life" [UK Hansard 16 June 1997)
Overall the Trident submarine programme has cost
the UK about $30 billion NZ dollars, The Minister
revealed recently that Britain held 7,6 tonnes of
plutonium, 21,9 tonnes of highly enriched uranium
(both materials can be used to make nuclear
weapons) and 15,000 tonnes of other uranium in
defence stocks,
CANADIAN AND GERMAN
ATTITUDES TO NUCLEAR
WEAPONS
Recent polls in Canada and Germany
(commissioned by peace groups but carried out by
regular polling agencies) suggest there may be very
strong support for government anti-nuclear
weapons policies, At the end of March the Canadian
Peace Alliance and Science for Peace released the
results of a poll of 1500 Canadians which indicates
a majority of the citizens in their country see nuclear
weapons as posing a threat to world security rather
than enhancing it 82% of the women respondents
believed nuclear weapons make the world a more
dangerous place, Over 90% of Canadians support
Ottawa's involvement in global negotiations to
abolish nukes, if the poll is accurate,
These poll results are similar to results in Britain and
the US in 1997, More than half the respond"hts saw
a serious threat of the use of nukes by tflrrorists, a
world war involving the weapons, and
environmental disaster from a weapon incident or
the accidental firing of a weapon, But although 42%
of the responses said they oppose Canadian
membership in military alliances, 55% agreed with
membership even though the alliance involved
nuclear weapons deployment
In Germany International Physicians for the
Prevention of Nuclear War have released results of
a June survey of over a thousand people, 93% said
nuclear weapons are contrary to international law
and should be neither produced nor stockpiled, 87%
agreed that nuclear weapons states should start
getting rid of their own nuclear weapons as soon as
possible, The same number wanted to see nuclear
weapons based on German soil to be eliminated
immediately,
 The Arms Race In Asia -
What Is Going On?
Between the eleventh and thirteenth of May
Bangkok newspaper stated "Thailand, Indonesia,
1998, India exploded five nuclear devices in a
and Malaysia are considered the main competitors
nationalistic display of military capability. At the
in the region's 'arms race' but the financial crises
battering the three countries could put a halt to arms
end of the same month Pakistan exploded six
deals worth billions of dollars already in the
devices of its own. The Asian arms race had
pipeline." [The Nation, 24 December 1997]
become more overt, potentially dangerous, and
the su bject of world-wide attention. In New
Zealand it is important that developments
among our distant northwestern neighbours are
careful l y considered and do not become
reasons for military expansionism, as they have
in Australia. This article by Warren Thomson
looks at Asian military machines and their
significance.
A huge growth in the acquisition of weapons by
many Asian governments has been apparent since
the 1980s. The region's share of global arms
expenditure rose from 15.5% in 1983 to 33.2% in
1993. By 1997 Asia had become the second biggest
market for military hardware. China, Taiwan and
South Korea together spent SUS 10.2 billion on
defence acquisition in 1996. Japan spent another
$2 billion by itself. We have seen the appearance of
Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and Malayasia
amongst the world's eleven top arms importers.
These figures, and the on-going nuclear
development of India and Pakistan were not
completely surprising. But the militaries in the region
have been spending a large part of their defence
budgets on air force and naval units which could
potentially threaten their neighbours. Countries like
Thailand and Malaysia, who previously had made
little att"',"pt to project their military power
internationally, began moving from a focus on
internal matters to postures which gave a capacity
for force projection beyond their borders. Malaysia,
Singapore and Thailand have established
mechanised brigades with modern tanks and
arrmoured personnel carriers, and blue water
navies.
In August 1997 the Thai Navy became the first in
South East Asia to possess an aircraft carrier. (India
in 'South Asia' is the only other nation to currently
have one. China has been inspecting aircraft
carriers with the intention of buying in the future.)
Malaysia had bought modern fighter aircraft and
ordered missile frigates and submarines. Indonesia
created a n 'instant navy' by buying 39 former East
German Navy vessels in 1993 and about 60 modern
fighters since then. In December last year a
Some arms deals have already been put on hold, so
perhaps the economic problems sweeping through
this part of the world will slow the rush to acquire
arms that has been proceeding over the last 15
years. Much will depend on the influence of the
military on the various governments, and how they
perceive the actions of the other governments in
their region. The administration in Bangkok, heavily
influenced by military leaders, has attempted to pull
out of a deal to buy F/A-18 Hornets from the United
States as a cost-saving measure. Concern has
been expressed at the huge costs associated with
keeping the new carrier in operation. In Djakarta a
new government might decide (or be forced by the
IMF) to put more resources in productive and social
areas. But Pakistan, dominated by the military and
fearful of its Indian neighbour, has been regularly
putting one third of its government budget to military
funding, through years of dire economic hardship
for its people. And in China, military spending
appears to have been steadily increasing. Some
commentators maintain that "toys for the boys" is a
big factor in arms spending, and this element of
military thinking may be hard to change.
China is seen by many nations in the region as the
potential aggressor and the measure of need for
defence. Nations involved in dispute over the
Spratlys and other island claims have particular
reason to be concerned. Vietnam and the
Philippines have exchanged gunshots with their
giant neighbour. India gives as a major reason for
its development of nuclear weapons, the posture of
the government in Beijing. The International
Institute of Strategic Studies says China is not a
threat to South East Asia. Its 1997 annual report
stated "At present, China does not have the
resources to project a major conventional force
beyond its territory." [The Nation, Bangkok, 16
October 1997] But Asian military commanders will
look at the worst case scenarios and point to
potential problems with China 20-30 years down
the road when the Asian giant may overtake Japan
as the second most powerful global economy. The
conservative J ane's Fighting Ships predicts "It
seems only a matter of time before China has the

