by liberal japonicus
This floated across the twitter feed of the Guardian reporters and I thought it might be of interest. If there are any ObWi faithfull hailing from the land of the long white cloud, feel free to chime in.
A 1994 Kiwi stamp set celebrating Kiwiana from stamps.nzpost.co.nz
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.
The article goes on to note this
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.
The Prime Minister, John Key, who is in the states meeting with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, didn't really put the matter to rest when questioned (can't figure out how to embed the video).
Lest one think that Kiwis are being a bit paranoid, there was this in 2004, where two Israelis were arrested trying to get a passport in the name of a person who suffered from cystic fibrosis.
Interesting times.
Israeli agents carrying fraudulent Australian passports carried out this hit in 2010, so they have form. The Australian government was pretty damn pissed off, at the time. We even momentarily stopped toeing the US line on Israel at the UN, but it didn't last, unfortunately.
Posted by: Emma in Sydney | July 20, 2011 at 06:01 AM
Israeli agents carrying fraudulent Australian passports carried out this hit in 2010, so they have form. The Australian government was pretty damn pissed off, at the time. We even momentarily stopped toeing the US line on Israel at the UN, but it didn't last, unfortunately.
Posted by: Emma in Sydney | July 20, 2011 at 06:02 AM
Sorry for the double post. ObWi is throwing some pretty gnarly error messages just at the moment.
Posted by: Emma in Sydney | July 20, 2011 at 06:03 AM
The New Zealand official line is now that there is no issue
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/5311491/Investigation-cleared-Israelis-of-spy-claims-PM
Our PM is currently in Washington in part to try and cozy up to the US in hopes of a free trade deal...
As an aside I remember watching the live (and pretty much uncensored) video in the hour or so after the quake and hearing a reporter talk about passing that crushed van and saying that someone was dead in there...fairly traumatic stuff.
Posted by: Annamal | July 20, 2011 at 07:10 AM
"Lest one think that Kiwis are being a bit paranoid, there was this in 2004, where two Israelis were arrested trying to get a passport in the name of a person who suffered from cystic fibrosis."
Huh? Presumably the weird part of this is that two people were trying to get one person's passport... there's nothing about cystic fibrosis that prevents international travel (although it makes it more difficult I suppose).
Posted by: Zach | July 20, 2011 at 08:56 AM
If you read the link, it was actually 4 people trying get a passport in the name of a person who suffered from cerebral palsy. Two of the people were arrested and the other two left the country. Obviously, they had their own passports, so the attempt to get the passport wasn't for themselves, but presumably so someone else could use the passport.
Posted by: liberal japonicus | July 20, 2011 at 09:15 AM
Cerebral palsy can be more debilitating than CF but it still doesn't make much sense. The person's still totally eligible to get a passport and not really being taken advantage of. Cerebral palsy does have high comorbidity with things that could be taken advantage of, though.
Posted by: Zach | July 20, 2011 at 09:26 AM
Our PM is currently in Washington in part to try and cozy up to the US in hopes of a free trade deal...
The fact that the U.S. and NZ don't have a free trade deal already is a lunacy, which I attribute to US special interests though I don't know enough about NZ politics to know if there is countervailing pressure on the other side (and, as an aside, I highly recommend a visit to NZ if folks reading this haven't been; the U.S. too, I guess).
The Israeli's apparently don't have enough sophistication and/or cash to come up with their own fake papers to carry out their, er, extra-legal activities on the international stage (or I guess perhaps they view stolen and/or officially issued papers as better). If I were in charge of the U.S. State Department I'd consider objecting, but the rampant hypocrisy would have me roiled in fits of laughter, which wouldn't look good.
But really, how does this little sh!t of a country get away with all this? Oh, nevermind.
Posted by: Ugh | July 20, 2011 at 09:41 AM
I don't find the idea of covert operations particularly unsettling. More interesting is "what the hell is in New Zealand" of all places that would attract what looks like a surveillance team, if I had to guess the purpose?
Posted by: McKinneyTexas | July 20, 2011 at 09:51 AM
That's just what they want you to think.
To answer McKTx's question: you have to traipse through a lot of New Zealand to get in and out of Mordor.
Posted by: Slartibartfast | July 20, 2011 at 09:58 AM
I note that this site seems to indicate that there are no travel restrictions placed on New Zealanders who wish to visit Iran (though it doesn't say so directly), since someone mentioned Tom Clancy.
