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.

Police this morning said their systems and the information contained on them were secure, and were subject to regular security audits and intrusion checks.

"We also have a number of anti intrusion measures designed to stop unauthorised or malicious programs from entering or being active on our systems," Acting Chief Information Officer Murray Mitchell said.

"These systems are regularly being updated and reviewed, and we are confident that our data and network were not compromised during the Christchurch Earthquake response or subsequently.''

Key was asked repeatedly today to confirm details of an SIS investigation into whether the Israeli secret service had infiltrated the police national computer after three Israelis were killed and other Israeli citizens fled the country.

He said he was satisfied there had been no misuse of the police computer. But when asked repeatedly if there had been an investigation by the SIS he refused to answer because it was not in the national interest.

Key also insisted there had been no misuse of New Zealand passports but when asked to confirm one Israeli had five passports he would only say he was aware they had several in their possession but refused to elaborate.

The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Key four times on the day of the earthquake but Key would only discuss part of those phone calls, which he said were to offer help and advice.

He would not discuss other aspects of the calls.

But when asked repeatedly if the Israeli government had done anything wrong he would not answer, saying it was not in the national interest for him to do so.

Key was also asked about an Israeli search and rescue team being escorted from the Red Zone by armed guards after being found there without permission.

He confirmed he was aware of an incident but "can't confirm all of the details in the way you've presented them".

When asked to give a correct portrayal of the incident he refused. And when asked why it was not in the national interest to talk about the matters raised in a Fairfax story today Key said it was because he "deemed" that to be the case.

When asked if he was expecting the public to trust him that the national interest had not been compromised Key said:

"If I believed that it was in the national interest for me to disclose the full details that I have then I would do so but I don't believe it is."

Key then said: "I hasten to add you are making allegations that are not necessarily correct or proven."

But when asked if he could provide the correct or proven details he refused.

Labour leader Phil Goff is calling on the Government to "come clean" about what it knows about suspicious activities of Israelis following the Christchurch earthquake.

That included why one of the Israelis was found to have five passports, he said. "This is not something that should be withheld from New Zealanders, we deserve to know."

EVENTS AFTER THE QUAKE

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.

"We were concerned that could have happened," the officer said.

"We carried out an urgent audit. If it had been done it would eventually have given the Israelis access to all of our intelligence."

The national database holds all records of convictions, firearms licences, lost and stolen property, criminal behaviour and identifying marks and observations taken by police. It is capable of sophisticated searching and data matching. The officer said the audit had not identified any suspicious files so far, but a wider SIS investigation was continuing.

"It all looks suspicious, but a lot of what the Israelis do raises suspicion. So lots of smoke but we haven't found any fires. The file remains open though."

Intelligence agencies have become hypersensitive to sophisticated hacking after the malware "agent.btz" was infiltrated into the computer systems of United States Military Command three years ago.

The US believes Russian agents were responsible and Deputy Defence Secretary William Lynn has described it as "a digital beachhead" for a foreign intelligence agency to attempt to steal data. Attempts to remove the malware have so far been unsuccessful – new, more potent variations of agent.btz are still appearing.

The SIS officer said the agency was also aware of a comment posted on the website of the Russian newspaper Pravda that the Christchurch earthquake had disrupted an Israeli spy base in the city.

The Southland Times asked police national headquarters for comment on the actions and activities of various Israeli groups after the earthquake. After considering the request for nine days, the police issued a brief statement, attributed to Assistant Commissioner Malcolm Burgess, confirming that three Israelis had died in the earthquake, that the van in which Mizrahi died had been recovered and examined, that police had not been involved in the decision to exclude the Israeli search squad, and that "police do not discuss or disclose details of personal effects found with any of the 181 victims".

Mr Tzur, also approached for comment, said it was "science fiction" that any Mossad agents had been involved.

