Lepkie lapki lapkina

[Gość: PP]

Nick Turner: Tactic of intimidation by smear utterly repugnant

27.07.2004
COMMENT

It must be pretty evident to most New Zealanders that the attack on Helen
Clark by Ted Lapkin, of the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council's
journal, was founded on a series of factual misrepresentations, false
comparisons and unsupported inferences.

Mr Lapkin condemned what he perceived to be a contrast between the Prime
Minister's casual attitude to the trafficking of faked New Zealand passports
in Bangkok and her fury at the attempt by Israeli agents to obtain a genuine
one here.

If he has any evidence for his assertion that the Bangkok forgery ring is
being run by al Qaeda, Mr Lapkin would do a service to the war against
terrorism and international crime by revealing it.

According to information made public, the 23 faked New Zealand passports
seized in Bangkok, along with faked passports of other countries, were
produced for the black market by a criminal ring and available to all comers.

It is possible that some had been acquired by al Qaeda terrorists, but no one
apart from Mr Lapkin has affirmed publicly that the forgery operation is being
run by al Qaeda. His complaint that our Foreign Ministry treated the matter
dismissively in saying it had no confirmation that al Qaeda may be using them
is nonsensical, given that the Thai police quoted by Mr Lapkin made clear this
was only speculation.

The attempt by a group of Israelis to obtain a genuine New Zealand passport
under false pretences is in a very different category. This was not a "rather
amateurish" plot by "a couple of errant Israelis", as Mr Lapkin would have us
believe. It involved at least four people, one of whom is known to have been a
long-time Israeli diplomatic "attache" (usually a non-diplomat operating under
diplomatic auspices).

Only through a minor slip was it detected, and it is reasonable to suspect the
same methods may have been successfully used on previous occasions.

The authorities in Israel have not denied that the men caught were Mossad
agents, and, in fact, the respected newspaper Ha'aretz has reported they were.

But, according to the same newspaper, Mossad managed to persuade Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon to stop his Foreign Ministry providing any apology or
explanation to New Zealand.

If the plotters were just a couple of "errant Israelis", why did they go to
such extraordinary lengths to get a New Zealand passport in Auckland when they
could have obtained one for a tiny fraction of the cost and effort in Bangkok?
Obviously, the Bangkok ones are inferior imitations, but would this matter to
a couple of "keystone cops", as Mr Lapkin portrays them?

There is a rather large difference between an Asian criminal gang passing off
faked passports and the intelligence service of a sovereign state trying by
criminal means to obtain a genuine one. There is also a difference between the
co-operative attitude of the Thai Government and the refusal of Israel to
confront the truth.

Mr Lapkin's suggestion that Helen Clark has portrayed Israel as being a
physical threat to New Zealand's national security is nonsense. But there are
obvious security implications for New Zealand in having Mossad agents
travelling round the world on New Zealand passports.

Equally ridiculous is the attack on the Prime Minister for her failure to
"rebuke" the Taleban over an alleged al Qaeda plot hatched from a "virtual
command centre" in Auckland in 2000 against the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor
in Sydney.

Despite initial reports of such a plot, it turned out to have little
substance. Certainly the men involved were Afghans and were engaged in
organised crime, but they were actually anti-Taleban, and after investigation
it seems that neither New Zealand nor Australian police concluded they
presented a terrorist threat.

And Mr Lapkin's statement that Helen Clark has "made common cause with
bedfellows" in the Hamas terrorist organisation is both false and reprehensible.

No only did the Prime Minister state publicly that her criticism of Israel
should not give comfort to Hamas but her Government has long been on record as
repeatedly condemning Hamas terrorism.

It has also (along with many other governments round the world) criticised
some Israeli actions, such as the construction of "the wall" on Palestinian
territory, and this perhaps accounts for Mr Lapkin's condemnation of what he
sees as the "moral bankruptcy" of her Middle East policy.

If Mr Lapkin's logic is accepted, no one can ever make the least criticism of
Israel without being accused of making "common cause" and being "bedfellows"
with its Hamas terrorist enemies.

This tactic of intimidation by smear, designed to silence criticism, is
utterly repugnant in a democracy.

* Nick Turner is a Wellington writer on international affairs. He is
responding to Ted Lapkin's view that Helen Clark has been deliberately
selective in the direction of her outrage against passport fraud.

Herald investigation: Passport

- ADVERTISEMENT -


Email story link to a friend Print story Top

Dialogue
Editorial: Chief Justice entitled to her criticism

Colin James: Perpetuating a victim mentality simply creates victims

Robert Patman: Gaining strength by standing firm

Nick Turner: Tactic of intimidation by smear utterly repugnant

Judy Raymond: Dark side of creating a Cinderella for the ball

Philippa Stevenson: Waikato's dying lakes a money sink

Editorial: Sickness stats cast shadow on dole drop

Brian Rudman: 'Independent supporters' back up for V8s race

Paul Thomas: On suspicion of being drunk in charge of history

Peter Cresswell: Act of cruelty to property owner

Peter Curson: Time to rethink what we want from modern medicine

Editorial: Universities: Let state pay up or shut up

Editorial: Less than flattering portrait of our art

Sandra Paterson: TV-free, and just loving it

Gordon McLauchlan: No wonder we're so fat - blame haute cuisine

John Roughan: Pre-emption doctrine the flaw in Iraq mess

John Armstrong: Betting a hectare each way

Editorial: Coastal land must not be roped off

Brian Rudman: Young ambassador deserves city's recognition

Jim Hopkins: Don't be a gormless, tasteless pillock, take on Yart 101

Chris Lawrence: We must keep good faith in the world

Ted Lapkin: PM's priorities somewhat odd in Israeli 'spies' affair

Te Radar: Of flooding, fire and giant cockroaches

Editorial: Even Irving has right of free speech

Philippa Stevenson: Flag-waver for lonely cause

Greg Burke: Queen of aliases to excite Venice

Garth George: 120 cases of child abuse every day? Pull the other one

Jeanette Fitzsimons: Resource act doesn't need big changes

Ken Harvey: Free trade drugs policy favours US companies

Editorial: Good money after bad to forestry co


More Headlines...




Latest NZ News
Updated 5.00 pm NZT
'Hitchhiker from hell' gets time to repay victims

Rotorua businessman faces child porn charges

More serious charges to be laid over beating of five-year-old

Man jailed for torching of popular hall

National Front claim similarities with Maori Party

Police nab 53 on North Shore after four-day sting

Electric blanket warning after fire







© Copyright 2004, New Zealand Herald