Contrast this with the freedom loving U.S.A.
Posted by: Ugh | July 20, 2011 at 12:05 PM
'Just to hit the hilites, a van with 6 Israeli nationals is crushed in the earthquake, 3 are killed and the others get out of the van.'
Are 2 persons missing? Everything I read accounts for 4 occupants in the van. What did I miss?
Ugh:
'Contrast this with the freedom loving U.S.A.'
I usually cannot think in terms of the U.S.A. loving anything, but most Americans do cherish freedom (I think) and there is a large cohort, centered in Washington, whose members just might like power even more.
Posted by: GoodOleBoy | July 20, 2011 at 02:53 PM
GOB, this article has pictures of 6. Other reports have 5 and the 6th was a person in NZ illegally who had disappeared during the quake, but then left 3 weeks later. Unfortunately, I've been getting confused because the stories have incremental updates and are from three NZ sources, so it's tough for me to remember which is which.
In response to McT, one way to check if a document is fake is to make sure that the materials have the correct provenance. It's not only a lot easier to start with those materials, it essentially jumps over a lot of cursory points to check.
Posted by: liberal japonicus | July 20, 2011 at 03:14 PM
but most Americans do cherish freedom (I think) and there is a large cohort, centered in Washington, whose members just might like power even more.
This is a good point, though a bit of a mystery, from where did this cohort appear? Why is it in Washington (Seattle being so rainy)? To whom does it answer? All unanswerable.
Posted by: Ugh | July 20, 2011 at 03:41 PM
"The fact that the U.S. and NZ don't have a free trade deal already is a lunacy, which I attribute to US special interests though I don't know enough about NZ politics to know if there is countervailing pressure on the other side"
I'm one of those opposed to a deal under what I suspect the current terms (the NZ government has already implemented a fairly draconian copyright law that I think is part of the conditions for free trade).
We have a government drug buying organisation called Pharmac which negotiates bulk deals for commonly used medicine and saves the country a *lot* of money. The suspicion is that Pharmac is one of the sticking points in a free trade deal and honestly the cheap medicine is worth a hell of a lot more than commerce with the US (we already have free trade deals with most of Asia, including China).
Posted by: Annamal | July 20, 2011 at 03:46 PM
""what the hell is in New Zealand" of all places that would attract what looks like a surveillance team, if I had to guess the purpose? "
Ummm, some big white balls?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GCSB_Waihopai
Posted by: Annamal | July 20, 2011 at 03:51 PM
That's quite a pair!
41 34' 32.87"S, 173 44' 16.81"W, for the Google-Earth-inclined.
Posted by: Slartibartfast | July 20, 2011 at 05:52 PM
"That's quite a pair!"
I can't tell you how amusing it was when a group of hippy protesters er...deflated them.
They're a fairly open secret (to the point where the local vineyard produces "Spy Valley" wine and local tv personalities have had actually broken in) but the magic word "Echelon" is used in conjunction with them so there might be some significance.
Posted by: Annamal | July 20, 2011 at 06:25 PM
Echelon! More Tom Clancy in the works . . .
I'm waiting for a team of crack Kiwi operators to get caught inside Israel. Damn New Zealanders will meddle in anyone's business. Hegemonist bast**ds.
Posted by: McKinneyTexas | July 20, 2011 at 06:29 PM
Ah, but we're so good we dont get caught ... we just leave briefcases full of Penthouse and meat pies behind.
Posted by: firefall | July 20, 2011 at 06:55 PM
"I'm waiting for a team of crack Kiwi operators to get caught inside Israel. Damn New Zealanders will meddle in anyone's business. Hegemonist bast**ds"
Hey my country is pretty much agricultural ferengi (we'll sell stuff to almost any country no matter how vile as long as there's a buck in it)...in theory we should get on well with everyone.
Posted by: Annamal | July 20, 2011 at 07:00 PM
The point in getting authentic passports is that they are really authentic. This means that if the authorities of a country call the Kiwi embassy to validate whether a passport is real, the embassy will not denounce the passport as fake but will acknowledge the legitimacy of the passport.
If you get a passport in someone's name, it's useful to use a person who is unlikely to commence foreign travel: persons suffering from debilitating illness, total hillbillies etc. Otherwise, the person might apply for a passport and the already-issued passport would be reported as a fake to international databases on lost travel documents.