- The Southland Times

http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/news/5311410/SIS-on-trail-of-Israeli-spies

In the above video, you will see an Israeli officer – not a regular soldier but an officer - pull his weapon on a Palestinian subject in the southern West Bank city of Beit Ummar. Shocking in itself, this is not an isolated violation by this particular officer. B’Tselem has released the following information about the incident.

In the videos below, you will see the pattern of his conduct and how it affects the young soldiers under his command. The video below was shot yesterday and depicts the officer drawing his weapon again while threatening others.

If this was another country, one would imagine that this officer would be held responsible for this violent and dangerous behavior. One would think that he would be given leave from his position or even (gasp) reprimanded for his actions. But this is Israel and, most likely, nothing will happen to this officer.

This violent and dangerous behavior is not limited to just a few bad apples, it is part of the system of Israel’s control over the Palestinian people. The culture of impunity that surrounds Israel’s repeated violations of Palestinian dignity is strong enough that officers have no problem performing their crimes in front of the cameras. If the settler MKs in the Knesset have their way, soon this Palestinian might not have the camera used to film these rights violations, and such crimes will simply go undocumented.

For the time being, social media platforms like YouTube allow even the passive international observer of the conflict a window into the behavior of “the most moral army in the world.” One can just imagine the similar such videos which would have emerged from the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa or the American civil rights movement in the southern United States, had YouTube existed during those struggles. It is for this reason, among others, that the Israeli government is moving so swiftly to limit the operations of NGOs like B’Tselem. The Knesset has already successfully stifled my ability, as a blogger and journalist, to write what I please. There are a multitude of ways to interpret this wave of laws, but perhaps the most straightforward is to understand that Israel is breaking under the pressure of its unsustainable occupation and the cracks are now visible.

Uploaded by otraverdad on Jul 5, 2011

By Hazel Ward (AFP) – 2 days ago

JERUSALEM — A lone French yacht with 12 people on board was on Wednesday the only vessel from a 10-ship flotilla to be heading for the Gaza Strip after the remaining vessels were tied up by red tape in Greece.

The MV Dignite/Al Karama, which left Greek waters early on Tuesday, was heading slowly towards Gaza, a spokesman for the French Boat to Gaza campaign told AFP, saying they had not yet given up hope they would be joined by others from the ill-fated Freedom Flotilla which had been due to set sail last week.

But attempts by pro-Palestinian campaigners on board a second ship, the MV Juliano, to join their French colleagues at sea failed for a second day running as the Greek coastguard once again thwarted their plans to leave.

Most of the 10 ships that had been due to join the convoy are stuck at ports in Greece after Athens imposed a blanket ban on the departure of any vessels destined for Gaza.

Another ship, the Irish-owned MV Saoirse, is currently undergoing repairs at a Turkish port after its propeller was damaged in what activists claimed was "sabotage" by Israel.

"They're getting on very well," Thomas Sommer-Houdeville told AFP by phone from Athens, saying the MV Dignite had begun to move slowly towards Gaza on Tuesday afternoon after waiting for several hours in international waters to see if the the Greek, Norwegian and Swedish activists on board the MV Juliano would to also manage to set sail.

"Yesterday afternoon, our Greek colleagues (on board the MV Juliano) were not able to leave, so they decided to start sailing slowly" towards Gaza, he said after speaking by phone to activists on board the Dignite.

"They are now heading for Gaza slowly so if any of the boats manage to get out, they will be able to meet up with them.

"For the time being, our desire is to go to Gaza," Sommer-Houdeville said, admitting the activists on board would later decide based on what was possible "logistically and technically."

"At the moment, we have one boat which has managed to break the Greek blockade and we are hopeful that there will be others," he said.

The MV Juliano, which was to have set sail on Wednesday, said it was once again prevented from leaving Perama port near Athens, weighing anchor only to sail to a nearby port.

"It is not possible to leave for Gaza because the Greek authorities' ban remains in place," boat spokesman Dimitris Plionis told AFP.

