Full Text: GCSB responds

The following is a response to recent media commentary from Warren Tucker, Director of the GCSB

The recent flurry of media reporting and commentary about the activities of the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) following the inadvertent disclosure of the Bureau's Annual Report for 1985/86 amongst former PM David Lange's papers has raised a number of important underlying issues which I believe are important to address, and to set straight the public record.

In particular, I would like to respond directly to a number of the inferences and assumptions which appear to be the foundation for some of the recent commentary, as well as some misplaced assertions which – despite attempts over recent years to correct – continue to be recycled as "fact".

Chief amongst these are the inference that the GCSB's greater loyalty is to the so-called "UKUSA partnership" rather than to the New Zealand Government of the day; that the GCSB keeps its Minister (traditionally, the Prime Minister) "in the dark" and unaware of what it is doing or the implications of its actions; that New Zealand's membership of the "UKUSA club" somehow compromises our sovereignty and our independence of thought and action (especially in foreign policy); that the GCSB's stations at Waihopai and Tangimoana are actually US bases in disguise; that the GCSB's prime purpose is to serve US and/or UK interests; and that the GCSB is actively targeting New Zealanders.   The overall implication from much of the recent commentary is that the GCSB's activities have a negative rather than beneficial effect on New Zealand's wider national and sovereign interests.

The GCSB is one of New Zealand's two security and intelligence organisations involved in the collection and analysis of secret intelligence – the other is the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS).   Both GCSB and NZSIS are governed by their respective Acts, which set out very clearly in legislation their roles and purpose, and what they can and can not do.   Separate legislation governs the two pillars of the oversight arrangements – through the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, who is a retired High Court judge and who acts independently in checking that the activities of each agency are fully in accordance with the law; and through the Intelligence and Security Committee – a committee of senior Parliamentarians, chaired by the Prime Minister and including the Leader of the Opposition, which functions in much the same way as a Select Committee but operates within a "ring of secrecy" established by law in order to enable proper scrutiny of the agencies. 

The GCSB's twin roles and functions are spelled out in the GCSB Act 2003.   These are – first to collect and report secret foreign intelligence derived from the interception and analysis of foreign communications, on matters of importance to the New Zealand Government.   Secondly, the GCSB provides the tools and advice necessary to ensure that the communications systems and computer networks used for official and governmental business and for critical infrastructure are properly protected from tampering and from unauthorised access.   These twin roles are likened by some to that of "poacher" and "gamekeeper", and it is no accident that they both reside within the one organisation.   The GCSB Act – which enshrines in law the long-standing practices of the Bureau – makes it absolutely clear that the GCSB must not target the communications of New Zealanders.

For the GCSB to do its work effectively it must operate in secret.   In particular, details of its targets and its operations must not be publicly confirmed.   Even informed speculation in the media can be very damaging to on-going accesses and the flow of intelligence reporting so sought after by our key customers.

Similarly, disclosures of historical information – even going back decades – detailing the GCSB's activities and directly or indirectly shedding light on its capabilities and successes, can be damaging.   This is because – despite rapid advances in communications technology – the underlying techniques and capabilities which enable our access and exploitation of targets of high intelligence interest often remain essentially unchanged, and are subject to easily implemented countermeasures which would close-off our ability to keep producing intelligence of value.

This, fundamentally, is the reason for all the public secrecy surrounding the GCSB which some find troublesome.

The intelligence and security services of all the Western democracies with which I am familiar exist to serve their government of the day.   As a career intelligence officer who has been closely associated with the GCSB in one capacity or another since very shortly after it was created in 1977, and its Director for the past six years, let me state categorically that I am aware of no circumstance where the GCSB has put its own interests – or that of the "UKUSA partnership" – ahead of those of New Zealand.   Equally the GCSB's actions have been and remain entirely consistent with, and subordinate to, the policies and interests of the New Zealand Government of the day.

New Zealand's wider national and sovereign interests in this ever-changing and uncertain world depend fundamentally on being well-informed, and remaining alert to changing circumstance and fresh dangers.   The GCSB plays a critical role in this respect.   Further, as successive Governments have quickly realised, New Zealand's membership of what has been colourfully referred to as "the fist" of "the indivisible Anglo-Saxon coalition" actually serves our national interests extremely well.   Far from being the "lackey" of US or UK "puppet masters", New Zealand enjoys immense benefits from its membership of this long-standing partnership – benefits in terms of access to a wide range of intelligence reporting having global reach, access to technology and methodologies which we simply could not develop on our own, and – from time to time when necessary  to supplement normal diplomacy – a direct line in to the inner circles of power in London and Washington to ensure that New Zealand's viewpoint is at least understood if not taken into account on matters of foreign policy importance to us.   Far from being unable to escape the "clenched fist", successive New Zealand Governments – including that of David Lange – have sought very hard to retain our membership of this collaborative partnership, and the access to the significant consequential benefits we enjoy.   I can confirm for the public record that the then Director GCSB, Colin Hanson, worked very hard to ensure that Mr Lange was briefed frequently, carefully, and comprehensively about the activities of the GCSB at that time, and about their implications.  Any suggestion that Mr Lange was unaware of what the GCSB was doing while he was Prime Minister, or that the GCSB somehow ceded its proper and sovereign control over its Waihopai station, is simply wrong.

Finally, on the allegation that GCSB's membership of the "UKUSA club" compromises our independence of thought and action – especially on foreign policy – I would suggest that history over the past twenty or so years shows otherwise.   It did not prevent New Zealand's anti-nuclear stand in the mid 1980s despite the political and diplomatic costs of that course of action.   More recently, New Zealand's approach to pending and then actual conflict in Iraq was not that of a "lackey" falling in with the wishes of the US and the UK.   To avoid any lingering doubt, let me confirm publicly that the GCSB's actions in regard to Iraq have at all times been very carefully calibrated to ensure that they were fully consistent with our Government's stated and public foreign policy.   It has not been a case of the New Zealand Government saying one thing publicly and the GCSB doing another privately.

Successive Governments have not only come to quickly realise the substantial benefits that the GCSB and the NZSIS bring to New Zealand through their own efforts and – highly magnified – through their longstanding intelligence partnerships.   They have also followed through in seeking to grow both agencies both in terms of resources and in their range of programmes and capabilities.

The GCSB is an internationally-regarded world-class organisation, with a rightfully-earned international reputation for consistently delivering results well beyond what is expected given its small size.   New Zealanders should be very proud – as I am – of the excellent work done by the dedicated and professional men and women of the GCSB, day and night, every day of the year.    They are our unsung heroes.   They deserve accolades, not brickbats. 

Dr Warren Tucker
Director, GCSB