Peace Researcher - Page 7

military capability to claim subservience from the
whole of East Asia," unless countries there bury
distrust and form alliances, [1997-98 edition p27]
China's recent ratification of the UN Convention on
the Law of the Sea may ease some disquiet.
Many of the nations also have their own border
disputes or territorial claims with other neighbours.
Besides China, the states of Vietnam, Taiwan, the
Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei (whose 300,000
people are to get British Hawk fighters) make
competing claims in the Spratlys. Japan has serious
disagreements with South Korea and Russia over
some Islands, and with China and Taiwan over
others. Recently Japan has expressed concern over
North Korea's missile programmes and suspected
nuclear weapons development. (The Lodong - or
Rodong - missile, based on the Russian Scud, is
capable of hitting targets in Japan.) Hopefully claims
over areas of ocean, and more importantly, their
mineral resources, can be peacefully resolved. That
will still leave governments concerned about
protection of their sealanes given that most are
dependent on Middle East oil. And a growing, if less
overtly military problem in some of the sealanes is
piracy. There were more than 1 00 major attacks on
ships in 1996-97.
However, a recent writer in the conservative New
Zealand International Affairs Review says "... most
analysts believe that Asian nations are modernising
their militaries for defensive purposes." [Lewis
Fretz, p14, May/June 1998. Fretz is actually arguing
for a strong American role in Asia.] Furthermore.
there is little doubt that the economic problems of
the Asian region over the last two years will impact
heavily on the government expenditure of the
nations. The policies that saw many of the countries
in the region use local military spending as a means
to boost the domestic economy may have run their
course. Many will have to reduce their defence
budgets to concentrate on areas with a better
return.
Strong global criticism of nuclear testing and threat
of sanctions may now dissuade some from further
development of nuclear or even conventional
weapons. Because nearly all the countries depend
on Russia or a western country for the most
sophisticated parts of their weaponry, the
governments providing the equipment have some
influence over the buyers and could look harder at
the results of their actions.
One or two nations, dominated by their military, will
continue to spend obscene amounts on weaponry.
In the long run, the governments will be influenced
heavily by the actions of their regional neighbours.
Even more, the future postures of heavyweights
China and Japan will dictate the course of future
Peace Researcher - Page 8
events. But the 'arms race' in Asia, apart from the
diabolical diversion of scarce resources from
productive uses, has not made the region a more
dangerous place, or presented this country with any
compelling reason for a fearful response.
New Zealand has the opportunity to contribute
positively in the region. We must avoid becoming
hooked into reactionary western responses to an
increase in the arsenals of the region which apart
from China, on a global scale, are still small, with
very limited capacity to deploy forces to distant
locations. Ideally New Zealanders will see the Asian
'arms race' of the last few years in perspective and
seek to maintain positive non-military relations with
Asian neighbours. We should continue to give
defence spending a low priority, work to ameliorate
trouble spots (as the current government did in
Bougainville) and stop military training or exchanges
which involve repressive governments. In our own
back yard it is vital to argue for Australia to cut its
military expansionist and American linked policies. '
[' Indian perspective on Australian policy is
interesting. In a recent letter to Friends of the Earth
in Sydney a representative of India's Government
stated "I hope you will not mind my saying that it
has been our experience that in disarmament
negotiations the Non Aligned countries like India
seldom, if ever, receive support or understanding
from Australia for measures that we propose for
nuclear disarmament, within reasonable time frame.
There is a general feeling that because of
Australia's dependence on an extended US nuclear
security guarantee for its own security and for the
promotion of its regional security interests, it is just
not in a position to urge the need for nuclear
disarmament within a reasonable time frame.....
There is, in our view, a contradiction of virtually
depending on the nuclear deterrent of a foreign
power on the one hand, and being enthusiastic
about nuclear disarmament on the other."]
A BRIEF SURVEY OF
SOME MILITARY
CAPABILITIES:
China: China's Maoist tradition of depending on
massive people-power armies no longer applies.
The Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) has been
greatly reduced in number, and priority given to
technical weapons development. SIPRI estimated
Beijing's defence budget as around $US 56 billion in
1996 and it has tended to grow significantly each
year. China has ten major nuclear weapons related
facilities and probably 400 nuclear warheads. To
deliver these it has short. intermediate and
intercontinental range ballistic missiles, and nuclear
weapons capable aircraft. It has carried out 45
nuclear tests since 1964, but none in the last three
years. Janes Fighting Ships states that China has
four major submarine programmes, including
Russian assisted ones, to produce more nuclear
missile armed and powered submarines, and
conventionally armed nuclear attack submarines. It
is building its own destroyers and frigates and
buying guided missile destroyers from Russia. "This
is not a navy being developed for coastal defence,"
claims Janes [1997-98 edition, p27] China's
defence industry has grown enormously and it is
developing many weapons of its own - often based
on those 'loaned' for various reasons from other
countries. Next year it will begin manufacturing
modern Sukoi-27 aircraft under licence, as well as
producing updated versions of older aircraft and
helicopters. Part of its budget will be subsidised by
exports. China is the only Asian country with any
meaningful amphibious capability (ie the ability to
land tanks and troops from the sea). But many
defence analysts point out that it would take more
than twenty years for Beijing to acquire a navy
capable of challenging the US Seventh Fleet - and
in that time the American Navy itself will have
advanced hugely.
India: The advent of a fervently nationalistic
government in India makes the military
development of this technologically capable country
problematic and one hopes that the recent
demonstration of nuclear capability will satisfy the
need for militant breastbeating for some time to
come. India has carried out six nuclear tests, five of
them in May 1998. According to Janes Intelligence
Review, "India's potential nuclear arsenal is bigger
than Britain's and comparable with those of France
and China." [Quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald,
20 June, 1998]
It possesses both short range and intermediate
range missiles that can deliver nuclear warheads.
The latter have a range of 2,500 kilometres and can
also carry conventional or chemical weapons. India
has Jaguar aircraft (that it now manufactures under
licence) Mirages and MiGs that can carry nuclear
bombs. India is a long way behind China in relative
nuclear arsenals, but enjoys a huge margin of
military superiority over its Pakistani neighbour
There are nearly a million men in the army, the
second biggest force in the region (after China) and
a much bigger number than Pakistan. (See table)
The military is self-sufficient in many key areas - it
produces its own battle tanks and self-propelled
guns. As well as building fighters it is building its
own airborne surveillance aircraft. The first of a new

Below we see the new Thai Navy aircraft carrier Chakri Naruebet - the first purpose-built carrier introduced to
Asia. Although small, carrying only nine Harriers and six helicopters, it has proved expensive to operate and
even Japan and China have been cautious about acquiring a significant carrier forces.

