NZ spies in raids for MI6 and CIA

Source says embassy break-ins need to be made public to keep tighter rein on SIS

New Zealand’s spy agency, the SIS, broke into the Indian High Commission for MI6 and the Iranian Embassy for the CIA in the late 1980s and early 1990s to photograph code books, plant bugs and steal communications.

The operations included at least two raids on the Indian High Commission in Wellington in 1989 and 1991 to photograph thousands of pages from the commission’s code books, which were used to encrypt communications. The covert attack on the Indian High Commission was code-named Operation Dunnage and was a joint mission between the New Zealand SIS and Britain’s MI6.

Thousands of photographs containing the codes were sent back to the United Kingdom so that Britain’s foreign intelligence service could decipher the communications of Indian government officials and diplomats.

RNZ has also learned that in the early 1990s the New Zealand SIS targeted the Iranian embassy in Wellington in a mission named Operation Horoscope, which was driven by the CIA.

The CIA altered circuit boards on a telex machine used by the Iranian Embassy in Wellington, allowing the American intelligence agency to intercept Iranian communications.

The SIS entered the embassy for the CIA, photographed the building and installed listening devices supplied by the CIA.

Operation Horoscope involved months of covert work and remained active for many years afterwards.

RNZ learned about the raids after piecing together information gained after months of engaging with multiple sources in NZ, Britain and the US.

One New Zealand source, who has spent more than 20 years at the highest levels of the public sector, told RNZ he was concerned about the nature of the work the SIS carried out for its Five Eyes partners.

The source, who has had close dealings with the intelligence agencies, said New Zealand came under pressure from its Five Eyes partners, especially the US and Australia, to do their dirty work.

The source said the embassy raids uncovered by RNZ needed to be made public as the disclosure might help keep the SIS more tightly “on the leash”. In a statement, the SIS said it was “unable to respond to questions about what may or not be specific operational matters”.

Former Prime Minister Helen Clark also expressed her concern about New Zealand drifting too close to its Five Eyes partners in an interview for The Service podcast, which revealed multiple embassy break-ins, including a joint SIS-MI6 raid on the Czechoslovakian Embassy in 1986 to steal the Warsaw Pact codes.

Sir Geoffrey Palmer, NZ prime minister between August 1989 and September 1990, said he had not heard of the raids on the Indian and Iranian embassies but should have been alerted by the SIS if they occurred when he was in charge of the agency.

Jim Bolger, prime minister from 1990 to 1997, said he could not recall ever signing any warrants to allow the SIS to break into foreign embassies.