Christchurch police unmask team of Israeli passport thieves

[TonyGosling]

New Zealand passports are highly prized by some overseas intelligence agencies.

Earthquake unmasked team of Israeli spies in New Zealand
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
UPDATED: 00:56, 21 July 2011
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2017071/Christchurch-earthquak e-unmasked-team-Israeli-spies-New-Zealand.html

A Mossad spy team from Israel may have been uncovered by the Christchurch earthquake that hit New Zealand.
A newspaper has said that an Israeli, named as Ofer Mizrahi, was found with at least five passports when his body was recovered after masonry fell on his van.
Three other Israelis were in the vehicle but escaped serious injury and rapidly left the country within 12 hours, the paper claims.
The Southland Times said the group were suspected of trying to hack into the country’s police computer system.
It said the country’s Security Intelligence Service ordered checks into the police national computer system following the earthquake because of fears Israeli agents had loaded software into the system that would allow backdoor access to highly sensitive intelligence files.
One intelligence officer told the paper that the service was suspicious of activities of several groups of Israelis during and immediately after the disaster, which claimed 181 lives.
Acting police chief information officer Murray Mitchell said he was confident that the data and network systems were not compromised during February’s quake.
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The newspaper said it had asked Prime Minister John Key repeatedly to confirm details of an SIS investigation into whether the Israeli secret service had infiltrated the police national computer.
Mr Key responded that he was satisfied there had been no misuse of the police computer - but he refused to say whether an investigation had been carried out by the security service because it was not in the national interest.
Devastation: Rescue workers search for victims buried under the rubble of the Christchurch earthquake. One of the bodies found was an Israeli man with five passports
Devastation: Rescue workers search for victims buried under the rubble of the Christchurch earthquake. One of the bodies found was an Israeli man with five passports
Collapse: Extensive damage to the Christchurch Catholic Cathedral. More than 180 people died in the 6.3-magnitude quake - including Ofer Mizrahi, who is thought to be a Mossad spy
Collapse: Extensive damage to the Christchurch Catholic Cathedral. More than 180 people died in the 6.3-magnitude quake - including Ofer Mizrahi, who is thought to be a Mossad spy
But he did confirm that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rang him four times on the day of the earthquake.
Seven years ago Mossad agents were caught and convicted of identity theft for illegally obtaining New Zealand passports.
While Mr Key declined to comment on the claims that the men in the van were spies, the Israeli Ambassador in New Zealand, Mr Shemi Tzur, dismissed them as ‘science fiction’ yesterday.
He said the three friends of Mr Mizrahi, 23, had left New Zealand hurriedly because they were shocked and crying and wanted to go home.
Intelligence: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rang John Key four times on the day of the earthquake
Intelligence: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rang John Key four times on the day of the earthquake
‘These were youngsters holidaying in your beautiful country,’ Mr Tzur told local media.
‘We encourage our young people to visit New Zealand.’
Mr Tzur said he was aware that Mr Mizrahi was carrying more than one passport when identification checks were being made of the earthquake victims.
‘I was handed a parcel of his effects and it did contain more than one passport.’
But he said that dual citizenship was common in Israel because of difficulties over the use of Israeli passports in some countries.
‘I’ve not been told anything about Mr Mizrahi being found with five or six passports and to suggest that he and his friends were anything other than young tourists makes me upset.’
Mr Tzur said that two urban search and rescue teams from Israel had arrived in Christchurch soon after the disaster but were refused permission to enter the earthquake red zone to help the search because they were unaccredited.
‘They had been sent by the parents of two other Israeli backpackers who died in the quake,’ he said.
Mossad has a long history of skilfully targeted killings and sophisticated plots since it was created in 1951.
Its spies abducted Nazi Adolf Eichmann, who had fled to Argentina after the Second World War and smuggled him back to Israel, where he was tried and executed.
New Zealand passports are highly prized by some overseas intelligence agencies.
The country’s neutral stance or lack of involvement in many international conflicts provide a perfect cover for covert espionage activities.
A New Zealand passport is also seen as a possible route to obtaining a British passport, because of family ties between the two countries.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2017071/Christchurch-earthquak e-unmasked-team-Israeli-spies-New-Zealand.html

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2017071/Christchurch-earthquak e-unmasked-team-Israeli-spies-New-Zealand.html

[Whitehall_Bin_Men]

Israel, the Christchurch Earthquake and 5 Passports on a Dead Mossad Agent
by Truth is Treason8 years ago
TruthisTreason.net – Kevin Hayden
https://www.benzinga.com/article/1786175
Source: Cryptogon.com (One of my favorite websites!)

I want to start by noting that it's getting more difficult, by the hour, to find the full text of this story as it was first published by The Southland Times. Almost all references to this story have been polluted with the absurd denials and gibberish that John Key has added throughout the day.

In addition to providing the full, original text of the story, I want to highlight an incredible admission by Shemi Tzur, the Israeli Ambassador to New Zealand.

Within hours of the February 22, 2011 earthquake striking Christchurch, Tzur, who is based in Canberra, flew to Christchurch, met up with the surviving members of Mizrahi's team, and drove them to the airport. It is being widely reported that Mizrahi's associates left New Zealand within twelve hours after the earthquake struck, but there is hardly any mention of the fact that Tzur himself drove them them to the airport:

Israeli Ambassador Shemi Tzur has dismissed as “science fiction” suspicions that agents of Israel's secret service, Mossad, had been caught up in the Christchurch earthquake in February.

Mr Tzur, who is based in Canberra but flew into Christchurch hours after the earthquake, said he was “shocked and upset” that New Zealand's intelligence agencies would have such suspicions.

The three friends of Ofer Mizrahi, who was killed instantly when the van the four were in was crushed by falling concrete in the central city, had left New Zealand so hurriedly because they were shocked and crying and wanted to go home.

“I drove his three friends to the airport so they could go home. They were shocked and crying, they were just talking about their friends.

“To suggest anything else, someone has been feeding you science fiction.

“These were youngsters holidaying in your beautiful country … we encourage our young people to visit New Zealand.”

Mr Tzur said he was aware that Mr Mizrahi was found to be carrying more than one passport when identification checks were being made of the earthquake victims – “I was handed a parcel of his effects and it did contain more than one passport” – but dual citizenship was common in Israel because of difficulties over the use of Israeli passports in some other countries.

He said he had not been told anything about Mr Mizrahi being found with five or six passports and to suggest that he and his friends were anything other than young tourists made him upset.

Now, why was it so critical for the ambassador himself to fly all the way from Canberra, into a disaster zone, to personally drive these Israelis to the airport? My guess is that Shemi Tzur is actually Mossad's Chief of Station and that he planned to recover passports (or other materials) that Mizrahi was carrying and smuggle them out of the country using his diplomatic bag.

How many passports did he receive? He admits to receiving, “more than one passport,” but, maybe, in the scramble to get Fraidman, Jordan and Sade (assuming that those are their real names) out of New Zealand, something was missed. Something still needed to be recovered.

That's when an Israeli “rescue team” was sent in, probably with the directive to recover passports (or other materials) related to whatever Mossad operation was underway when it was interrupted by the earthquake. The New Zealand Government denied this “rescue team” access to the red zone in central Christchurch. The “rescue team” entered the red zone anyway and was apprehended by armed New Zealand “officers.” Interestingly, the New Zealand military is now denying that the SAS presence in Christchurch after the earthquake had anything to do with the unauthorized entry of the Israeli “rescue team” into the red zone.

As messy as all of this is, it's only the start. The article discusses the SIS investigation into whether or not Israeli medical personnel may have been doing double duty for Mossad by dropping backdoors on to computer systems used by the police.

Hours into the aftermath of The Southland Times piece, everywhere you look now, it's: Move along, there's DEFINITELY nothing to see here. They were just backpackers who wanted to get home to Israel in a real hurry—and hopped a ride to the airport with the Israeli Ambassador who had just flown in from Canberra… Mmm hmm.

John Key gives us the all clear. However, Fred Tulett, the author of The Southland Times piece, stands by the information he published and is convinced that the SIS investigation is ongoing. He was interviewed by Mary Wilson on Radio New Zealand's Checkpoint program: Audio from Wednesday 20 July 2011:

Journalist who broke the story doesn't buy Key's explanation

The journalist whose story sparked the speculation today about Israeli spy operations in Christchurch says he is not buying the Prime Minister's claim that the investigations are all over. (3?59?)