Peace Researcher - Page 9

class of locally built destroyers has started sea
trials. Moscow's assistance is still used by the
Indian Navy Janes Fighting Ships notes: "India is
once again getting into bed with the Russians for
more submarines and frigates (p27). The absurd
aspects of the arms trade are evident when Russia
is supplying equipment to both India and China
whom the Indians profess to be competing with.
Another sad feature was recently noted in the
Melbourne Age: "The Indian Government
spends [$NZ10 billion] - 3 per cent of its gross
domestic product - to keep about 1.3 million men
under arms. That is about twice what it spends on
health and almost as much as it spends on
education ... And the [$NZ2 billion] that India spent
in 1996 to buy 40 Russian warplanes . . deprieved
35 million children of education and 140 million of
health care." [ The Age, 30 May, 1998]
Indonesia: At the time of writing, economic crisis
and protest against President Suharto's successer
continue in Indonesia and it is very difficult to predict
future military posture. The armed forces have
played a relatively cautious role in the upheavals
and there appears to be awareness of need to
make concessions on East Timor. But the shape of
government is undoubtedly dependent on military
approval and even with the extreme pressure of
financial collapse the armed forces may be unwilling
to make significant cuts in the defence budget.
Indonesia bought 24 Hawks ground attack fighters
from Britain in 1993, and 11 helicopters. 39 ships
were obtained from the former East German Navy
in 1994 as well as 9 minesweepers. In 1997
Indonesia bought Russian fighters and has taken
delivery of 12 F-16s with 7 to come. More Hawks
were also to come from the UK in 1997-98, costing
$NZ500m. It was these planes, with their potential
ground attack utilisation in East Timor, that were the
target of vigorous protest from peace women in
Britain. Helicopters (Canadian and German) and
medium transport planes are built under licence but
Indonesia lacks the heavy industry and technical
skills of the stronger powers in the region. Although
the 300,000 strong armed forces are regarded as
potentially dangerous by conservatives in Australia
there is negligible capacity to 'project forces'
overseas (there are only about 26 landing ships)
and Australia's military is undoubtedly superior to
those of its northwestern neighbours. More concern
should be expressed about Canberra's military
assistance to Djakarta. The Indonesian army's
human rights record is not one that Australia or New
Zealand can find acceptable.
Japan: "Although Japan has the third largest
defence budget in the world, its military forces lack
offensive capabilities... " [Lewis Fretz, p15 NZ
International Affairs Review, May/June 1998] and
expressed as a percentage of its gross domestic
Peace Researcher - Page 10
product, the defence budget is not extraordinarily
large. Japan does have a large navy - including 18
patrol submarines, 40 destroyers and 17 frigates -
but small amphibious capability. It had been thought
possible that Japan was soon to order an aircraft
carrier and the planes to go with it, but economic
circumstances may alter this. The military has
ordered 4 more amphibious ships (carrying a 1000
troops each) is buying tanks, hovercraft and
helicopters, and working with the US producing
Aegis destroyers. Much concern about Japan's
military muscle relates to the war of fifty years ago,
and its economic power, rather than current military
posture. In numbers the armed forces are
comparable to Indonesia's, but much more
sophisticated in capability. In the mid nineties it was
setting up a new intelligence agency - eventually to
employ 2,000 people, to become less dependent on
US intelligence on events in its region. It is
researching ABM defence and moving to the
development of Japanese-designed weapons. At
present there is still a dependence on US technical
aid in manufacture of more advanced systems. The
government has been buying new fighter aircraft,
and Japan has the capacity to produce a wide
variety of weaponry under licence or by joint
arrangements. In September 1997 the Tokyo
Government announced the Signing of a new US
security agreement to give military support to US in
any Asian crisis. It seems likely that Japan will be
content to develop its armed forces slowly and
remain in a close relationship with Washington for
some years to come.
Malaysia: In the 1990s this country significantly
boosted its defence forces. 10 Hawk-100 and 18
Hawk-200 fighter/ground attack aircraft were
delivered and 12 more are on the way. Eight F-18s
and 20 MiG-29s (with medium range AA missile
options) are already purchased, attack helicopters
planned for. The navy will get missile frigates and
27 patrol boats, but even then will not be much
bigger than New Zealand's in terms of surface
combatants. Submarines have been put on order,
but this has to be confirmed in present
circumstances. Malaysia is not in the same league
as others in the region when it comes to military
industry. Although developing small arms and
component manufacturing it has no capacity to build
its own fighters, ships or or helicopters. The army
had no significant armoured vehicles before this
year but before the economic crash was expecting
to acquire some. At around 115,000 personnel, the
armed forces are one of the smallest in the region.
North Korea: "This country produces a variety of
major weapons but its military technology is
derieved from the former Soviet Union and cannot
be replaced or modernised by the present regime."
[Klare, p59] There are well over a million personnel
in the armed forces with 3,700 tanks and 9,000
pieces of artillery. (The number of tanks is double
that of South Korea but reliability is very
questionable.) Numbers of combat aircraft
(possibly 730) are much higher than the South but
again problems of age and servicing probably
seriously undermine capability. The North Korean
forces have a large number of rocket launchers
(over 2,000 multiple launchers) and surface to air
missiles (about 10,000) The navy has only a
handful of significant surface ships but a large
number of submarines - more than 20 patrol subs
and a slightly smaller number of coastal subs - and
hundreds of patrol vessels. There are more than 40
midget submarines which carry 6-8 crew - some
have been lost in operations against Seoul's ships.
In June one of these was found entangled in a
trawler's nets with the crew dead in mysterious
circumstances. Between 1990 and 1994 North
Korea earned $NZ 1 billion from exporting arms -
especially Scud missiles.
Pakistan: Pakistan spends twice as much per
capita on the military as on education, and 3 times
as much as on health. It spent well over $NZ1B in
1995 on 3 French submarines with money that
could have provided drinking water for 56 million
people. On top of spending one third of the
government budget on defence there is a huge cost
in debt servicing run up by military. Nevertheless,
according to Brasseys Defence Yearbook, military
strength of the Pakistan forces - especially vis-a-vis
India, saw a general decline in the mid-nineties
because of economic problems (even before the
latest outbreak of financial disasters in Asia). There
was heavy dependence on US military aid
packages which have decreased with the ending of
the Cold War. The Defence Budget has been
"structured to provide maximum resources for the
officer corps - effectively to keep them in the style to
which they have become accustomed."
[[Christopher Smith, p233, Brasseys, 1997J
Pakistan carried out 6 nuclear tests in May this year
in a calculated response to Indian tests. Its newest
HATF-V missiles - range 1500km - carry a 700kg
single warhead load, and could hit more than 213 of
India's territory after being successfully tested this
year. The government has now recalled forward
IRBMs - Ghaury (HATF) - older models deployed in
1990s and previously deployed to threaten its
neighbour.The air force has several fighter­
bombers capable of carrying nuclear weapons. The
New York Times says it required " . a global network
of theft and espionage, and uncounted millions for
Pakistan, one of the world's poorest countries, to
explode that bomb. " The newspaper states that
besides smuggled Chinese technology, blueprints,
key nuclear components and materials, the bomb
development required the scientists trained in the
US up to the 1970s, and contradictory US policies.
Washingto. " ...turned a blind eye to the nuclear
Peace Researcher - Page 11
weapons programme in the 1980s, because
Pakistan was providing the crucial link in the CIA's
effort to smuggle billions of dollars of weapons to
Afghan guerillas attempting to drive out the Soviet
invaders". When Washington withdrew its support
Pakistan decided it must pursue the nuclear option
to compensate for its weaker conventional forces.
[NYT 1June, 1998] There are 320 tanks on order
from Ukraine, although Pakistan is self-sufficient in
some areas of tank and artillery production. It does
not produce its own aircraft but can completely
overhaul modern fighters. It has a small but
significant navy with six submarines and three
under construction, a dozen destroyers and
frigates, and eight missile attack boats.
Philippines: A more detailed look at the armed
forces in the Philippines will appear in the next
edition of Peace Researcher
Singapore: The government is firmly committed
to developing export-oriented arms industries. It
had also arranged the acquisition of Swedish
submarines in 1997 and in recent years bought 9
Fokker patrol planes from Holland, a squad of F-
15s and 16 helicopters from the US. Russian
missile systems were acquired Singapore is
developing its own IFV and light tanks, builds
corvettes, patrol boats, helicopters and a range of
infantry weapons.
South Korea: South Korean firms, in close
collusion with the government, produce a wide
variety of weapons that originated in the United
States, including aircraft, missiles, armoured
vehicles and combat ships. Currently the air force
has a contract with Lockheed Martin for 120 F-16s
of which the last 72 will be largely produced in South
Korea with local parts, early next century. The air
force has currently well over 400 combat aircraft. 8
P-3C patrol aircraft plus attack helicopters have
been purchased from the US. An acquisition of 12
destroyers probably now depends on economics.
Already the country has half a dozen destroyers,
about the same number of submarines, a dozen
frigates and nearly 30 corvettes (designed for
picking North Korean subs up off the beach?). It is
self-sufficient in some areas of tank and artillery
production, with possibly 1,800 tanks (condition not
known) and 6,000 artillery pieces. Well-known
companies Korean Air, Hyundai, Samsung and
Daewoo are big players in the defence industry. The
US has nearly 40,000 troops in South Korea. In the
1990s nearly 20% of government expenditure went
on defence but this may change as the country has
recently suffered heavy economic damage.
economic turmoil of the last year.
Thailand: In August 1997 the Thai Navy became
the first in South East Asia to possess and aircraft
 carrier (purpose-built in Spain at a cost of about
$NZ350m) It will carry up to 9 Sea Harriers and 6
helicopters In recent years Thailand has acquired
18 A-7 strike aircraft, 2 P-3 Orion patrol aircraft and
18 F-16s from US 36 Czech L-39 trainer/fighters,
3 Hawkeye early-warning planes, and Harrier VTOL
for the aircraft carrier have been purchased from
other sources, Hit by the country's economic
downturn, the air force decided to try to transfer on
to another country the agreed purchase of 8 F/A-18
Hornet aircraft (cost over $NZ700m) even though
this could mean losing the SUS 75 million already
paid as a deposit The deal was to have included
the first advanced medium range air to air missiles
in the region, but indications now are of the intention
to curb military spending in the next year or two,
Planned extensions of the very limited defence
industry capability may also be curtailed, Generally
the Thai military is one of the smaller regional
forces with approximately 250,000 personnel,
Thailand has significant border demarcation and
control problems with Burma, and Burmese
Government-supported ethnic rebels, Cambodia,
and minor muslim separatist activities in the south,
will continue to demand attention,
Taiwan: Taiwanese industry has the capacity to
produce a wide range of aircraft, helicopters,
guided missiles and surface ships although there
have been some problems with poor aircraft
availability in the early nineties and development
problems in an indigenous fighter Over a quarter of
government expenditure goes on defence, 150 F-
16s were acquired from the US plus 60 Mirage
2000-5s from France in the mid nineties, Also a
frigate from USA and 1 from France are being
added to an already substantial navy - 13
destroyers, 14 frigates with eight to come, 4
submarines with another 12 planned, and a very
large number of missile armed patrol boats, The
armed forces have about 375,000 personnel,
Sources: Janes Fighting Ships/Aircraft/Armour and
Artillery; Bulletin of the A tomic Scientists (esp
Michael Klare, Jan/Feb 1997, and Mark J Valencia
ibid); NZ International Affairs Review (esp Lewis
Fretz, May/June 1998); Various websites; News
articles in the Bangkok Post, The (Thai/and) Nation,
The Melbourne Age, The Sydney Morning Herald
and the Christchurch Press,

The Armed Forces of Asia

The following table gives an approximate idea of the numbers of personnel in the army, navy and air force
of the Asian countries listed, and some of the reserve forces available (reserve, paramilitary, militia), The
military service column indicates whether service is by conscription, or selective conscription, or volunteer
The final column indicates what proportion of government spending went on defence in the year indicated
in the brackets, and can vary considerably according to source and interpretation, Basic source: Europa
Yearbook, 1998,

Navy Air Force Army Other MiI service DefBudget

China 265000 470000 2200000 Res 1.2m Sel3-4 yrs 9,1% (98)
India 55000 110000 980000 Res 0,19m Vcl 15,3% (98)
Indonesia 43000 21000 235000 Res 1,5m+ Sel2 yrs 6-8% (94)
Japan 43000 44500 235000 Vcl
Malaysia 12000 12500 90000 PM 294,000 Vcl 9,3% (96)
Pakistan 22000 45000 520000 PM247,000 Vcl 33,2% (97)
S. Korea 60000 52000 660000 Res 3,5m 2.5yrs 8,1% (95)
N. Korea 46000 85000 923000 Mi13,9m Sel5+yrs 11,6% (94)
Taiwan 68000 68000 240000 Res 1,66m 2yr 27,6% (96)
Thailand 64000 4 0000 150000 PM140,000 2 yrs 15,2% (95)

