Kiwi Isis fighters tracked to Middle East
Security Intelligence Service reveals New Zealanders in Syria and Iraq pose a threat if they return, writes Bevan Hurley.
A small number of New Zealanders continue to wage jihad for Islamic State in the Middle East, according to the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service.
The SIS and its Western partners partners are keeping tabs on a handful of Kiwis in the Middle East, according to information released by New Zealand’s spy agency under the Official Information Act.
SIS director Rebecca Kitteridge refused to reveal the exact number of Kiwis on the ground in Iraq and Syria, on the grounds that it could prejudice national security or their information sharing arrangement with the US, UK, Australia and Canada, known as Five Eyes.
This week US President Donald Trump ordered missile strikes against an airfield from which a deadly chemical weapons attack was launched, declaring he acted in America’s ‘‘vital national security interest’’ against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
This air strikes escalated the chances of all out war returning to Syria, which has been riven by civil war for the past six years.
The bombings came days after New Zealander Mark John Taylor was declared a ‘‘global terrorist’’ by the US government, three years after he travelled to Syria and declared his allegiance to IS.
Taylor had been regularly in the spotlight during his time in Syria, most notably for mistakenly giving away the coordinates of the positions of IS fighters on Twitter in 2015.
In the ‘‘Strategic Intelligent Assessment’’ released by the SIS, they said they believed New Zealanders were still on the ground in Syria, and they could pose a threat if they were to return home.
‘‘NZSIS continues to receive leads concerning New Zealanders who have travelled to Syria for various purposes. New Zealanders who travel to Syria with the intent to associate with terrorist groups may one day attempt to return home,’’ said one report, dated 29 January 2016.
On 27 July 2016, another ‘‘Security Intelligence Report’’ said where individuals were already of security concern, their passports had been cancelled.
‘‘The NZSIS has recommended that the Minister of Internal Affairs... cancel, suspend or refuse to issue the passports of... New Zealanders on national security grounds.
‘‘In each case NZSIS assessed that the individual concerned intended to engage in, or facilitate a terrorist act.’’
The report said NZSIS was seeking to protect the country from the ‘‘effects of returning extremists, who may further encourage radicalisation or bring skills and experience into New Zealand that increase the capabilities of individuals seeking to commit domestic terrorist attacks’’.
All of the released reports were severely redacted. FACE-OFF US vows Syra sanctions despite Russian ill-will FOURTEEN years ago, America was at war in the Middle East and the Dixie Chicks were at war with George W Bush’s America.
They had gone from from sweethearts to pariahs after saying they were against the war and ashamed the president was from Texas.
Now it’s 2017, and only a matter of hours before their performance in front of 25,000 fans last night at Mission Estate in Hawke’s Bay, Donald Trump’s America attacked Syria.
But the Dixie Chicks are in no danger of another fall like 2003. Last night their fans were happy to tweet about ‘‘anti-Trump sentiment’’ as well as the more familiar Mission Bay fare of red wine and selfies. JONH COWPLAND / ALPHAPIX