Download: Ogg Vorbis MP3

Ok, so, what do I think is happening here?

The Israeli state is an international terrorist organization that hijacks innocent people's identities in order to carry out assassinations abroad.

There is a lot of speculation that identity theft was probably behind this situation in Christchurch. In case you don't know, Mossad operations related to identity theft are an Israeli tradition in New Zealand. This Guardian piece is from 2004:

The prime minister of New Zealand angrily denounced Israel and imposed diplomatic sanctions on it after two suspected Mossad agents were jailed for six months for trying on false grounds to obtain a New Zealand passport.

The plot, which involved obtaining a passport in the name of a tetraplegic man who had not spoken in years, provoked a furious reaction yesterday.

“The breach of New Zealand laws and sovereignty by agents of the Israeli government has seriously strained our relationship with Israel,” said the prime minister, Helen Clark.

“This type of behaviour is unacceptable internationally by any country. It is a sorry indictment of Israel that it has again taken such actions against a country with which it has friendly relations.”

High-level visits between the two countries will be cancelled, visa restrictions imposed for Israeli officials, and an expected visit to New Zealand by Moshe Katsov, the Israeli president, later this year has been cancelled.

Ms Clark said Israel had ignored requests made three months ago for an explanation and an apology.

The action marks the most serious rupture in New Zealand's international relations since Wellington suspended diplomatic relations with France in 1985 after French agents bombed Greenpeace's anti-nuclear ship Rainbow Warrior in Auckland harbour.

Maybe that's it. As I write, however, the countdown timer for the Rugby World Cup indicates 50 days 19 hours until the start of that major international sporting event in New Zealand.

If anything happens at the Rugby World Cup, let's make sure that the media doesn't experience amnesia with regard to this situation.

Here's the full text of the original story as it was first published:

I'm not able to find this story on The Southland Times site now. If anyone can find a link to the original story, I'd appreciate it. Until then, I will reproduce the full text here:

SIS on Trail of Spies
by Fred Tulett
The Southland Times
July 20, 2011
Page 1

The police national computer has been under scrutiny in the aftermath of the Christchurch earthquake in February because of fears Israeli agents loaded software into the system that would allow backdoor access to highly sensitive intelligence files.

The Security Intelligence Service ordered the checks as part of an urgent investigation of what one SIS officer described as the suspicious activities of several groups of Israelis during and immediately after the earthquake.

Three Israelis were among the 181 people who died when the earthquake destroyed most of Christchurch's central business district on February 22. One was found to be carrying at least five passports.

An unaccredited Israeli search and rescue squad was later confronted by armed New Zealand officers and removed from the sealed-off “red zone” of the central city.

The response of the Israeli government to the three deaths appears extraordinary. In the hours after the 6.3 quake struck:

* Prime Minister John Key fielded the first of four calls that day from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

* Israel's Ambassador in the South Pacific, Shemi Tzur, who is based in Australia, booked flights to Christchurch, where he visited the morgue.

* Israel's civil defence chief left Israel for Christchurch.

* A complete Israeli urban search and rescue squad was assembled and flown to Christchurch, arriving about the same time as …

* Three people who had smashed their way out of a van crushed by a concrete pillar in the central city, leaving a fourth person dead in the vehicle, arrived back in Israel.

Those four Israelis – Ofer Benyamin Mizrahi, 23, from Kibbutz Magal near Haifa, Michal Fraidman, Liron Sade and Guy Jordan – would later become a prime focus of the SIS investigation, along with the Israeli search and rescue squad and a group of forensic analysts from Israel that worked in the Christchurch morgue helping to identify earthquake victims.

The four, two men and two women, had been shopping in the central city on the morning of the earthquake and had returned to their van, parked in Gloucester St, when the quake hit. Mizrahi, the driver, was killed instantly, and Jordan, in the front passenger seat, smashed a window and climbed through the hole to escape. The two women, Fraidman and Sade, who were sitting in the back seat, also managed to crawl out.

They were unable to reach Mizrahi and, after taking photographs of the crushed van, made their way to Latimer Square, where Israeli officials had set up an emergency meeting point. Within 12 hours they had left New Zealand.

On Sunday, February 26, Mizrahi's body was recovered from the van and taken to the morgue where, during routine identity checks, he was found to be carrying at least five passports.

Meanwhile, the search and rescue squad dispatched from Israel had arrived in Christchurch but the offer of help was rejected by New Zealand authorities because the squad did not have accreditation from the United Nations.

According to Israeli newspaper reports, the squad was being funded by the parents of two other Israelis killed in the earthquake, Ofer Levy and Gabi Ingel, both 22, who were said to be in New Zealand on a backpacking holiday. The parents made repeated public appeals for the Israeli team to join the rescue, appeals that were dismissed by the New Zealand authorities until squad members were discovered in the sealed off “red zone” of the central city.

It is understood the squad members were confronted by armed New Zealand officers and removed from the area. That confrontation is understood to have led to intense diplomatic exchanges between New Zealand and Israel, though police have refused to comment on the incident or even acknowledge that it occurred, and the Israeli ambassador says he had not been advised of any such incident.

Another Israeli group, a forensic analysis team sent by the Israeli government, was welcomed in Christchurch and worked on victim identification in the morgue.

However, the SIS also began to have suspicions about this group when it began investigating possible links between the cache of passports found with Mizrahi, the immediate flight of his three companions, the high-powered Israeli interest shown in the earthquake, the unexplained behaviour of the supposed “search and rescue squad” and a mysterious seventh Israeli, in New Zealand illegally, who was first reported missing in the quake and then, weeks later, was reported to have left the country. They were also interested in the Facebook tribute page set up for Mizrahi that has attracted only five “likes” in the more than four months it has been on the social media site.

When it was realised the forensic analysts could have accessed the national police computer database, an urgent security audit was ordered.

As the SIS officer explained, it would take only moments for a USB drive to be inserted in a police computer terminal and loaded with a program allowing remote backdoor access.

Continue reading at Cryptogon

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[Whitehall_Bin_Men]

JULY 20, 2011 12:00PM BY DAVID FARRAR
Mossad and the Earthquake
Fred Tulett in the Southland Times reports:
https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2011/07/mossad_and_the_earthquake.html

Prime Minister John Key has confirmed one of three Israelis killed in the Christchurch earthquake was carrying multiple passports but is refusing to go into further detail because it is not in the national interest.

The police national computer has been under scrutiny in the aftermath of the Christchurch earthquake in February because of fears Israeli agents loaded software into the system that would allow backdoor access to highly sensitive intelligence files. …

The Security Intelligence Service ordered the checks as part of an urgent investigation of what one SIS officer described as the suspicious activities of several groups of Israelis during and immediately after the earthquake.

Three Israelis were among the 181 people who died when the earthquake destroyed most of Christchurch’s central business district on February 22. One was found to be carrying at least five passports.

On Sunday, February 26, Mizrahi’s body was recovered from the van and taken to the morgue where, during routine identity checks, he was found to be carrying at least five passports.

Meanwhile, the search and rescue squad dispatched from Israel had arrived in Christchurch but the offer of help was rejected by New Zealand authorities because the squad did not have accreditation from the United Nations.

According to Israeli newspaper reports, the squad was being funded by the parents of two other Israelis killed in the earthquake, Ofer Levy and Gabi Ingel, both 22, who were said to be in New Zealand on a backpacking holiday. The parents made repeated public appeals for the Israeli team to join the rescue, appeals that were dismissed by the New Zealand authorities until squad members were discovered in the sealed off “red zone” of the central city.

Readers may recall I had some minor involvement at the time. I blogged on 4 March:

As a disclosure, one of the dead Israelis is a close friend of one of my good Israeli friends – in fact the person who hosted me in Israel in November 2009. He approached me for assistance in getting a favourable decision made on getting the Israeli team admitted, and I put them in touch with the appropriate MFAT officials. I have no criticism of the MFAT officials who were very responsive and helpful, my criticism is of the ultimate decision maker, which I presume is someone in Civil Defence.