N. Zealand 2150 3220 4500 Res 6660 Vcl 3% (96)

The figure for the Chinese air force includes a large number of air defence personnel

Peace Researcher - Page 12

 N ew Zea land Tra i ns I n dones ia's M i l ita ry
The visit of European Union envoys to East Timor at
the end of June drew tens of thousands on to the
streets in pro-independence demonstrations. Two
young m en paid with their lives as a trigger happy
military tried to keep control.Huge numbers of troops,
tanks, rocket launchers, armed motorcycle troops
blockaded the University of Indonesia on Sunday
June 21 to stop a rally of factory workers and students
at the university. While President Habibie tries to
assure foreign Journalists that there will be no
crackdown on demonstrations, the chief of the Armed
Forces and Defence Minister, General Wiranto, has
warned against "exaggerated freedoms".
The Indonesian people are determined to exploit to
the full the democratic space open to them, and the
new wave of activism has spread beyond the students
and workers to demonstrations against every level of
the corrupt bureaucracy. However, there can be no
illusions about the Habibie regime and its military
backers, or its determination to control the so-called
process of reform.
Any one of the officers responsible for the cOld­
blooded killing of young activists in Indonesia, West
Papua or East Timor could have received 'helpful'
training in New Zealand. An Indonesian officer began
his studies of strategic operational and command
skills at a six-month-Iong course at the RNZAF base
in Auckland on June 3. In response to protests about
this, Minister of Defence, Max Bradford said that the
officer would learn "the process of democratic
government, the Geneva Convention and laws or
armed conduct" Mr Bradford would like us to believe
that New Zealand m ilitary training under the Mutual
Assistance Programme which has been ongoing
since 1 973 has helped the Indonesian military learn
law abiding restraint?
The military force (ABRI) has been the indispensable
repressive tool of the 'new order' regime - responsible
for two of the most notorious slaughters of recent
times - the 1965 massacres of at least half a million
suspected dissidents and the deaths of at least
200,000 East Timorese since the 1975 invasion.
ABRI has been able to rely on a steady supply of
western arms over the years. Britain has just
approved more water cannon and Hawk aircraft, and
Indonesia has had no problem getting specialist
training from the United States and Australia.
Controversy recently rocked the United States
Congress when the details emerged of the military
training programme JCET (Joint Combined Exchange
Training) under which the Indonesian Kopassus 'red
berets' special forces have been trained in 'close
quarters combat' and sniper skills.
Peace researcher - Page 1 3
When challenged to respond to photographs
showing the horrendous torture of young East
Timorese women Winston Peters last November in
Parliament said ' .. our engagement ... is the training
of dentists and other things of a h um ane quality.' New
information unearthed from parliamentary questions
asked in March by Matt Robson, Alliance MP, gives
the lie to this familiar refrain and establishes a close
parallel between New Zealand military aid and the
United States programme.
In the 1997/98 training year which ends in J une, New
Zealand trained military dentists - two of them. At the
same time, 24 officers trained in skills with relevance
to the role of suppressing internal dissent - lethal
methods of SOCial control. Our training has no strings
attached - the Minister Max Bradford was unequivocal
in reply to questions about human rights. Neither he
nor his Ministry inquire whether the military coming
here have served in East Timor, nor do they seek
information about any officer's past military history Or
that of his or her unit. In the years since the 1991 Dili
massacre it is quite possible that one of the
Indonesian officers implicated has been here for
training - Max Bradford would not know because he
would not have asked.
During the 4-week Infantry Major course at the
Army's school of infantry, Waiouru, from J uly to
August 1997 an Indonesian officer learnt about,
'convoy security operations' and 'planning night
infiltration attacks'. In East Timor the nights are
feared because 'pre-dawn' is the time when the
military carries out raids and abductions. In
Indonesia, many student leaders were abducted in a
futile attempt to intimidate the burgeoning movement
In the Regimental Intelligence Course officer's
course in August and September, 1 997 an
Indonesian officer learnt 'intelligence in operations
other than war', 'dissemination of intelligence',
'NZSAS reconnaissance', 'electronic warfare', and
'threat assessments'.
Four officers came here earlier this year to learn
about Skyhawk maintenance - in 1983-84 Skyhawks
were used in bombing raids in East Timor As if that
were not enough, an Indonesian officer attended a
Grade 11 Staff and Tactics 1 1 week course held at
Waiouru from J anuary to April in 1 997. He learnt
'manoeuvre warfare and directive control,'
surveillance and intelligence, mobility, counter­
mobility and survivability'. More ominously, the
course also featured 'psychological operations,' 'deep
cover operations, ' 'aid to the civil power joint-force
operations' and 'military operations in urban terrain'.
How would these skills be useful to Indonesian
officers - only one answer is plausible - they would
h elp the military deal to an organised clandestine
resistance and with mass urban demonstrations.
Twenty-nine year old Pius lustrilang recently
surfaced after a two month 'disappearance' - he was
kidnapped at gunpoint in February from a bus stop.
At a secret i nterrogation centre he was stnpped
naked. and given electric sh ocks and the 'water
treatment'. His military abductors released him as a
result of international pressure but threatened him
with death should h e speak out. lustrilang escaped
to the United States where h e gave testimony to
Congress. H e was active in the coalition of the
supporters of prominent Muslim leader Amien Rais
and the pro-democracy figurehead, Megawati
Sukarnoputri. Other young activists from the
banned Peoples Democratic Party (PRO) have
recently given similar testimony after months of
detention and torture.
Edwin Gozal, the International Representative for
the PRO did not mince words when the New
Zealand media asked for his views on military
training during his visit here in June. "The New
Zealand Government says it maintains ties with the
Indonesian military because they play an important
role in Indonesian society. It think it's hypocrisy to
maintain that relationship when you know what
they're doing in Indonesia- killing people and
abusing human rights.... That just makes them
stronger and encourages them to behave in an
undemocratic way." (Listener, June 27, 1998) In
Indonesia as in East Timor it is the young people
who have thrown away their fear and who take the
lead in the movement for change. How can we face
these determined young people and admit that New
Zealand helped train their military tormentors i n
urban warfare and psychological operations?
Maire Leadbeater
East Timor Independence Committee
[The New Zealand Herald, 19 May, 1998, reported
that the Minister of Defence, Max Bradford rejected
calls to cut military ties with Indonesia, describing
the Jakarta forces as 'eminently responsible.' "Mr
Bradford has committed New Zealand to continued
i nvolvement i n a training programme with the
Indonesians. He has also defended the role of the
military in street battles which have followed an anti­
Government u prising. His comments have outraged
members of the East Timor Independence
Committee, which wants Mr Bradford to cancel the
enrolment of an Indonesian officer due to start a six
month military course in Auckland next month
(June)."]
#NK#i¥Ififf:f#/1:;##tf#Uf!#!IJi#,ifSfIdK#
U S G OVE RN M E NT
ROLE I N 1 965
MASSAC R E
In May 1990, several US newspapers, including the
Washington Post [May 21] and the Boston Globe
[May 23] reported that the U.S. government played
a significant role in one of the worst massacres of
the century by supplying the names of thousands of
Communist Party leaders to the Indonesian army,
which hunted down the leftists and killed them. For
the first time, U.S. officials acknowledged that in
1965 they systematically compiled comprehensive
lists of Communist operatives, from top echelons
down to village cadres. As many as 5, 000 names
were furnished to the Indonesian army, and the
Americans later checked off the names of those
who had been killed or captured, according to U.S.
officials.
The purge of the Partai Komunis Indonesia (PKI)
was part of a U.S. drive to ensure that communists
did not come to power in the largest country In
Southeast Asia, where the United States was
already fighting an undeclared war in Vietnam. "It
really was a big help to the army," said Robert J.
Martens, a former member of the U.S. Embassy's
political section "They probably killed a lot of
people, and I probably have a lot of blood on my
hands, but that's not all bad. There's a time when
you have to strike hard at a decisive moment."
People named on the lists were captured in
overwhelming numbers, Martens said, adding, "It's
a big part of the reason the PKI has never come
back."
Approval for the release of the names came from
the top U.S. Embassy officials, including former
Ambassador Marshall Green, deputy ch ief of
mission Jack Lydman and political section chief
Edward Masters, the three acknowledged i n
interviews. Martens supplied thousands o f names to
an Indonesian emissary over a number of months,
he said. The emissary was an aide to Adam Malik,
an Indonesian minister who was an ally of Suharto
in the attack on the Communists. Interviewed i n
Jakarta, the aide, Tirta Kentjana ("Kim")
Adhyatman, confirmed he had met with Martens
and received lists of thousands of names, which he
in turn gave to Malik. Malik passed them on to
Suharto's headquarters, he said.
Embassy officials carefully recorded the
subsequent destruction of the PKI organization.
Using Martens' lists as a guide, they checked off
names of captured and assassinated PKI
leaders, tracking the steady dismantling of the party