Posted by: Lurker | July 21, 2011 at 01:56 AM
Hey my country is pretty much agricultural ferengi
That's just a cover. Your fingerprints are everywhere. Echelon! Patriarchy!
but we're so good we dont get caught ...
Exactly.
Posted by: McKinneyTexas | July 21, 2011 at 09:04 AM
McT, so we're saying that the Kiwis are the replacement for the International Zionist Conspiracy which used to be accused of secretly running the world? Well, except that they are more clever, and avoid detection. LOL!
Posted by: wj | July 21, 2011 at 11:48 AM
WJ, who do you think got everyone thinking it was the Zionists? Think it through . . .
Posted by: McKinneyTexas | July 21, 2011 at 03:02 PM
"WJ, who do you think got everyone thinking it was the Zionists? Think it through . . . "
I'm not sure we even existed as a proper country back...or maybe that's what we wanted you to think...
Posted by: Annamal | July 21, 2011 at 04:53 PM
The evil that is New Zealand predates the written word. Only the location changes.
Posted by: McKinneyTexas | July 21, 2011 at 05:02 PM
"The evil that is New Zealand predates the written word. Only the location changes. "
It's the lack of native land mammals, really we're all controlled by hyper-intelligent sheep eating parrots...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=552x2YFjsw0
Posted by: Annamal | July 21, 2011 at 05:28 PM
And of course the sheep are herded by talking pigs.
Posted by: Slartibartfast | July 21, 2011 at 05:41 PM
It isn't only the sheep, which is not unique to New Zealand. Scotland comes to mind. It's their power mad, hegemonic mind set, their self-certain sense of superiority, their militarism. And their disrespect for women, the traditional nuclear family and all that is good and true in this life. Basically, they just aren't nice people.
Posted by: McKinneyTexas | July 21, 2011 at 06:45 PM
"It isn't only the sheep, which is not unique to New Zealand. Scotland comes to mind. It's their power mad, hegemonic mind set, their self-certain sense of superiority, their militarism. And their disrespect for women, the traditional nuclear family and all that is good and true in this life. Basically, they just aren't nice people."
Also we have been known to eat marmite...
Posted by: Annamal | July 21, 2011 at 06:58 PM
Also we have been known to eat marmite...
That's totally disgusting and if it isn't a violation of the posting rules here, it f'ing well ought to be.
Posted by: McKinneyTexas | July 21, 2011 at 07:06 PM
Marmite...I give: pureed marmot?
Posted by: Slartibartfast | July 21, 2011 at 07:55 PM
"Marmite...I give: pureed marmot?"
Leftovers from beer brewing spread on bread...
Right up there with blue cheese and olives in terms of hard-to-acquire tastes (probably not helped by the fact that it looks like a chocolate spread and *really* isn't).
Posted by: Annamal | July 21, 2011 at 09:47 PM
I thought Marmite was UK and Vegemite was down under, but I see I'm wrong.
Posted by: liberal japonicus | July 21, 2011 at 11:16 PM
Vegemite is the only true beer byproduct spread, and all others are dastardly imitations, snares and delusions. So there.
Posted by: Emma in Sydney | July 21, 2011 at 11:40 PM
So now we've degenerated into a debate between the virtues of Marmite and Vegemite, not unlike arguing the relative merits of raw sewage vs industrial pollution. There is a reason why neither Australia nor New Zealand is attached to another country.
Posted by: McKinneyTexas | July 22, 2011 at 08:35 AM
McT, it's clear that you lack the ability to appreciate the finer things in life. So sad....
Posted by: wj | July 22, 2011 at 11:14 AM
What I want to know is, since we have all these micro-breweries in America, why can't we get something like locally-sourced Vegemite at a reasonable price? (Obviously another Kiwi conspiracy; although they would have to have roped the Aussies in on it.)
Posted by: wj | July 22, 2011 at 11:16 AM
What I want to know is, since we have all these micro-breweries in America, why can't we get something like locally-sourced Vegemite at a reasonable price
Perhaps we've stumbled upon the real problem with the free trade agreement . . .
Posted by: bc | July 22, 2011 at 12:25 PM
We have brewery byproducts here in America. Grape-Nuts!
Posted by: Slartibartfast | July 23, 2011 at 05:46 PM