The family I was trying to help is the Ingel family. Their son, who was killed, is not under any suspicion at all of Mossad involvement. I have absolutely no doubt that the parents just genuinely wanted to maximise the chances of finding their son alive.

In terms of the other dead Israeli, with the alleged five passports, I have no first hand knowledge or involvement. The number of passports he had is not confirmed, and many Israelis do have multiple passports due to travel restrictions. I’m not aware of a suggestion that any of the passports were under a fake name, which would suggest something different.

I did become aware some months ago that there were suspicions over the Israeli who was killed in the van. But the evidence is very circumstantial – multiple passports, only a few tributes on a Facebook page etc. At the end of the day, I don’t know anything beyond what is in the paper, and that isn’t enough to make a conclusion on.

The PM is saying it is not in the national interest for him to comment. That to me suggests that the Government does think there may have been improper behaviour, but can’t prove it. And you don’t generally have Governments speculate on these issues unless they have proof.
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Comments (166)

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Nookin

Sitting in front of a really good fire relaxing until the gay icon walrus rudely interrupted the evening. His trailer for closed-up was that Key is backtracking on claims that the israelis were spies. Now, I think I have followed this reasonably well during the day and I have no recollection that Key ever said that they were spies. Did he? And if not, is this just another excample of shoddy journalism?

Dinner is served.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 20, 2011 6:57PM
metcalph

Assume they’d pulled all sorts of strings. How did they fly out of Christchurch?

All sorts of planes flew in once the airport was re-opened. Presumably the one which carried the head of Israeli Civil Defense which flew in that day was used to carry them out. Ask me a harder question next time.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 20, 2011 7:11PM
hj

If the Israelis are keen on NZ passports why the hell do they tell us to cut the corner off? We could drop the old one off at the embassy! 🙄
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 20, 2011 7:12PM
Lance

I didn’t think it was possible for TV1 to become as bad a TV3 but alas the depths have been plumbed.

Closeups opening sequence on the Israeli spy article was extended scenes from a movie with explosions and Mossad agents do-in it tough.
* what a steaming pile of nonsense devoid of facts and evidence. Not only are they making * up they are even inserting bogus action scenes from movies to strengthen their case.

Is it just the clowns on TV or is the nation really this * up?
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 20, 2011 7:28PM
Pauleastbay

Talk about long bows, I watched the news, now this nest of spies? were hacking the police computer FFS

If the Israelies and others don’t have someone in place that can access any piddling info that is on there I would be very surprised. But just incase they send in a team disguised as backpackers.

This reminds me: before the quake my friend moved a foreign accented person from outside his house.

Yep HJ you have solved it, this person was actually triggering the earthquake outside your mates house. Awesome. He’ll be able to sell the piece of paper that has the registration number written down on it to a museum. Awesome

My wife must be a spy, she has three passports, aint life grand
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 20, 2011 7:29PM
joana

I think people outside of Christchurch would find it difficult to understand just how long it took anyone to travel anywhere in CHCH that day. It was common for people to take 5, 6, 7 hours to get home. Roads and bridges were out all over the place. There was bumper to bumper traffic. All this makes these young people’s exit even more questionable.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 20, 2011 7:32PM
davidp

metcalph>Presumably the one which carried the head of Israeli Civil Defense which flew in that day was used to carry them out. Ask me a harder question next time.

A harder question? Okay… Does your explanation rely on the use of a time machine? Vilnai arrived on or around 2nd March, according to
http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/About+the+Ministry/MFA+Spokesman/2011/Vilnai _condolences_New_ZEaland_McCully_gratitude_3-Mar-2011.htm
and
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/142652
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 20, 2011 7:35PM
Pauleastbay

I figure that by tomorrow some “Jimmy Olsen” out there will have discovered that this group of young Israeli’s will have had a military background. bets anyone?
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 20, 2011 7:37PM
Other_Andy

@Lance
It is the same in the US, Canada, Europe and the UK.
Newspapers and television (Including the BBC) do not report the news anymore, they make the news, editorialise the news and politicise the news. They are in business to re-educate the peasants. If you think it is bad in New Zealand, try the European newspapers. It is almost impossible to get a different viewpoint or even impartial news that differs from the ‘left liberal progressive’ mantra. Last night John Campbell almost pissed his pants with excitement when he talked about the investigation in the UK. Nothing about the hundreds (thousands) of people who lost their jobs, the person found dead, careers being ruined….no, he sounded like he enjoyed the whole tragedy.
The whole Murdoch enquiry is starting to look like a witch hunt.
Some people are wondering what the endgame is….
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/hacks-the-lefts-lilliputians-try-to-take- murdoch-down/
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 20, 2011 7:52PM
Hurf Durf

OoooooOOOOOOOoooooooHHHhhhhh, it’s the CrEePy MoSsAd even though we have no actual evidence.

whocares.jpg

I figure that by tomorrow some “Jimmy Olsen” out there will have discovered that this group of young Israeli’s will have had a military background. bets anyone?

“They were conscipted two years ago!!11”

Yeah, like everyone else.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 20, 2011 8:05PM
Pauleastbay

Yeah, like everyone else…

Yep Hurf, no need for evidence.. but I still betcha a moro that the military background is in the paper tomorrow, even though everyone but Bin laden has training there
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 20, 2011 8:12PM
mikenmild

The main evidence now seems to be John Key’s astonishing comments.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 20, 2011 8:27PM
Lance

Shock horror!
Dead Israeli had been in the military.
Shock horror!
So had his mates.
Shock horror
The even the girl had been in the military
Shock horror
Israeli’s depart NZ by UFO
Shock horror
Greens don’t approve of Israeli’s visiting NZ
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 20, 2011 8:27PM
Spiritfree

My theory is this. A disgruntled SIS agent or agents, fed up that they have something, that they’d done a lot of work on it, but that the whole thing was being suppressed or binned, decided to leak. So they did so to a newspaper with an editor with balls. John Key, no doubt having aleady been advised of it, would with his background almost certainly have wanted to suppress it.

What would be the point of having 5 passports? Israelis, we are told, have trouble travelling. But FIVE!? Not justifiable for that reason. Therefore, some skullduggery.

Why would there be any Mossad agents in NZ? An earlier comment had it that the South Island is full of Israeli backpackers. Now what the Israeli establishment wants to keep tabs on is the country’s youth, so Mossad would be anywhere where there are a lot of them. In a clean fresh environment like South Island NZ, clean fresh ideas can be thought. This is terrifying if you’re running a country whose raison d’etre as it is currently established is a religious/racial ideology. So would the agents be shepherds, just like any groups of Russian tourists pre-1991 had their minders? Not really, but the information which could be provided by silent overseers, observing and reporting back on who would be worth watching in the future, could be very valuable, they would think.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 20, 2011 9:21PM
krazykiwi

This is funny. Sorry, it is. Particularly the breathless paranoia of would-be spy novelists chattering over their keyboards with one hand, while grasping for their tinfoil hats with the other.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 20, 2011 9:31PM
Pauleastbay

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/5311491/Investigation-cleared -Israelis-of-spy-claims-PM

Lastest and hopefully the end.

No spies, just some poor young tourist killed on an overseas trip. There were two passports, not 5 no big deal, if fact normal

Right now back to your Womans Weeklys, too much excitment for many I’m afraid

Spiritfree, most of your questions are too stupid for an answer, really seriously asinine
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 20, 2011 9:47PM
Scott Chris

My guess is that these Israelis are Mossad agents in training, based on their young age and the unusual nature of their departure. New Zealand would provide an ideal location for an apprentice spy, to practice blending into a foreign culture and to learn how to retrieve and transmit intelligence data. (probably about sheep in our case)

In fact, Spy School could be the newest addition to our burgeoning education industry 😛
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 20, 2011 10:15PM
Manolo

What would the Jewish State would have to do with an obscure socialist country in the bottom of the South Pacific? Eff all.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 20, 2011 10:38PM
godruelf

‘Move along nothing to see here’ didn’t buy it with Helen and don’t buy it with John either.
p.s. If I was travelling with mates and suffered the ultimate bad luck I would hope they stuck around for a while….
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 20, 2011 11:12PM
ross

> But just incase they send in a team disguised as backpackers…

As opposed to sending in agents dressed as tennis players?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1251604/Hamas-assassination-Du bai-Mossad-killing-come-thriller-novel.html
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 20, 2011 11:14PM
ross

godruelf, I don’t believe the mobile smile either. What’s interesting is that the three ‘backpackers’ apparently took a photo of the van after it had been hit by falling debris. Why the photo? Interesting too that, following the quake, the Israeli ambassador rushes to NZ from Canberra and then takes these backpackers to the airport. I think the ambassador knows more than he’s letting on.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 20, 2011 11:22PM
noskire

Interesting – a few observations and some on previous comments, neither leaning towards any particular theory.

