NZ spies bugged Israeli agents

By AUDREY YOUNG, political editor

New Zealand intelligence agencies are understood to have bugged the two Israeli passport fraudsters and gained concrete evidence that they were Mossad agents.

Israel will neither confirm nor deny the status of the prisoners. But Prime Minister Helen Clark said last week there was no doubt that the pair, Eli Cara and Urie Kelman, were operatives of the Israeli intelligence agency.

She also said that Israel knew how New Zealand was aware of the men's status.

The Herald understands New Zealand's intelligence agencies confirmed the pair were Mossad agents through bugging their communications. Covert surveillance was undertaken after an Internal Affairs officer became suspicious about a passport application.

The men were arrested on March 23. Last week they were jailed for six months for attempting to fraudulently obtain a passport.

The intelligence operation before their arrest would have been under the auspices of the Government Communications Security Bureau or the Security Intelligence Service.

But it is more likely to have been the security bureau, which is specifically geared to foreign intelligence matters.

In either case, an interception warrant would normally have required the consent of the minister in charge of both services, the Prime Minister.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Phil Goff, would most likely have been consulted.

Helen Clark has asked for an apology from Israel but she said yesterday it appeared unlikely Israel would comment until after the sentences had been served. "Whether we get anything of course is a moot point."

She did not believe an expression of regret last week from Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom ("We are sorry about this matter") was an apology.

"But the tone was conciliatory which was a good first step I suppose," she said on Newstalk ZB.