Peace researcher - Page 14

apparatus, former U. S officials said. Detention
centers were set up to hold those who were not killed
immediately. "They didn't have enough goon squads
to zap them all, and some individuals were valuable
for interrogation," Joseph Lazarsky, deputy CIA
station chief in Jakarta in 1965, said. "The
Infrastructure was zapped almost immediately. We
Brita i n's N u c lear Shamb les Contami nates
Sca n d i navia a nd the Arctic
The disastrous history of Britain's nuclear industry is
becoming more apparent. "The Dounreay nuclear
processing plant in Scotland, which the British
Government is to close, was failing safety standards,
8ccording to an official report released this week."
[Sydney Morning Herald, 18 June, 1998J. The paper
reports that Dounreay suffered from poor design,
known problems were not being dealt with, safety
procedures were deficient in many areas, and there
was a lack of experienced staff.
Meantime, Norway, Sweden and Denmark are
demanding that Britain's Sellafield nuclear plant
stops production after the discovery that discharges
from the plant have caused seaweed on their coasts
to become radioactive. One of the functions of
Sellafield is to produce plutonium for the UK's
weapons programme And last year an article in the
New Scientist [10 May, 1998J said "Radio-activity
from Britain's Sellafield nuclear processing plant in
Cumbria has spread through the Arctic Ocean into
the waters of Northern Canada. The contamination,
which has never before been picked up so far from
Britain, is h aving a bigger impact on the Arctic than
the Chernobyl aCCident, according to Canadian
data." A joint Canadian-Russian study investigating
contamination of the Kara Sea found the plant was
having more impact than waste dumped there by the
Russians themselves in the 1980s. (Another factor
was fall-out from atmospheric nuclear tests,)
Dou�reay, dogged by Scottish Nationalists and anti­
nuclear activists, suffered an accidental explosion in
1977 which blasted radio-active waste onto local
beaches. The accident was covered up by the
government until a team of experts (also appointed
by government) investigating pollution at the nearby
Scottish beach discovered the truth in 1995. They
estimated it would take twenty years and possibly
$NZ1 billion to clean up the problem. Reprocessing
material already at the plant, which employs 1,600
people, will take until 2006, and the final clean-up
many years more. The decision to close the facility
came after uproar in Britain over deliveries of spent
nuclear fuel from the unstable European state of
Georgia. There are 16 nuclear power stations in
Peace Researcher - Page 15
knew what they were doing. We knew they would
keep a few and save them for the kangaroo courts,
but Suharto and his advisers said, if you keep them
alive, you have to feed them."
[". ..in four months, five times as many people died in
Indonesia as in Vietnam in twelve years. "-- Bertrand
Russe/l, 1966J
Britain, providing about 30% of UK electricity, as
well as experimental, waste disposal and
reprocessing facilities. There have been several
accidents at nuclear facilities, and in 1995 the
company Nuclear Electric was fined nearly a million
dollars for a severe breach of safety procedures,
according to the Christchurch Press, [10 November,
1995J Most of the British nuclear power stations
were built in the 1960s and some have already
reached the end of their economic and/or nuclear
"safe" life. Estimates for the cost of
decommissioning these power stations vary
between 8 billion dollars (by the industry) and 45
billion dollars (by environmentalists). Whatever the
costs, large amounts of dangerous nuclear waste
will be added to the current stockpile and solutions
to the problem of how to store or safely dispose of
the waste still have not been agreed. Up until 1982
Britain dumped 75, 000 tonnes of low and
intermediate level waste into the North Atlantic.
Norway and Sweden have also voiced concerns
over the "time-bomb" of sunken nuclear submarines
in Russia's Arctic north. On the seabed lie unstable
reactors and piles of radioactive waste threatening
to contaminate waters controlled by Finland,
Sweden and Norway. Over a dozen subs, once part
of the Soviet Union's northern fleet, were dumped in
shallow waters off the coast of the uninhabited Arctic
island of Novaya Zemlya. Swedish scientists say
that although nothing is leaking from the submarines
yet it is only a matter of time before radioactivity
begins to leak into the surrounding seawater. And
the threat of a disaster from current operations of
nuclear submarines continues. In March of this year
two American nuclear submarines - one of them
possibly armed with nuclear weapons - "bumped into
each other off Long Island during a routine exercise"
according to a Navy spokesperson. [Bangkok Post,
22 March, 1998J The collision between the USS
Kentucky and the USS San Juan was reported to
have caused "minor damage" but no casualties.
New Yorkers might be reassuredI The people and
governments of Scandanavia and countries fringing
the ArctiC Ocean will take more convincing that
British nuclear industry is safe.
The Perversity of U S Wea pons Procurement
The US Air Force's B-1B costs 20,000 New Zealand
dollars an hour to operate. Its engines have
exploded or failed to start, its fuel tanks h ave
leaked. its radar system hasn't worked, its avionics
were incompatible, and its skeleton developed
premature cracks. If these problems were fixed it
would still cost another five billion to load the
bombers with modern weapons and modern
electronics. 100 B-1Bs have been built and five
have crashed. This is in the tradition of the F/A-111
(which appeared at Harewood with the Australian
Air Force in 1984) and which at that stage was
taking 33 hours servicing for every hour spent in the
air. The newer B-2 bomber costs about $25,000 per
hour to operate. In the defence budget for Fiscal
1998 the cost for procurement and maintenance of
nine B-2 bombers was given at $27 BILLION
DOLLARSI Chuck Spinney from the Office of the
Secretary of Defense says the team responsible for
overseeing the development of the F/A-18E/F
fighter/bomber aircraft were aware of fundamental
design flaws in the planes' wings, but no-one from
the team spoke up about the problems until after
production funds were approved. [Bulletin of the
Atomic Scientists, May/June 1998J
Unda Rothstein, writing in the same edition of the
Bulletin, shows how even if the plane is successful
in design terms, the process for decision-making on
production numbers is just as unbelievable.
Rothstein says the Pentagon has persuaded
Congress to spend about $219 billion on new
fighters by ignoring the current vast superiority of
American aircraft numbers - especially against
countries such as Iraq, Iran and North Korea - and
counting in the opposition large numbers of
obsolete aircraft. The Pentagon also proclaims the
US is outnumbered by total global aircraft numbers,
thus adding up Britain, France and other allies as
potential enemies. The strengths of Canada,
Sweden and Australia [!J have been given as
reasons for building the new F-22 fighter!
A fabricated fear of potential missile-wielding
enemies is also proclaimed in order to continue with
h orrendously expensive anti-ballistic missile
defences that p robably won't be able to stop
attacking missiles either in theatre context or as a
national defence. In MIT's Techn% gy Review
[May/June 1997J an assessment states "But no
hostile countries actually h ave the missiles most
such efforts are designed to stop. What's more,
many of these costly efforts would violate a treaty
that has worked for 25 years and WOUld,
paradoxically, prevent further cuts in nuclear
weapons. On top of this the Review says "The new
systems are too easily foiled." As J anes Fighting
Ships notes in its 1997-98 edition [p23J " . . . no-one
is under any illusion that it is possible to provide a
Peace Researcher - Page 16
guaranteed defence even against theatre weapons
using ballistic trajectories". Yet Clinton has
(somewhat reluctantly) allowed development and
testing of ABM systems to proceed.An article in the
Bulletin [ibidJ describes how this current missile
defence programme with "formidable technical
failings" and "inept management" is "lurching toward
deployment. A report commissioned by the Ballistic
Missile Defense Organisation itself - the office in
charge of the project - says the project is "highly
unlikely" to succeed. In three-quarters of the tests of
ABM systems, often in ideal circumstances, targets
were not hit. In real life situations it is acknowledged
" this basic system is likely to provide poor
protection. .. " [1996 statement from the Deputy
Secretary of Defense, p25]
But there are contracts and jobs in Congressional
districts at stake. Some Republican Senators are
saying the problems of the programme are caused
by underfunding! The Bulletin notes "From 1983 to
1993, Ronald Reagan's Star Wars program
consumed more than $45 billion in today's [USJ
dollars without producing any deployable systems or
major technological breakthroughs". [p24J But the
procurement programmes of the American military
industrial complex, forty years after Eisenhower
warned of its dangers, continue to triumph.
An article in the New York Times, [July 1, 1998J
reports "Nuclear weapons have cost the United
States at least $5.48 trillion since 1940, and for
most of that time neither Congress, the armed
services nor the President had a clear idea what
was being spent, according to a four-year study
sponsored by the Brookings Institution. The figure,
which is stated in 1996 dollars converted under a
Defense Department formula, represents about a