From memory, there were airforce flights to evacuate tourists to Wellington, although I’m not sure if these were implemented on the evening of the 22nd, or the following day.

As joana stated previously, traffic was gridlocked after the quake. It took me 1.5 hours to drive 4kms from work to home.

Not very sensible for an ambasador to be seen to assist ‘spooks’ to evacuate, however to assist legitimate compatriots caught up in a crisis quite understandable.

Assuming the four were Mossad agents in training, then there would most likely be a more experienced operative in Christchurch already – thus a predetermined safehouse(s) in case things turned pear-shaped. This could possibly expediate their exit from NZ.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 21, 2011 12:01AM
davidp

ross>What’s interesting is that the three ‘backpackers’ apparently took a photo of the van after it had been hit by falling debris. Why the photo?

So that they could give it to the police to help them identify the body later? But no doubt there will be some alternate conspiracy-explanation. Like it was an experimental IDF bomb-proof van, and they had to take a photo to show the inventors that bomb proof isn’t the same as earthquake proof… so they must be spies!!!

ross>Interesting too that, following the quake, the Israeli ambassador rushes to NZ from Canberra

Keep up. The ambassador is actually based in Wellington. That’s just one of the many “facts” that the Southland Times got wrong after five months of investigation. Like the 5 passports that were actually 2 passports. And one of the ambassador’s jobs is looking after citizens in distress.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 21, 2011 12:11AM
davidp

noskire>From memory, there were airforce flights to evacuate tourists to Wellington, although I’m not sure if these were implemented on the evening of the 22nd, or the following day.

It is quite possible that they were evacuated to Auckland on one of the first flights out of Christchurch. Once there they looked at the loss of their belongings, the loss of their friend, and possible injuries and thought jumping on a flight to Singers was a better option than heading in to town to find a hotel. Which is obviously suspicious, since people caught up in a disaster are supposed to hang around for a minimum of three days, just in case the police want to question them. Because the police’s first priority after the earthquake was detaining foreigners in order to find out if they’re actually spies.

Although there are alternate explanations. It is possible that they were picked up by a Harrier jump jet in Hagley Park, and whisked away to an Israeli submarine standing offshore in case such a rescue was required. And the ambassador had to fly in to help them because three spies couldn’t possibly be competent enough to find their way to the Park without being offered a lift.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 21, 2011 12:19AM
Elaycee

krazykiwi (7,099) Says: July 20th, 2011 at 9:31 pm “This is funny. Sorry, it is. Particularly the breathless paranoia of would-be spy novelists chattering over their keyboards with one hand, while grasping for their tinfoil hats with the other.”

Have to agree. Based on some of the inane comments here, we could also assume that the bloke selling pies in Cashel Street is also implicated. Jeez – has someone spiked the drinking water in NZ? Some comments on this thread are ludicrous – but written by the usual, know all morons.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 21, 2011 12:21AM
ross

> So that they could give it to the police to help them identify the body later?

Really? But the deceased had a passport and other identifying info…so it was not difficult to identify the victim. Besides, the three ‘backpackers’ could have told police that their friend had died…did they do so before they fled the country?
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 21, 2011 12:42AM
ross

davidp, you might like to read this communique from the Israeli Ambassador about his activities after the quake on February 22 (Tuesday). Ambassador Tzur says he was in Christchurch all day Thursday…that’s two days after the quake. He doesn’t say he was there on the day of the quake or the day after. In fact, the communique says that the Consul – not Tzur – left immediately for Christchurch to offer assistance.

http://www.jwire.com.au/news/communique-from-the-israeli-embassy-in-ne w-zealand/15348
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 21, 2011 1:02AM
kiwi in america

What is it with Israel and Jews? Tell me that had the backpackers been Jordanian and a wealthy Jordanian father, concerned for his son’s wellbeing, financed his own private SOR team and asked King Hussein to speak to John Key to send consolences and ask for bureaucractic road blocks to be removed and that had the deceased been found to have two passports and that the Jordanian ambassador came down to Christchurch to help the surviving Jordanian nationals to exit the city and the country as quckly as possible that we’d be having this frenzy of pathetic speculation? No – Mark Sainsbury, the dick from the Southland Times, John Campbell would be tripping over themselves with some sympathetic heart tugging story of the devotion of father to son or the horrors the young backpackers faced as they sought to leave the earthquake striken city and how awesome the Jordanian ambassador is at protecting his nationals far from home.

Some of you really need to take a deep breath and and say slowly “not all Israeli tourists are Mossad agents”.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 21, 2011 4:28AM
ephemera

No, kiwi in america,

People on this site would be making bomb jokes about muslims with backpacks.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 21, 2011 5:14AM
Other_Andy

@ephemera
“People on this site would be making bomb jokes about muslims with backpacks.”
Nothing funny about that.
Ask some people in London, Mumbai, Madrid,Tel Aviv, Bangkok or a dozen other places if they would like to hear bomb jokes about muslims with backpacks.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 21, 2011 6:55AM
Manolo

People on this site would be making bomb jokes about muslims with backpacks.

Rightly so. When was the last time you saw a Jew blowing himself up and killing innocent people? No, only the violent followers of the “religion of peace” do that.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 21, 2011 6:56AM
ephemera

Manolo and Other_Andy,

You’ve helped me prove my point to Kiwi in America. Just as all Israelis overseas aren’t working for Mossad, nor are all Muslims terrorists. Just saying.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 21, 2011 7:12AM
Other_Andy

@ephemera
You need to read airhead.

I don’t make jokes about it.
You are the one who brought it up.
I don’t think there is anything remotely funny about ‘muslims with backpacks’ (YOUR quote).
You are the one who brought it up.
And don’t post straw man arguments.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 21, 2011 7:29AM
mikenmild

Well, what are we left with. The PM has confirmed that there was a security investigation. That might be as much as we ever know, unless the journalist concerned has some more details to reveal in a follow-up story.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 21, 2011 7:30AM
ephemera

Other_Andy

My point was that some people are all too willing to associate muslims with terror in the same way others do Israelis and Mossad.

Whether or not this association would be made by a joke is a non-sequitor.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 21, 2011 8:15AM
kiwi in america

ephemera
Replace Jordanian with Italian or in fact pretty much any nationality (except American because the snarky left leaning MSM in NZ are rampantly ani-American) and you get my point.

I get that there’s a story here – the SIS investigated and not every deceased foreign national in the Chch earthquake got that level of attention. Perhaps the Israeli passport scandal has made our counter intelligence folk a tad wary of young Israelis but the people are letting their imaginations run away with them. TVNZ, TV3 and the Southland Times have thrown journalistic integrity, fact checking and neutrality completely out the window because the Joooos are involved.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 21, 2011 8:47AM
mikenmild

There is no problem with the news coverage of this. It is a story. There was a security-related investigation, and that is surely worth the media attention. Whether there was anything to it, we don’t really know. The PM didn’t help by ramping up the speculation with his comments.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 21, 2011 9:14AM
ross

KIA,

You are wrong. John Key has confirmed the substance of the story is correct. But he has left some details out, saying that it is not in the public interest to reveal those details. The Israeli Ambassador could of course shed some light on the story but he’s refused to answer questions.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 21, 2011 9:19AM
Lance

@ross
Yea like the BIG DEAL made about the 5 passports but were in fact only 2.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 21, 2011 9:23AM
ross

Lance, John key said there were 2 passports. He also said GST wouldn’t increase under National. I hope you’re not so guillible as to believe everything our esteemed PM says. He could be wrong in this case.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 21, 2011 9:41AM
metcalph

The source of the multiple passports is apparently the Israeli Ambassador.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 21, 2011 9:44AM
TimG_Oz

Junk Journamlism from a dumbarse in a backwater town. Stirs up the Jew-nation haters

Put this one up there with Egypt’s claim that it caught Mossad sharks in Sinai, and Mossad Facebook Spy Ilan Garpel.