Mary Norden, a Swedish MP who was to have been one of the six passengers on board, said she had "decided to return to Sweden" after failing in "the fight with the Greek coastguard."

Greek officials turned back the boat on Tuesday afternoon, she said earlier.

Both the US Audacity of Hope and the Canadian vessel, the MV Tahrir, each of which have some 50 passengers and crew aboard, have tried to set sail since Athens imposed the ban on Friday, but were turned back.

And two of the vessels have also sustained damage, in what organisers claim was sabotage by Israeli agents.

In yet another blow to the flotilla activists, a Swiss firm said it would not be able to fulfil a 3,000-tonne cement order, worth 25,000 euros ($36,000), which was to have been taken to Gaza.

In an email to the Ship to Gaza Sweden campaign, Interbulk cited the Greek ban as a force majeure, saying it would not be able to deliver the goods and would return the payment in full.

Officials in Athens say they imposed the ban for the "safety" of the activists on board in the wake of last year's bloody showdown. Israeli commandos raided a six-ship flotilla heading for Gaza, in a confrontation that left nine Turkish activists dead and dozens of people injured.

More than 300 activists from 22 countries had signed up to participate in this year's flotilla, among them dozens of middle-aged and elderly Americans and Europeans.

Israel has made no secret of its determination to prevent the Freedom Flotilla II from reaching Gaza, which has been under a blockade since 2006 after militants there snatched an Israeli soldier who is still being held at a secret location.

Allow Gaza ships proceed, say MEPs

SEAN Mac CONNELL in Strasbourg
The Irish Times - Wednesday, July 6, 2011

TWO SHIPS from the Gaza flotilla are still at sea in international waters and must be allowed reach their destination, a press conference in the European Parliament fronted by Irish MEP Paul Murphy was told yesterday .

He was one of three MEPs who failed to make it to Gaza when it was alleged that the Irish boat was sabotaged by Israeli agents in Turkey and then Greece imposed a ban on boats sailing there.

He and his MEP colleagues, Kyriacos Triantaphyllides, from Cyprus, and Nikos Chountis, from Greece, had been placed in danger by the action of the Israeli authorities, he said.

He said it was “very unlikely” it could be proven the Israeli government had ordered the attack, which placed the life of the sailors on board the Irish ship in danger because the propellers could have damaged the hull at sea.

Mr Chountis accused the Greek government of breaking not only international maritime law but also Greek domestic law by preventing the boats from moving in its territorial waters and said this was not the will of the Greek people but its parliament.

The MEPs announced that they had demanded support for the flotilla in letters to the presidents of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, and European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, and Baroness Catherine Ashton, who represents the EU on external relations.

The letters outlined the case that the three MEPs, who had attempted to peacefully deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, had been prevented from doing so by “severe acts of sabotage” against the Irish and Scandinavian boats.

“We condemn these acts of sabotage which also infringe on the sovereignty of the states where the boats were moored and the states where the ships are registered,” said their letter.

“We demand an independent and impartial inquiry into these acts of sabotage and we also expect a condemnation of these acts of sabotage by the Israeli authorities,” the letter added.

“We expect you to vigorously and publicly support those demands,” it said.

The letter said they were very concerned about the well-being of many European citizens who had peacefully engaged in the humanitarian mission of the Freedom Flotilla II.

“In light of these serious events, how do you intend to take up the above mentioned demands through your official and diplomatic contact with the Israeli authorities?” the letter continued.

It asked what concrete steps they were willing to take to ensure the protection of all European citizens, including the elected representatives of the European Parliament.

At the press conference, the MEPs announced the US captain of the US vessel who was under arrest in Greece had been released but two ships which were part of the flotilla were still at sea in international waters. One, they said, was a French vessel and the other was from Canada and they were demanding these vessels, which were carrying European citizens, should not be interfered with by the Israeli authorities.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2011/0706/1224300157672.html