Hager: Secrets are out there in the world
Afghanistan raid inquiry urged to be as open as possible
Direct challenges were made over claims by the military for secrecy to govern an inquiry into a controversial NZSAS raid during its first day of hearings.
Journalists Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson urged the inquiry to be as open as possible and cautioned against accepting at face value claims of information being too secret to release.
The first two days of hearings in the Inquiry into Operation Burnham are being held in Wellington this week to set up a process to get to the truth of what happened in Tirgiran Valley in August 2010.
Hager and Stephenson’s Hit & Run book claimed six civilians were killed and 15 wounded in a “revenge” raid by the NZSAS, Afghan elite troops and United States aircraft.
The NZDF has rejected the claims, saying nine insurgents were killed during an operation intended to target those who were an ongoing threat to New Zealand and other coalition troops.
Diplomatic, intelligence and NZDF submissions have urged inquiry heads Sir Terence Arnold and Sir Geoffrey Palmer to accept a process that is virtually entirely closed.
It would see witnesses not testifying in public and possibly only being heard by the inquiry chairmen, few sessions made open and classified evidence restricted only to those with security clearances.
Stephenson’s lawyer Davey Salmon said he had previously represented the journalist in a defamation case against NZDF. He said it saw evidence given by soldiers who were — at the time — serving in the elite unit.
“This was the same SAS in the same Afghanistan in the same year. This was actual troops on the ground. It was three years after the event — not eight years.”
He said it would be possible for the inquiry to hear NZSAS witnesses in a way that protected their identity yet allowed public testimony, as in the defamation trial.
Davey said NZDF was complaining about providing documents to those with a particular interest in the inquiry — or their lawyers — when such documents had been made available during the defamation trial.
It included documents from the International Security Assistance Force — the umbrella coalition group in Afghanistan — that NZDF was now saying couldn’t be easily provided.
Hager pursued a similar line, saying highly secret documentation which NZDF wouldn’t release was available on a Nato website: “It’s a very important principle to remember when people say a document is secret. It is out there somewhere in the world. We are hiding it only from ourselves.”
Deborah Manning, representing those who lived in the Afghan valley where the raid took place, said NZDF should face “searching questions” over slow progress in producing documents for the inquiry.
The number of documents had ballooned from 2000 relevant documents in July this year to 17,000.
She said just 324 documents of a total 17,000 relevant documents had been made available — about 2 per cent.
“I am at a total loss as to what is happening in this process with regard to the provision of information by NZDF.”
The inquiry was set up in April after Attorney General David Parker said it was necessary so “the public to have confidence in the NZDF”.