Oh and Iran’s Mossad Pigeons and Saudi Arabia’s Mossad Vultures.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 21, 2011 9:58AM
Other_Andy

@TimG_Oz

Don’t forget the rats trained by the mossad to dirive the ‘palestinians’ out of Jerusalem.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 21, 2011 10:15AM
Scott Chris

@TimG_Oz (561) Says:
July 21st, 2011 at 9:58 am
“Junk Journamlism from a dumbarse in a backwater town. Stirs up the Jew-nation haters”

Speculation about whether or not Mossad has had a low level of espionage related activity in NZ doesn’t amount to ‘Jew-nation hating’. The story is titillating, and excites the public imagination.

Israel’s foreign policy, on the other hand, is a pain in the arse and is the source of a lot of unnecessary bloodshed. Saying this may be construed as anti-semitic in the view of a few, very sensitive people, but not in mine.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 21, 2011 10:34AM
kiwi in america

Ross

Breaking a political promise is not in the same category as a comment about an SIS investigation. Most voters assume that almost all political promises aren’t worth the paper they’re written on regardless of party affiliation.

Read the release: http://www.national.org.nz/Article.aspx?ArticleID=36575
“Prime Minister John Key today said the unusual circumstances surrounding a group of Israeli nationals caught up in February’s earthquake in Christchurch were fully investigated and no evidence was found of a link between the group and Israeli intelligence.

Mr Key revealed the investigation following media reports questioning the activities of a group of Israeli nationals in New Zealand at the time of the earthquake.

“The Government takes the security of New Zealand and New Zealanders very seriously. That’s why the relevant agencies conducted a thorough investigation.

“The unusual circumstances which triggered the investigation was the rapid departure from the country of the three surviving members of the group of Israelis in question.

“Security agencies conducted the investigation and found no evidence that the people were anything other than backpackers,” Mr Key said.

Mr Key also moved to correct points raised in the media concerning the number of passports that were found with a man who died in the earthquake. Mr Key said his advice was that the man was found with only one passport, of European origin. Media reports that he was found with five are incorrect. The other three people who had been in the van took their own passports with them when they left the country, and handed over the deceased man’s Israeli passport to Israeli representatives before departing.

“None of the passports were New Zealand passports,” Mr Key said.

Mr Key said he has been assured by Police that there has been no unauthorised access to the Police computer system.

Mr Key also confirmed he spoke once with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the days following the earthquake. Many other leaders also called to express their condolences and to offer assistance to New Zealand. It took several attempts by Israeli representatives to set up the phone call, as is commonly the case with such calls in the circumstances of a major natural disaster.

“The investigations that have been undertaken have been thorough and have found no evidence of a link between the group and Israeli intelligence,” Mr Key said.

“The Government takes the security of our country very seriously.”

Enlighten us to which parts of this release confirm the more lurid parts of Tullet’s story. The fact is media folk who should know better are just making nonsense up as they go along – because there’s mileage in a ‘Mossad agent infiltrates small insignificant South Pacific nation’ story.

I’d be careful about using the word gullible lest your pot and kettle start to talk to each other about what colour they are!
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 21, 2011 10:43AM
kiwi in america

Scott Chris
Read my post at 428am and the follow up at 847am. There is a category of person (clearly you included) who see villianous intent in any and all Israeli action. I guess defending a nascent newly independent state from promised annihilation and fighting largely defensive (or proactive to head off imminent invasion) wars in 1948, 1956, 1967 and 1974 could be described as “unnecessary bloodshed”. You are right about the unnecessary part – had the Arab Nations and the Palestinians accepted the Peel Commission/UN partition and recognized the right of the Jewish state to exist then all of those wars (and most of the subsequent actions in the region) would indeed be have been unnecessary.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 21, 2011 10:50AM
Scott Chris

@kiwi in america (1,303) Says:
July 21st, 2011 at 10:50 am
“Scott Chris
Read my post at 428am and the follow up at 847am. There is a category of person (clearly you included) who see villianous intent in any and all Israeli action.”

I disagree. I recognize Israel’s right to exist. I am a fan of Jewish achievement in the fields of science and entertainment. What I do not like is the Jewish state condoning the establishment of settlements on Arab land.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 21, 2011 11:03AM
kiwi in america

Chris Scott
Then stop blaming Israel for unnecessary bloodshed. If Iran, Syria, Hezbollah, Hamas and Fatah would all do as you have done and recognize Israel’s right to exist then the establishment of settlements on Arab land as a necessary security buffer would be unnecessary. Israel’s leaders have proven capable of uprooting Jewish settlors in Arab land; forceably at times, in the quest for peace as was the case in Gaza – their reward: 8,000 rockets fired from Gaza aimed deliberately at Israeli civilian targets causing to use your phrase “unnecessary bloodshed”.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 21, 2011 11:15AM
Other_Andy

“What I do not like is the Jewish state condoning the establishment of settlements on Arab land.”
Arab land?
And that would be Judea and Samaria and East Jerusalem?

1. In 1920, the League of Nations ratified the Balfour Agreement. This established a Jewish nation covering todays Jordan and Israel.
2. In 1922, under pressure from the Arabs, the British and the League of Nations took away Jordan. The Jews and the Arabs signed this agreement. Judea, Samaria was part of Israel under this agreement.
3. In 1947, the UN offered the Partition Plan in which the arabs would also get Judea and Samaria, but the Arabs rejected it.
4. When the United Nations recognized Israel as a nation on May 14, 1948, the Arabs declared war on Israel. Israel defended herself, but Jordan took the West Bank and East Jerusalem, ethnically cleaned it and confiscated and destroyed Jewish places of worship.
5. In the 1967 war Israel took back the West Bank and Jerualem which was legally hers by international law.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 21, 2011 11:20AM
Scott Chris

@kiwi in america (1,304) Says:
July 21st, 2011 at 11:15 am

No one is blameless in this conflict. Israel should demonstrate some of the wisdom that they undoubtedly posses and examine how their foreign policy is provoking endless retaliation. If they were to dismantle the settlements, the UN could move in to mind Israel’s border security. That’s all they have to do. Show the way.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 21, 2011 11:26AM
Scott Chris

@Other_Andy (150) Says:
July 21st, 2011 at 11:20 am

Yes, I see your point.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 21, 2011 11:33AM
kiwi in america

Scott Chris @1126am
“the UN could move in and mind Israel’s border security”. You can’t be serious can you? You mean the same UN that failed to prevent the Jordanians from taking East Jerusalem in 1948 or the same UN that was supposed to prevent Egyptian aggression in the Sinai in 1974 that resulted in Israel almost being invaded. Or perhaps the same UN whose ‘peacekeeping’ troops installed on the Lebanon/Israeli border after the 2006 Lebanon war who vowed to prevent any Hezbollah rearming but who have been so successful at that task that Hezbollah now has MORE rockets than it had prior to that war. Maybe you mean the same UN that passes General Assembly resolutions calling Israel an apartheid state and calling for it to accept a Palestinian right of return which we all know is code for destroying the Jewish State. Or maybe you mean the same UN that sat by and let the Tutsis massacre 800,000 Hutus in Rwanda or perhaps the same UN whose Dutch peacekeepers were too scared to prevent Serbian ethnic cleansing in Srebrenica that they were specifically sent in to prevent. Is that the UN you referring to or are you assuming that the UN has completely reformed and can now be relied upon to protect Israel’s interests?

Israel would never have gone into Gaza in 2009/2010 were it not to stop Hamas from firing rockets into Israel – an incursion that has mostly achieved its goal. The UN of course has a big presence in Gaza and this presence did NOTHING to stop Hamas from its task of harrassing Israel’s civilian population.