third of the nation's military spending and about one­
tenth of all expenditures by the Federal Government
from 1940 to 1996; only non-nuclear defense
programs and Social Security cost more.
The cost includes money spent to invent them and
produce them, build the missiles, bombers and
submarines to deliver them and to defend against
enemy nuclear attacks. In addition, cleaning up
environmental damage resulting from the
production of nuclear weapons will bring the total
cost to $5.82 trillion, based on estimates of what will
be needed in the next 80 years, the study said.
Producing nuclear weapons accounted for only
about 7 percent of the total cost, the study said
Deploying the weapons, including the cost of
missiles and bombers, accounted for 55.7 percent
of the total; defending against nuclear attacks made
up 16.1 percent; targeting and controlling the
weapons made up 14.3 percent and nuclear waste
management and cleanup was 6.3 percent."
rrhe U .S. Centra l I ntell igence Agency
And The Drugs Trade
Co-editor Bob Leonard just happened to arrive
in Oakland, California, for a holiday on the very
day (13 June 1998) journalist Gary Webb was
addressing a public meeting in nearby Berkeley.
The title of the talk was "Dark Alliance - Crack
Cocaine, The CIA, Contras, The Censors". If you
haven't heard of Gary Webb and
investigative reporting on the links between the
CIA and crack-cocaine, please read on.
"I am convinced history is going to
record that Gary Webb wrote the
truth .. The final chapter in this
sordid tale. . . brings to light one of
the worst official abuses in our
nation's history. We all owe Gary
Webb a debt of gratitude for his
brave work"- US Representative
Maxine Waters.
This story deserves to be retold as often as
possible, and new chapters continue to unfold - The
CIA has been involved in the global drugs trade for
about 40 years. That complicity probably continues
to thiS day because drugs are such an effective way
to raise the extra funds that the U.S. Congress fails
to allocate to the insatiable "Company".
Gary Webb was a reporter for the San Jose Mercury
News in the mid-90s. In August 1996 the News
published a series of three reports by Webb entitled
"Dark Alliance". Based on a year of research
following a chance tip from a court case Webb
spilled the beans on the CIA and has paid a rice forp
it What did he reveal?
Cocaine as a white powdered substance was almost
exclusively a drug for rich white-folk - until the early
80s. Webb's meticulously documented articles
charged compellingly that everything changed when
"Crack" cocaine flooded onto the streets of LA and
several other large US urban areas beginning
around 1982. It was cheap and potent, often lethal
In fact It penetrated black communities and
changed already dismal living conditions to
Intolerable. Big money concentrated among the
formerly poor who became dealers and allowed the
purchase of semi-automatic weapons in numbers to
protect their turf. Where did the crack come from..
and why so much all of a sudden?
It was cheap because the suppliers of the US
dealers had almost unlimited direct access to
cocaine from the Colombian Cali cartel, at very low
prices. Without alleging that the CIA was directly
Peace Researcher - Page 1 7
involved in targeting poor urban neighbourhoods,
Webb nevertheless lays the blame squarely at the
door of the spooks. CIA agents were desperate to
raise funds for their beloved Contras fighting the
Commies in Nicaragua. It had become difficult if not
impossible to convince representatives in the US
his
Congress to fund the Contra war against the
Nicaraguan government and military.
Support for the Contras was supplied in the form of
Latin American, Cuban and American operatives
and dozens of businesses with finance from the flow
of cocaine into the US. The cocaine trafficking was
aided and abetted by the CIA in a most insidious
way. Without directly paying the traffickers, the CIA
Simply provided protection for their operations. "The
smugglers had cash, planes and pilots, while the
Contras had intelligence, airstrips and, most
importantly, unimpeded access to the United States.
'And that, to a drug smuggler. . . is worth all the tea in
China'" (Martha Honey, In These Times, 17 May
1998; " tea" quote from a Miami public defender).
And It was all " legal", at least that's the way the CIA
saw it A US government Memorandum of
Understanding (MOU) was in effect from 1982 to
1995 between the CIA and the Justice Department
that allowed the CIA "to ignore drug trafficking by its
'agents, assets and non-staff [unpaid] employees'"
(Honey, ibid. ).
Webb's revelations led to an internal CIA
investigation of its involvement in drug smuggling.
CIA Watchdog, Inspector-General Fred Hitz said the
18-month probe was "the most comprehensive and
exhaustive ever conducted [by the Agency]". But it
had the now familiar ring of a whitewash: "We found
absolutely no evidence to indicate that the CIA as an
organization or its employees were involved in any
conspiracy to bring drugs into the United States"
(Honey, ibid.) But according to Gary Webb "The
actual report shows there are CIA fingerprints all
over thiS drug operation". Only volume one of the
report has been released. Volume two was not
released and many congressional sources suspect
that it never will be. The second volume covers the
entire period of the Nicaraguan war.
This story is one of many around the globe linking
the CIA to drug dealing on a massive scale. Webb
knows the Nicaraguan story well. He was joined in
the Berkeley talk by Martha Honey who has many
years of Involvement in Latin America as an
investigative journalist. Together they provided a
detailed and compelling overview of how this U.S.
intelligence agency effectively avoided
congressional control and flooded the African­
American communities in several US cities with
crack cocaine in the process. Gary Webb lost the
editorial support of the Mercury News shortly after
his articles were published, and he was demoted to
small town reporting. The News published a
groveling apology to the CIA for publishing the
articles. Webb soon quit the paper to work
independently and he has just published a book on
the CIA/Contra affair
poo � Bits
HORROR STORIES - NEW TECH
REPORT ON POTENTIAL FOR
POLITICAL REPRESSION
George Orweli didn't know the half of it Fifty years
ago there was no way he could have predicted the
way modern technology would produce an armoury
of political control devices to make his 1984
governments look like Luddites. The latest issue of
Covert Action Quarterly [Spring 1998] has a
sobering article by Robin Ballantyne, partly based
on a new report from the European Parliament,
looking at current means of political repression,
including chemical weapons, electrified water jets,
light and sound weapons, dart guns shooting drugs,
and a host of other, literally shocking, technologies.
The scope for computerised surveillance is growing
enormously, and the distinction between police and
military is becoming blurred. (Witness the recent
deployment in the Coromandel of the New Zealand
Police's Special Tactic Group, and remember the
army's exercises at Burnham a few years ago,
where the object was to supress rioters.) Blame is
put on entrepreneurial companies that are keen to
sell 'non-lethal' technologies to the military. The
ostensible reason for this is that it reduces the killing
in military encounters, but what has happened is
that the technologies have not been stored for use
in war but have been adapted for repression in
peace. Recently the Indonesian security forces
have dye-marked protestors who have later been
rounded up b y snatch squads. The study
commissioned by the European Parliament "paints
a chilling picture of innovation in repression"
according to Ballantyne.
Plastic bullets and pepper gas, widely available to
security forces in western nations, are heavily
criticised. (In its March/April 1998 edition,
Statewatch reported Independent newspaper
allegations that the British Army is stockpiling
chemicals to be fired from water cannon to
Peace Researcher - Page 18
Our readers may draw their own conclusions on the
worth of intelligence agencies at home and abroad.
Our own GCSB and SIS are linked to sibling
agencies in other countries, including the US
National Security Agency and the CIA NZ
intelligence budgets may be peanuts compared to
those of the big boys overseas, but do we have any
evidence to conclude that our two agencies behave
any more responsibly than the CIA? (See articles
elsewhere in this issue. )
disperse crowds and that the Royal Ulster
Constabulary prefer to use plastic bullets for crowd
control.) Also attacked in the European study is the
move of law enforcement agencies to "tracking
certain social classes and races of people living in
red-lined areas before crime is committed. This
preemptive policing, called data-surveillance, is
based on military models of gathering huge
quantities of low-grade intelligence." [Quoted from
the EU report] And if you are a subversive, give
away your mobile phone. Not only can police and
intelligence agencies use built-in technology to
intercept calls but they can use the phone as a
microphone to pick up nearby conversations and
also keep track of where the owner is - while it is
switched on. In Europe the loudest outcry in
response to the report apparently came from
evidence that new technology was being used by
the US and Britain for commercial and diplomatic
advantage. Some of the report is based on Nicky
Hager's ground-breaking Secret Power.
The report has aroused widespread concerns in
Europe over Washington's access to European
communications, especially since the principal
motivation for much of the espionage is the
