Mossad spy ring ‘unearthed because of Christchurch earthquake’
The
Israeli secret service Mossad has been accused of conducting an
intelligence-gathering operation in New Zealand which was unearthed because of
February’s Christchurch earthquake.
Cars lie under rubble in the central business district
in Christchurch Photo: AFP/GETTY IMAGES
The
operation was interrupted when a van used by a spy cell was crushed by masonry
falling from a damaged building, killing one man, it is claimed.
Benyamin
Mizrahi, 23, the Israeli man who died in the damaged van, was found to have
five passports on his person, the Southland Times newspaper reported.
Three
surviving Israelis who were in the van with Mr Mizrahi fled New Zealand
within 12 hours, making their way back to Israel.
They
reportedly paused only to take photographs of the crushed van and return the
dead man’s Israeli passport to officials from their embassy.
The
Southland Times also said the police national computer was being audited
because of concerns it had been hacked into.
There
were fears that other Israeli operatives, in the city after the February 22
quake which killed 181 people, could have embedded malicious software to access
intelligence information.
John
Key, the New Zealand prime minister, on Thursday confirmed that the
government’s Security Intelligence Service had carried out an investigation but
he dismissed the concerns.
Speaking
during a visit to the United States, Mr Key said the unusual circumstances of
the incident were fully investigated and no evidence was found that the people
involved were anything other than backpackers.
He
said his advice was that the man had only two passports, one of European origin
which was found on his body, and the other which his friends had handed in to
Israeli officials.
Mr Key
said the government took the security of New Zealand and New Zealanders “very
seriously”.
“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,”
he said.
“Security
agencies conducted the investigation and found no evidence that the people were
anything other than backpackers,” Mr Key said.
In
all, three Israelis died in the magnitude 6.3 earthquake.
Security
experts suggested agents for Mossad may have been on an identity theft
“trawling” mission for information, so that the passports of unwitting citizens
could be cloned.
The
false passports would then be used as cover during espionage activities in
other parts of the world by Israeli secret agents.
Fred
Tulett, editor of the Southland Times, said an “extraordinary” reaction by the
Israeli government in the hours after the earthquake had heightened the
suspicions of New Zealand’s Security Intelligence Service.
They
included the fact that Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, made
four calls to John Key, his New Zealand counterpart, on the day of the
earthquake.
Shemi
Tzur, Israel’s ambassador to Australia and New Zealand, travelled from his base
in Australia to Christchurch, where he visited the temporary morgue set up to
cope with earthquake victims.
Meanwhile,
Israel’s defence chief also flew to the earthquake-ravaged city.
In a
further move, a search and rescue team arrived in Christchurch from Israel, but
the squad’s offer of help was rejected by New Zealand authorities because it
did not have the necessary United Nations accreditation.
Despite
that rejection, members of the Israeli team were confronted by armed New
Zealand officers after being discovered in the badly damaged sealed off “red
zone” of the city centre, the Southland Times said.
The
Israeli government later sent a forensic team to help authorities identify the
dead.
The
paper said New Zealand officials became alarmed when intelligence information
was collated and it was realised that the Israeli forensic team had been given
access to the police national database to help with identification work.
The
paper quoted an unnamed intelligence officer as saying it would take only
moments for a USB drive to be inserted into a police computer terminal and
loaded with a program allowing remote backdoor access to the database.
A
police spokesman later said: “We are confident that our data and network were
not compromised during the Christchurch Earthquake response or subsequently.”
Mr
Tzur, the Israeli ambassador, said it was “science fiction” to believe that any
Mossad agents had been involved.