Your faith in the UN is naive in the extreme – and had Israel trusted the UN as you suggest they now do, there would be no Israel today.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 21, 2011 11:49AM
mikenmild

I see this thread is degenerating into the old “Isreal good, no Israel bad” nonsense.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 21, 2011 11:55AM
davidp

KIA>same UN whose Dutch peacekeepers were too scared to prevent Serbian ethnic cleansing in Srebrenica that they were specifically sent in to prevent

It is worse than that. The Serbs actually dropped off beer for the Dutch peacekeepers. The Dutch sat around drinking and playing music like some sort of party was going on, while a massacre was going on nearby and civilians were at the gates of their base begging to be let in. There should have been war crimes trials and Dutch and UN officials should have been the defendants.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 21, 2011 12:40PM
ross

KIA,

You can rely on John Key’s press release if you want to, but I’d rather look elswhere for information.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/5319766/Israelis-likely-an-of ficial-covert-team
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 21, 2011 12:51PM
TimG_Oz

You’d rather rely on a report by Gordon Thomas, who also blamed the Mossad for Space Shuttle Columbia crashing???
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 21, 2011 4:00PM
kiwi in america

You entirely make my point ross – so very anxious to see neferious intent in anything Israeli’s might do – you along with a bunch of left tilting journalists and conspiracy theorists ike Gordon Thomas who will forgive the Palestinians everything and anything and blame Israel for everything and anything.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 21, 2011 4:22PM
kiwi in america

I’m more inclined to believe the deceased backpacker’s father
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/5318773/Familys-fear-over-Isr aeli-victims-passport than the ramblings of a British so-called expert who clearly has a beef with Mossad and plain makes nonsense up about the organisation.

Newsflash – secret service agencies have for centuries performed SECRET acts to protect the national interests of their country. Mossad just happens to be very goood at what they do and Israel’s perpetually precarious security position leads its secret services to be more vigilant and proactive than most.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 21, 2011 5:27PM
ross

KIA,

You haven’t followed the debate very closely. Gil Ingel’s son, Gabi Ingel, was not in the van crushed by debris. Backpackers who travelled with him apparently didn’t flee the country. The Israeli ambassador could help to shed light on matters but he’s refusing to talk.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 21, 2011 5:49PM
Luc Hansen

So predictable to see the usual suspects climbing out of the woodwork on this.

So I might as well join the fun! 😉

The now-taken down poll in this morning’s online Herald (6.00am edition) asked if it was likely Israel had spies operating in NZ and a full 75% agreed!

And KIA asks:

kiwi in america (1,309) Says:
July 21st, 2011 at 4:28 am

What is it with Israel and Jews?

Of course, the reference to Jews is a gratuitous attempt to smear any criticism of his favoured nation as anti-Semitic. But we all understand that, anyway. And dismiss it.

The point for KIA, and the reason why the poll showed the result it did, is quite simple:

Israel has form! Heaps of it.

And now another gem from KIA:

Israel’s perpetually precarious security position

Well, if a country with 300 odd nukes can’t feel secure, I guess no country can!

But I wonder how much this sense of insecurity is rooted in the deep, deep down feeling in Israel that the manner of the birth of their nation and their egregiously aggressive behaviour since then towards the pre-existing indigenous population of that land, violating many, many international norms along the way, makes the Zionist project doomed for failure.

In other words, more simply, Israeli insecurity is born of a guilty conscience.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 21, 2011 6:01PM
kiwi in america

Sorry Ross you’re right. My point is when that Tulett and others (like you) rely on conspiracy theorists like Gordon Thomas for some of their views on this matter then you’re more likely to be jumping to incorrect conclusions given Thomas’ track record of tilting at windmills.

Luc – your point is valid that the Israelis have form in NZ so I do totally get why this story is news and why the SIS investigated. But key conspiracy theorist assertions are wrong or draw needlessly suspicious inferences from other facts. Tulett told TVNZ there were 5-6 passports when we now know the deceased Israeli in question had 2 – not an uncommon occurance in Israel – heck I’ve got two passports my brother has 3 all legally obtained. So what that Netanyahu called Key 4 times – Key’s records and phone logs show he spoke to him once – I’m sure John Key was hard to get hold of during the aftermath of the earthquake and I’m darned sure a call from the Israeli PM was not flagged to his staff to be put through without delay.

The only Israelis with the guilty conscience you allude to are the perpetually anxiety ridden left wingers who join people like you in condemning almost all that Israel stands for. A majority of Israelis are proud of their country and how it came into being. Perhaps Israeli behaviour would be less egregiously aggresive if its Arab neighbours would’ve honoured the UN partition in 1948 and recognize Israel’s right to exist.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 22, 2011 5:14AM
ross

> Tulett told TVNZ there were 5-6 passports when we now know the deceased Israeli in question had 2

We don’t know he had 2 at all. It has been asserted that he had 2 but it’s also been asserted that he had 5. We don’t know which if any is correct.

It’s now been revealed that the three “backpackers” in the crushed van were questioned by police in Wellington before flying back to Israel. They flew out of Christchurch on an air force 757. It seems that Tullet was right to publish the story, and his reporting was accurate. Anyone who doesn’t like the story are a little precious and too sensitive where Israel is concerned.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 22, 2011 7:47AM
mikenmild

KIA

Do you have a source for this stuff about Gordon Thomas? Just curious.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 22, 2011 8:03AM
Lance

This ongoing installment of the womens weekly is proudly presented by ‘conspiracies r us’.
We all know it was a conspiracy despite the piss poor evidence, yes who needs * when this is better than sex.
We have special knowledge, we know better…. if we didn’t our lives would be pointless.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 22, 2011 8:09AM
kiwi in america

So Ross this is what we know about Tulett’s article (that you claim was accurate) other than the whole intention was to create the impression that Mizrahi (and his colleagues) were/are Israeli spies:
1 – His claim of 5 (amended to 5 or 6 on TV) passports is unsubstantiated by anyone. The article says just that it is “reported”. He can’t even use his SIS source as evidence of this. The SIS investigation as reported by Key states there were 2 passports – 1 of European origin but hey if you want to believe they were spies then stick with 5.
2 – He tells a story about the existence of SAS troops in the Red Zone and justaposes that with the story about the unauthorised Israeli USAR team. What the hell has the presence of SAS troops in the Red Zone got to do with the Israelis? Ah perhaps the SAS were called in to deal with an unruly and unauthorised Israeli spy clean up squad masquesrading as a SAR team – that’s the inference. Nothing sinister about some of the many Army personnel from Burnham being assigned to duties in the Red Zone nor the fact that some of them may be in the SAS. As we now know the family of Ingel and his travelling companion paid to have this team come to NZ and now that team’s head Hilik Magnus Denke claims they never strayed into the Red Zone at all. So we have a worried wealthy father paying to have an expert team try to find his son’s body but Tulett wants us to believe that its all part of an Israeli government plot to spring the spies out.
3 – Tulett can’t even get the office of Ambassador Shemi Tzur right – somehow coming all the way from Australia where he says he’s based sounds just that little bit more sinister than coming down from Wellington where he’s actually based.
4 – Tulett actually writes that Key “fielded” 4 calls from Netanyahu. Fielded implies received or a connection was made between the two PMs – sounds so much more sinister than the truth which is that 4 attempts at calls were made to a very busy John Key and that the two leaders spoke once. But of course the fielding of 4 calls from the Israeli PM adds juice to the inference that the Israelis were frantically trying to get their spooks out and called on Key to assist.
5 – Then there’s the claim of accessing the Police national computer via the Israeli forensic expert who did get accreditation and worked in the Red Zone. That claim was categorically denied by police who actually carried out a thorough forensic check on any unauthorized access to their network. Oh but of course the Police were likely told by the PMs office to say that huh. But we get the picture – just make the inference that a breach MIGHT have happened and we have yet another damning piece of possible evidence of spying activity.
6 – Key confirmed that he signed off on the search warrants authorising the SIS to forensically examine all of Mizrahi’s belongings found in the van including electronic items such as his cell phone and there was no evidence from that examination that pointed to him being a spy.
7 – Exhibit 5 the Facebook tributes page – who knows who set it up? Not everyone is on Facebook and maybe his family and friends had no knowledge of this page hence the lack of activity.

The only remotely suspicious activity was the quick departure and indeed we know it was this that triggered the SIS inquiry.