acquisition of diplomatic and commercial secrets.
Much of this access comes via the British
Government Communications H eadquarters and
facilities like Menwith Hill. It would be good to see
governments in this region similarly showing
concern about Waihopai.
DI RTY WORK I N NSW
The work of Australian domestic security forces. at
both state and federal level, has for many years
been riddled with the kinds of illegalities and
harrassments that illustrate the anti-democraic
nature of much undercover spookery. Recently the
discredited New South Wales Police Special Branch
has been replaced by a new organisation, in large
part because of such activities. A special
commission investigating the Special Branch found
it had 58,000 index cards and over a thousand 'dirt
files' which targeted politicians, journalists, trade
unionists, community activists and even barristers
who had been spied on for merely representing
criminals, The commission's report said the Branch
had compiled 'unnecessary information' on VIPs,
One of its activities had been the photographing of
the number plates of cars outside public meetings,
"The majority of people who became the subject of
index cards in this manner could not have been
reasonably described as representing a threat of
politically motivated violence or subversive or
terrorist activity," [Sydney Morning Herald, 18 June,
1998 ]
'Protective Security Group' who have predominantly
anti-terrorist and protection roles, but retain some of
the Branch's criticised intelligence-gathering
powers, It remains to be seen whether much will
change, There is a long history of dirty work in the
annals of the Australian States' (and Federal)
security organisations, And we wonder what would
be found in New Zealand files! Meantime a former
police office who is now an MP has stated NSW
police have been recording telephone calls between
police officers and journalists, The intent was to
stop leaks from inside the police which were critical
of police reform, The SMH [22 June] states the
police have the capacity to monitor who made calls,
when they made them, who they were to, and how
long they lasted,
AND D I RT I E R WORK BY BRITAIN
CONFIRMED
Journalists writing i n the conservative British
SundayTelegraph [29 March] claimed "We have
seen secret files that for the first time, provide
evidence that the British Army's Force Research
Unit, a branch of Military Intelligence responsible for
running agents in N orthern Ireland, was complicit in
a series of murders carried out by the UDA [Ulster
Defence Association] between 1987 and 1990, "
The newspaper says that there was "assassination
[of Provisional IRA people] by proxy", The Force
Research Unit provided protestant paramilitaries
with intelligence which was designed to target
individuals, There is speculation that the information
about the army ' research' unit was provided to safe
Journalists in order to pressure recalCitrant
protestant negotiators (and score a hit on the
previous Tory Government?) Meantime Blair's
Government has been generally playing down any
attacks on U K spooks and playing up a Cabinet
decision to have MI5 destroy many of its files on
'subversives', (Will these just be transferred to
computer disks?) They have squashed any concept
of individual's access to files (unlike Sweden) and
will be under pressure from Whitehall to not do
anything that might damage the special relationship
with Washington
Peace Researcher - Page 19
SCIENTISTS AND SPOOKS COME
TOGETHER
Some of the vast amount of information gathered by
the United States intelligence community is being
made available for scientific research, In an article
in Scientific American [February 1998] Jeffrey
Richelson has described how around 70 scientists
in a group known as Medea, have been given top­
level security clearances to look at areas that might
be of wider (real?) benefit to the community and
how the two groups might benefit each other The
scientists have looked at data on global warming,
ocean temperatures, vegetation and forest cover,
desertification, the condition of the polar ice caps,
and similar material. Much of the information comes
from reconaissance satellites and aircraft producing
photographic, radio wave and infrared images, and
undersea tracking devices, The work began in 1992
and was formalised in 1994, (In a 1993 Presidential
Directive Clinton stated that environmental issues
are significant factors in US national security policy,)
The scientists have assisted analysis of oil spills
and disposal of chemical weapons in Russia,
environmental clean-up in areas surrounding US
military facilities, and the Montserrat volcanic
eruption in 1995, Problems have arisen from the
CIA's concern that security information might be
released, and scientific concern that work on the
basis of secret information cannot be subjected to
normal scientific proofs, The cynical will regard the
concept as another spook effort to justify their
existence and ask why a decent share of the $NZ
50 billion intelligence budget, and the cutting-edge
technology, coudn't just be made available for
science in the first place,
SINN FEI N BUGGERED
"Bugging equipment has been found at the home of
a relative of Gerry Kelly, one of Sinn Fein's
negotiating team at the recent talks, Two devices
were found at the house and it is being assumed
that Kelly was the target because the house is
sometimes frequented by him," [ Statewatch,
March/April, 1998 p10] Sinn Fein activists would
assume their homes and offices to be bugged but
perhaps be less guarded at the homes of relatives,
SCAN DANAVIAN SPOOKERY
WIDESPREAD
Owen Wilkes (remember New Zealand;'s pre­
eminent peace researcher of the 1980s and early
1990s?) always maintained that Sweden's harsh
climate was reflected in the repressive nature of its
policing and intelligence system (and he was
threatened with gaol there as evidence of it), Now in
Sweden, because of controversy over a recent
case, the government is loosening up rules over
secret files, with limited access to personal files
being made possible, and more open rules on what
the spooks may and may not collect. But the
evidence is that the Scandanavian countries have
long had surveillance systems that ran very much
counter to the overt democratic images. Last year a
government report in Norway revealed past and
present criminal activity by the services, including
spying on a hostile MP who was appointed to the
government's investigating committee. This and
other activities (mostly illegal wiretaps) apparently
forced the Minister of Justice and chief of the secret
services to resign. In the 1970s military sections of
the intelligence apparatus made money from selling
information about the Soviet Union they had
collected by electronic spying. A former Prime
Minister of Norway, Per Borthen says the country
does not need any secret services. At the beginning
of March a former agent of Danish police
Intelligence went on television to reveal infiltration in
the 1980s of a legal leftist political party, trade
unions, anarchist groups, anti-apartheid
campaigners and peace organisations, along with
right wing groups.
US FORCES TRAIN I NDONESIAN
KILLERS
The Pentagon has suspended its controversial aid
to the Indonesian Army, but as Lobster asserts
[Summer 1998] history shows Congressional efforts
to prevent the US military supporting repressive
forces have usually been circumvented. In present
circumstances the Pentagon and the CIA have too
much to lose to stop trying to influence events in
Indonesia now. Lobster says there were at least 41
exercises between 1992 and 1997 where US Green
Berets were training the Kopassus Red Berets in
means of violence against Indonesian civilians,
even though this had been prohibited by Congress.
Twenty exercises were SCheduled for 1998.
Kopassus played a key role in the bloodbath that
brought Suharto to power and has been involved in
torture and massacres since.
AUSTRALIAN DEFENCE
INTELLIG E NCE SHAKE-UP
AUSTRALIA'S defence intelligence services are to
undergo a shake-up to improve spy training and the
way intelligence information is presented to the
Government and the military. This is the outcome of
a review conducted in 1996-97. Sources said the
shake-up was prompted by concerns that, in spite of
the $140 million a year and 1500 staff working on
defence intelligence, timely information and analysis
did not always reach decision-makers. [The
Australian -19 June, 1998] The paper says
concerns were reinforced by the failure of
intelligence services to provide the Government with
forewarning of Papua New Guinea's plans last year
to hire mercenaries to fight in the Bougainville civil
war. One source said defence intelligence had been
aware of the PNG Government's plans, but this
information had been badly analysed and poorly
followed up. Changes are to be made in the training
of personnel; the focus on its 'customers' and the
way it prepared and presented its reports; and the
systems for organising the intelligence system in its
day-to-day operations and in emergencies. The
Defence Intelligence Organisation is the main
assessment agency for the Defence Force and the
Defence Department, working on information
collected by the Defence Signals Directorate.
Nothing public has been said about how ineffective
the DSD (sister organisation to the GCSB) might be.
BRITS STOP REVELATIONS
David Shayler, a former MI5 officer who has been
revealing details of the security service's bungles
and political surveillance, has been arrested in
France. The UK Government is attempting to
extradite him as PR goes to Press [August].
Recently the French arrested then released former
MI6 officer Richard Tomlinson [see PR 15] who was
also writing material that criticised Britain's spooks.

About Peace Researcher

Peace Researcher is published quarterly by the Anti-Bases Campaign, Christchurch. The

editors are
Bob Leonard and Warren Thomson. Our journal covers a range of peace issues
with emphasis on foreign military bases and intelligence topiCS. Contributed articles will be
considered for publication based on subject matter and space requirements. We are
particularly interested in reports of original research on peace topics in Aotearoa and the wider
region of Australasia and the Pacific. Our address is:

Peace Researcher
P O Box 2258
Christchurch
Aotearoai New Zealand

Peace Researcher - Page 20


D I D T H E U S USE NERVE GAS ON
D E F ECTORS IN LAOS?
In June a CNNrTime television broadcast reported
that in 1970 American Special Forces used sarin
nerve gas in an attack on a defector's camp in Laos.
The revelations about "Operation Tailwind" were
based on interviews with "dozens" who fought or
flew with the mission. But immediately following the
broadcast. Pentagon media managers moved in,
and in response to the pressure, a consultant was
hired by CNN to review the story. His rapid report
resulted in an abject apology from CNN, and Time
Magazine, and the firing of three producers.
The original intensive investigation said that 16 U.S.
Special Force personnel (used for "black"
operations against unusual targets and often
equipped with unusual weapons) along with 140
Montagnard mercenaries, were helicoptered 60
miles into neutral Laos to attack a village believed to
contain American defectors. After they failed to take
the village because of fierce resistance, US planes
gassed the camp with sarin, using a special
weapon, CBU-15, a cluster bomb unit designed to
drop the nerve gas. After the Montagnards cleaned
up the village, reporting bodies which "look like
Americans", the force was threatened with enemy
[communis!?J troops. More planes then proceeded
to drop similar cluster bombs on them. Tailwind
veterans described these troops as then convulsing
and throwing up. Some of the American soldiers
suffered minor doses of the gas - their symptoms
classically being those of people exposed to sarin.
April Oliver, one of the producers fired by CNN has
continued to maintain the story is true and that,
amongst others, Henry Kissenger and the 1970
Chief of Defence Staff had seen the script and
approved it. She says that the reporters had several
deep off the record sources. They had been
subjected to "a huge disinformation campaign"
because "These shadow warriors don't like us
looking into their business". Critics say CNN caved
in because Special Forces organisations threatened
to call all CNN's advertisers and get them to pull
their advertising. Like Garry Webb [see CIA story]
April Oliver has found that the media - gallant
defenders of democracy - often crumble when
confronted with the intelligence and military heavies.
TOMLl NSON PERSECUTED BY
NZ GOVERNMENT
Former MI6 officer Richard Tomlinson seems
unlikely to stay in New Zealand after discovering the
country he was born in, and grew up in, toes the line
required by its British masters. Initially refused his
passport by the NZ embassy in Paris, he was set
upon in his hotel room by French police who beat
him as they arrested him. Freed after 30 hours
interrogation he finally retrieved his passport and
flew to New Zealand. The government here
immediately slapped an injunction on him to prevent
Peace Researcher - Page 21
him revealing any of the criticisms of British
intelligence he was intending to publish in a book.
Then, when boarding a plane to visit his brother in
Australia, he was detained because his travel
documents were claimed to be out of order. The
British Special Branch officer who was responsible
for getting Tomlinson gaoled in Britain for six
months turned up to question him in New Zealand,
and items were seized when his hotel room was
searched. The things we colonials do for our big
brothers! [See also the story in PR 15J
CANADIAN AGENTS STUFF UP
A July story in the Auckland Herald tells u s that
during the Commonwealth Heads of Government
Meeting in Auckland in 1995 secret service agents
lost sensitive papers related to the Canadian Prime
Minister'S visit, and possibly details of the 1999
APEC Conference. The Canadian protection squad
left a satchel in a taxi which was subject to an
ownership dispute. While at lunch the taxi was
removed - along with their sensitive documents!
They were later recovered.
NO LAU RELS FOR LORAL
As Clinton took off for his China trip in June there
was " . " a raging argument in Washington over
whether the White House ignored the transfer of
sensitive military data to China from US firms using
Chinese missiles to launch satellites." Sydney
Morning Herald, 20 June 1998J The main company
involved, Loral Space communications, is headed
by the biggest individual donour to the Democratic
Party in the 1996 election campaign! Isn't it also a
Loral company who play a key part in running the
huge British spy base at Menwith Hill?
M ILITARY G U LLIBILITY
Several references have been made in past
Peace Researchers to the increasing
dependence of the military, particularly the
United States military, on battlefield technology,
using computers, lasers and other sighting and
guidance devices. (See e.g. "Military Hi-Tech,
issue 10.) The latest issue of Janes Fighting
Ships asserts "The promises of information
dominance leading to transparent battlefields
and automated, instant, secure and appropriate
responses continue as a monument to human
gullibility and the triumph of hope over
experience." [1987-98 edition, p23J
THIS IS THE GOOD N EWS?
Nearly a million US students took guns to school
in the last academic year. Good news - because
this represents a drop from six percent of
students carrying guns in 1993-94 to only three
point eight % carrying them last yearl
·
Waihopai Display Makes Its Mark
: A display about Waihopai is available to put in you r local library, school, workplace,
community centre etc. A ve ry p r ofessional exhibit, p r oduced by M a r k Roach, the
display is available on its own stands (2 parts each approximately 1m by 800cm) or in
: smaller pie ces to asse mble . I n Blenheim the Lib r a r ian re moved the display because
· a spook p retending to be a membe r of the public complained. This led to a p r olonged
·
debate with seve r a l articles and lette rs appearing in the local pape r - the best publicity
i we have had i n Blenhe im for a long time. Contact Ma r k in Wellington, o r ABC, if you
, would like to use the display. It's exceptionally easy to e re ct; some costs involved in
,
moving it a round the country.

Waihopai Petition . Help Required

The Anti Bases Campaign is cu r re ntly circulating a petition aimed at closing Waihopai
and shutting down the secret ope rations of the Gove rnment Communications
Se cu r ity B u reau. The petition is to be prese nted to Parliament i n Novemb e r . We
would appreciate any help that can be given to collect signatures. Contact ABC if you
would like to assist. Petitions need to be returned to C h r istchu rch by Nove mber 5.

Waihopai Speaking Tour

C h r istch u rch ABC is o r g a n ising a speaking tou r to publicise the latest Waihopai
developments, and related issues. War re n Thomson will be available to speak to
g roups a r ound the country in Septembe r. If you would like to host a public meeting o r
a small cottage g r oup, contact ABC, Box 2258 C h r istc h u r ch, or E-mail
Wa r ren@chch . p lanet. co.nz. Offe rs to assist with accommodation, with funding, o r
with local media liaison, would be h e l pful. Wa r re n is Co-Editor of Peace Researcher
and has been active in Anti Bases issues, particul a r ly at Waihopai, for many years.

SUBSCRIBE TO PEA CE RESEARCHER

Peace Researcher is the newslette r and jou r na l of the C h r istchu rch Anti-Bases
, Campaign . If you would like to join ABC, please fill in the form be low. All members
I rece ive Peace Researcher. Membe rship/subscr i ption is $20 pe r ye ar for three issues.
(PR is not GST registe r e d . ) Cheq ues payable to Peace Researcher. Send to Box
2258 C h r istchu rch, New Zealand.

NAME: _______ SUBSCRIPTION $ _

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Donations welcome . Ove rseas subs (airmail): Australia NZ$25 ; Other NZ$30