If all of the above is your standard of accurate then you need your head read. Just because 2 Israelis were caught trying to obtain NZ passports a few years earlier does not make every Israeli backpacker a spy. And if all these people are guilty of is finding a way to flee a frightening earthquake zone and go back to their home country as fast as possible well then I assert there is not much to lose sleep over.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 22, 2011 8:33AM
kiwi in america

mikenmild
This review of Thomas’ book has an excellent summary of the extraordinary claims Thomas makes about Mossad http://www.danielpipes.org/805/gideons-spies-the-secret-history-of-the -mossad Heck I’m sure in his 2nd edition he’ll claim that Mossad were behind 9/11 and Obama’s election! For Tulett and co to rely on this hotch potch of conspiracies tells us all we need to know about their academic rigour as journalists.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 22, 2011 8:40AM

MENUToggle Search


JULY 20, 2011 12:00PM BY DAVID FARRAR
Mossad and the Earthquake
Fred Tulett in the Southland Times reports:

Prime Minister John Key has confirmed one of three Israelis killed in the Christchurch earthquake was carrying multiple passports but is refusing to go into further detail because it is not in the national interest.

The police national computer has been under scrutiny in the aftermath of the Christchurch earthquake in February because of fears Israeli agents loaded software into the system that would allow backdoor access to highly sensitive intelligence files. …

The Security Intelligence Service ordered the checks as part of an urgent investigation of what one SIS officer described as the suspicious activities of several groups of Israelis during and immediately after the earthquake.

Three Israelis were among the 181 people who died when the earthquake destroyed most of Christchurch’s central business district on February 22. One was found to be carrying at least five passports.

On Sunday, February 26, Mizrahi’s body was recovered from the van and taken to the morgue where, during routine identity checks, he was found to be carrying at least five passports.

Meanwhile, the search and rescue squad dispatched from Israel had arrived in Christchurch but the offer of help was rejected by New Zealand authorities because the squad did not have accreditation from the United Nations.

According to Israeli newspaper reports, the squad was being funded by the parents of two other Israelis killed in the earthquake, Ofer Levy and Gabi Ingel, both 22, who were said to be in New Zealand on a backpacking holiday. The parents made repeated public appeals for the Israeli team to join the rescue, appeals that were dismissed by the New Zealand authorities until squad members were discovered in the sealed off “red zone” of the central city.

Readers may recall I had some minor involvement at the time. I blogged on 4 March:

As a disclosure, one of the dead Israelis is a close friend of one of my good Israeli friends – in fact the person who hosted me in Israel in November 2009. He approached me for assistance in getting a favourable decision made on getting the Israeli team admitted, and I put them in touch with the appropriate MFAT officials. I have no criticism of the MFAT officials who were very responsive and helpful, my criticism is of the ultimate decision maker, which I presume is someone in Civil Defence.

The family I was trying to help is the Ingel family. Their son, who was killed, is not under any suspicion at all of Mossad involvement. I have absolutely no doubt that the parents just genuinely wanted to maximise the chances of finding their son alive.

In terms of the other dead Israeli, with the alleged five passports, I have no first hand knowledge or involvement. The number of passports he had is not confirmed, and many Israelis do have multiple passports due to travel restrictions. I’m not aware of a suggestion that any of the passports were under a fake name, which would suggest something different.

I did become aware some months ago that there were suspicions over the Israeli who was killed in the van. But the evidence is very circumstantial – multiple passports, only a few tributes on a Facebook page etc. At the end of the day, I don’t know anything beyond what is in the paper, and that isn’t enough to make a conclusion on.

The PM is saying it is not in the national interest for him to comment. That to me suggests that the Government does think there may have been improper behaviour, but can’t prove it. And you don’t generally have Governments speculate on these issues unless they have proof.
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Nookin

Sitting in front of a really good fire relaxing until the gay icon walrus rudely interrupted the evening. His trailer for closed-up was that Key is backtracking on claims that the israelis were spies. Now, I think I have followed this reasonably well during the day and I have no recollection that Key ever said that they were spies. Did he? And if not, is this just another excample of shoddy journalism?

Dinner is served.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 20, 2011 6:57PM
metcalph

Assume they’d pulled all sorts of strings. How did they fly out of Christchurch?

All sorts of planes flew in once the airport was re-opened. Presumably the one which carried the head of Israeli Civil Defense which flew in that day was used to carry them out. Ask me a harder question next time.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 20, 2011 7:11PM
hj

If the Israelis are keen on NZ passports why the hell do they tell us to cut the corner off? We could drop the old one off at the embassy! 🙄
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 20, 2011 7:12PM
Lance

I didn’t think it was possible for TV1 to become as bad a TV3 but alas the depths have been plumbed.

Closeups opening sequence on the Israeli spy article was extended scenes from a movie with explosions and Mossad agents do-in it tough.
* what a steaming pile of nonsense devoid of facts and evidence. Not only are they making * up they are even inserting bogus action scenes from movies to strengthen their case.

Is it just the clowns on TV or is the nation really this * up?
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 20, 2011 7:28PM
Pauleastbay

Talk about long bows, I watched the news, now this nest of spies? were hacking the police computer FFS

If the Israelies and others don’t have someone in place that can access any piddling info that is on there I would be very surprised. But just incase they send in a team disguised as backpackers.

This reminds me: before the quake my friend moved a foreign accented person from outside his house.

Yep HJ you have solved it, this person was actually triggering the earthquake outside your mates house. Awesome. He’ll be able to sell the piece of paper that has the registration number written down on it to a museum. Awesome

My wife must be a spy, she has three passports, aint life grand
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 20, 2011 7:29PM
joana

I think people outside of Christchurch would find it difficult to understand just how long it took anyone to travel anywhere in CHCH that day. It was common for people to take 5, 6, 7 hours to get home. Roads and bridges were out all over the place. There was bumper to bumper traffic. All this makes these young people’s exit even more questionable.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 20, 2011 7:32PM
davidp

metcalph>Presumably the one which carried the head of Israeli Civil Defense which flew in that day was used to carry them out. Ask me a harder question next time.

A harder question? Okay… Does your explanation rely on the use of a time machine? Vilnai arrived on or around 2nd March, according to
http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/About+the+Ministry/MFA+Spokesman/2011/Vilnai _condolences_New_ZEaland_McCully_gratitude_3-Mar-2011.htm
and
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/142652
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 20, 2011 7:35PM
Pauleastbay

I figure that by tomorrow some “Jimmy Olsen” out there will have discovered that this group of young Israeli’s will have had a military background. bets anyone?
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 20, 2011 7:37PM
Other_Andy

@Lance
It is the same in the US, Canada, Europe and the UK.
Newspapers and television (Including the BBC) do not report the news anymore, they make the news, editorialise the news and politicise the news. They are in business to re-educate the peasants. If you think it is bad in New Zealand, try the European newspapers. It is almost impossible to get a different viewpoint or even impartial news that differs from the ‘left liberal progressive’ mantra. Last night John Campbell almost pissed his pants with excitement when he talked about the investigation in the UK. Nothing about the hundreds (thousands) of people who lost their jobs, the person found dead, careers being ruined….no, he sounded like he enjoyed the whole tragedy.
The whole Murdoch enquiry is starting to look like a witch hunt.
Some people are wondering what the endgame is….
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/hacks-the-lefts-lilliputians-try-to-take- murdoch-down/
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 20, 2011 7:52PM
Hurf Durf

OoooooOOOOOOOoooooooHHHhhhhh, it’s the CrEePy MoSsAd even though we have no actual evidence.

whocares.jpg

I figure that by tomorrow some “Jimmy Olsen” out there will have discovered that this group of young Israeli’s will have had a military background. bets anyone?

“They were conscipted two years ago!!11”

Yeah, like everyone else.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 20, 2011 8:05PM
Pauleastbay

Yeah, like everyone else…

Yep Hurf, no need for evidence.. but I still betcha a moro that the military background is in the paper tomorrow, even though everyone but Bin laden has training there
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 20, 2011 8:12PM
mikenmild

The main evidence now seems to be John Key’s astonishing comments.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 20, 2011 8:27PM
Lance

Shock horror!
Dead Israeli had been in the military.
Shock horror!
So had his mates.
Shock horror
The even the girl had been in the military
Shock horror
Israeli’s depart NZ by UFO
Shock horror
Greens don’t approve of Israeli’s visiting NZ
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 20, 2011 8:27PM
Spiritfree

My theory is this. A disgruntled SIS agent or agents, fed up that they have something, that they’d done a lot of work on it, but that the whole thing was being suppressed or binned, decided to leak. So they did so to a newspaper with an editor with balls. John Key, no doubt having aleady been advised of it, would with his background almost certainly have wanted to suppress it.

What would be the point of having 5 passports? Israelis, we are told, have trouble travelling. But FIVE!? Not justifiable for that reason. Therefore, some skullduggery.

Why would there be any Mossad agents in NZ? An earlier comment had it that the South Island is full of Israeli backpackers. Now what the Israeli establishment wants to keep tabs on is the country’s youth, so Mossad would be anywhere where there are a lot of them. In a clean fresh environment like South Island NZ, clean fresh ideas can be thought. This is terrifying if you’re running a country whose raison d’etre as it is currently established is a religious/racial ideology. So would the agents be shepherds, just like any groups of Russian tourists pre-1991 had their minders? Not really, but the information which could be provided by silent overseers, observing and reporting back on who would be worth watching in the future, could be very valuable, they would think.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 20, 2011 9:21PM
krazykiwi

This is funny. Sorry, it is. Particularly the breathless paranoia of would-be spy novelists chattering over their keyboards with one hand, while grasping for their tinfoil hats with the other.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 20, 2011 9:31PM
Pauleastbay

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/5311491/Investigation-cleared -Israelis-of-spy-claims-PM

Lastest and hopefully the end.

No spies, just some poor young tourist killed on an overseas trip. There were two passports, not 5 no big deal, if fact normal

Right now back to your Womans Weeklys, too much excitment for many I’m afraid

Spiritfree, most of your questions are too stupid for an answer, really seriously asinine
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 20, 2011 9:47PM
Scott Chris

My guess is that these Israelis are Mossad agents in training, based on their young age and the unusual nature of their departure. New Zealand would provide an ideal location for an apprentice spy, to practice blending into a foreign culture and to learn how to retrieve and transmit intelligence data. (probably about sheep in our case)

In fact, Spy School could be the newest addition to our burgeoning education industry 😛
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 20, 2011 10:15PM
Manolo

What would the Jewish State would have to do with an obscure socialist country in the bottom of the South Pacific? Eff all.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 20, 2011 10:38PM
godruelf

‘Move along nothing to see here’ didn’t buy it with Helen and don’t buy it with John either.
p.s. If I was travelling with mates and suffered the ultimate bad luck I would hope they stuck around for a while….
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 20, 2011 11:12PM
ross

> But just incase they send in a team disguised as backpackers…

As opposed to sending in agents dressed as tennis players?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1251604/Hamas-assassination-Du bai-Mossad-killing-come-thriller-novel.html
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 20, 2011 11:14PM
ross

godruelf, I don’t believe the mobile smile either. What’s interesting is that the three ‘backpackers’ apparently took a photo of the van after it had been hit by falling debris. Why the photo? Interesting too that, following the quake, the Israeli ambassador rushes to NZ from Canberra and then takes these backpackers to the airport. I think the ambassador knows more than he’s letting on.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 20, 2011 11:22PM
noskire

Interesting – a few observations and some on previous comments, neither leaning towards any particular theory.

From memory, there were airforce flights to evacuate tourists to Wellington, although I’m not sure if these were implemented on the evening of the 22nd, or the following day.

As joana stated previously, traffic was gridlocked after the quake. It took me 1.5 hours to drive 4kms from work to home.

Not very sensible for an ambasador to be seen to assist ‘spooks’ to evacuate, however to assist legitimate compatriots caught up in a crisis quite understandable.

Assuming the four were Mossad agents in training, then there would most likely be a more experienced operative in Christchurch already – thus a predetermined safehouse(s) in case things turned pear-shaped. This could possibly expediate their exit from NZ.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 21, 2011 12:01AM
davidp

ross>What’s interesting is that the three ‘backpackers’ apparently took a photo of the van after it had been hit by falling debris. Why the photo?

So that they could give it to the police to help them identify the body later? But no doubt there will be some alternate conspiracy-explanation. Like it was an experimental IDF bomb-proof van, and they had to take a photo to show the inventors that bomb proof isn’t the same as earthquake proof… so they must be spies!!!

ross>Interesting too that, following the quake, the Israeli ambassador rushes to NZ from Canberra

Keep up. The ambassador is actually based in Wellington. That’s just one of the many “facts” that the Southland Times got wrong after five months of investigation. Like the 5 passports that were actually 2 passports. And one of the ambassador’s jobs is looking after citizens in distress.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 21, 2011 12:11AM
davidp

noskire>From memory, there were airforce flights to evacuate tourists to Wellington, although I’m not sure if these were implemented on the evening of the 22nd, or the following day.

It is quite possible that they were evacuated to Auckland on one of the first flights out of Christchurch. Once there they looked at the loss of their belongings, the loss of their friend, and possible injuries and thought jumping on a flight to Singers was a better option than heading in to town to find a hotel. Which is obviously suspicious, since people caught up in a disaster are supposed to hang around for a minimum of three days, just in case the police want to question them. Because the police’s first priority after the earthquake was detaining foreigners in order to find out if they’re actually spies.

Although there are alternate explanations. It is possible that they were picked up by a Harrier jump jet in Hagley Park, and whisked away to an Israeli submarine standing offshore in case such a rescue was required. And the ambassador had to fly in to help them because three spies couldn’t possibly be competent enough to find their way to the Park without being offered a lift.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 21, 2011 12:19AM
Elaycee

krazykiwi (7,099) Says: July 20th, 2011 at 9:31 pm “This is funny. Sorry, it is. Particularly the breathless paranoia of would-be spy novelists chattering over their keyboards with one hand, while grasping for their tinfoil hats with the other.”

Have to agree. Based on some of the inane comments here, we could also assume that the bloke selling pies in Cashel Street is also implicated. Jeez – has someone spiked the drinking water in NZ? Some comments on this thread are ludicrous – but written by the usual, know all morons.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 21, 2011 12:21AM
ross

> So that they could give it to the police to help them identify the body later?

Really? But the deceased had a passport and other identifying info…so it was not difficult to identify the victim. Besides, the three ‘backpackers’ could have told police that their friend had died…did they do so before they fled the country?
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 21, 2011 12:42AM
ross

davidp, you might like to read this communique from the Israeli Ambassador about his activities after the quake on February 22 (Tuesday). Ambassador Tzur says he was in Christchurch all day Thursday…that’s two days after the quake. He doesn’t say he was there on the day of the quake or the day after. In fact, the communique says that the Consul – not Tzur – left immediately for Christchurch to offer assistance.

http://www.jwire.com.au/news/communique-from-the-israeli-embassy-in-ne w-zealand/15348
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 21, 2011 1:02AM
kiwi in america

What is it with Israel and Jews? Tell me that had the backpackers been Jordanian and a wealthy Jordanian father, concerned for his son’s wellbeing, financed his own private SOR team and asked King Hussein to speak to John Key to send consolences and ask for bureaucractic road blocks to be removed and that had the deceased been found to have two passports and that the Jordanian ambassador came down to Christchurch to help the surviving Jordanian nationals to exit the city and the country as quckly as possible that we’d be having this frenzy of pathetic speculation? No – Mark Sainsbury, the dick from the Southland Times, John Campbell would be tripping over themselves with some sympathetic heart tugging story of the devotion of father to son or the horrors the young backpackers faced as they sought to leave the earthquake striken city and how awesome the Jordanian ambassador is at protecting his nationals far from home.

Some of you really need to take a deep breath and and say slowly “not all Israeli tourists are Mossad agents”.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 21, 2011 4:28AM
ephemera

No, kiwi in america,

People on this site would be making bomb jokes about muslims with backpacks.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 21, 2011 5:14AM
Other_Andy

@ephemera
“People on this site would be making bomb jokes about muslims with backpacks.”
Nothing funny about that.
Ask some people in London, Mumbai, Madrid,Tel Aviv, Bangkok or a dozen other places if they would like to hear bomb jokes about muslims with backpacks.
Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0 LOG IN TO REPLY REPORTJULY 21, 2011 6:55AM
Manolo

People on this site would be making bomb jokes about muslims with backpacks.

Rightly so. When was the last time you saw a Jew blowing himself up and killing innocent people? No, only the violent f