Real story is hard to spy

Jack Sanders

A story that New Zealand spies are bugging and digging dirt on law-abiding Maori, probably unlawfully and possibly with government collusion - published by the Sunday Star-Times in November - was one of the year's most sensational pieces of news. In short order, it produced an emphatic the-story-is-fiction denial from Prime Minister Helen Clark and resulted in the unusual step of a government-sanctioned inquiry into the allegations.

The Sunday Star-Times relied on three unidentified sources described as "spies" and "SIS operatives". But after one was exposed as a mysterious expatriate New Zealander linked to hoaxes it changed position markedly and acknowledged the possibility that it was duped.

How did this come about?

Weekend Herald inquiries indicate the leads for the Sunday Star-Times story came from a journalist in Australia and that it arose from a newspaper war: the Sunday Star-Times' concern to cement its position against a new rival, the Herald on Sunday.

The Australian journalist told the Weekend Herald (a sister paper to the Herald on Sunday) that Sunday Star-Times reporter Anthony Hubbard, who, with freelance writer Nicky Hagar, produced the story, visited him in September.

The Australian journalist said the Sunday Star-Times was looking for "a big hit" story in view of the imminent launch of the Herald on Sunday, and its reporter was interested in stories the Australian journalist wrote about an alleged United States operation to smuggle people out of North Korea with the aid of Nauruan embassies and travel documents.

That story had a New Zealand link: Jack Sanders, an expatriate Kiwi who, for a time, was appointed to represent, in Beijing, the tiny Pacific nation of Nauru.

Among contacts given to Hubbard were those for Sanders and another New Zealander. The Weekend Herald knows this man's name but will refer to him by his initials, PS. The Australian journalist said he told Hubbard he believed both men were connected to the SIS. The same Australian journalist had contacted the Weekend Herald in 2003 when this newspaper was investigating Sanders' activities. He said he believed Sanders was a deep-cover spy and was his best source in 10 years.

By last November he had changed his view. By then the Herald had revealed that Sanders was wanted for questioning by New Zealand police about his activities in Southeast Asia, unrelated to the spy allegations.

The Australian journalist who put the Sunday Star-Times in touch with Sanders was now describing him as a "maverick" and a "loose cannon".

He told the Weekend Herald it was right to recognise as a hoax an incredible story involving Zev Barkan. Barkan, along with Eli Cara and Uriel Kelman, is an Israeli agent who was involved in a scheme to illegally obtain a New Zealand passport last year. Cara and Kelman served time in jail but Barkan evaded police and left New Zealand.

Sanders' Barkan hoax is worth noting as a cautionary tale of accepting stories that are impossible to verify. This story popped up in various forms on websites, including the New Zealand site Scoop, but also made the Sydney Morning Herald. Sanders was a source of the Sydney Morning Herald story.

Versions of the Barkan story the Weekend Herald has seen mention an Asian-based organisation, which Scoop has named as Global-PAC, run by Sanders and an associate, Gerald Thorns. Thorns has lived in Asia for many years but in the 1980s worked in the Labour Party's research unit and then in the office of Phil Goff when Goff was housing minister.

Sanders and Thorns have been sources of Scoop stories.

New Zealand police want to question Thorns about his activities in Asia, unrelated to the spy allegations.

The versions carried by Australian site Indymedia in July were written in the first person under the byline "Bev Taylor". The articles claimed Barkan was prominent in Mossad murder squads operating in Southeast Asia which were targeting Australians for identity documents, and that tourists would be thrown into the sea and their travel documents stolen. The author claims to have met by chance in Cambodia both a man who "vanished", and later Barkan who had assumed that man's identity. Both articles quote an unnamed "New Zealand security official" as verifying the stories.

In an attempt to trace "Bev Taylor", the Weekend Herald contacted the website administrators. They said they had no way of contacting whoever posted the report, that "Bev Taylor" was likely to be a pseudonym, and that there was some suggestion "the posting is a hoax".

One comment on the Indymedia claimed: "Jake is a fake". Although Sanders goes by the name Jack, Births Deaths and Marriages records indicate he changed his name from his birth name of James Stubbs to Jake Sanders.

It may be that Global-PAC - Global-Protect All Children, to give it its full name - exists only on the internet. Sanders and Thorns say it is an anti-paedophile organisation. They told a Cambodian audience last year it had no offices but operated in 11 countries and its directors decided how to spend money donated by businesses and philanthropists. They have claimed to journalists that they are involved in the spy world and Global-PAC is a front.

During the six weeks the Sunday Star-Times spent researching its stories, a reporter went to Australia, where he spoke to journalists, and to Asia to interview the "spies", one of whom was Jack Sanders. There may have been no option but to interview Sanders overseas because of the interest of New Zealand police in questioning him and Thorns.

Sanders left New Zealand soon after unsuccessfully standing as a late-choice Labour candidate under his birth name of James Thomas Stubbs, in the safe National seat of Papakura in the 1990 election. He was then 22. A former Labour Party source says: "He was quite mysterious. But I have to say that he was very bright and if he wanted to put energy into something he would be very good at it."

In vague pre-election publicity, Sanders, who listed his occupation as public relations consultant, specified caring for the environment and the elderly as political objectives. New Zealand was "clearly heading towards a promising future" he said in a pre-election article in the Herald. Soon after the election he changed his name to Jack Sanders and left the country to become an international man of mystery.

Sanders was born April 7, 1968, in Waikato Public Hospital, the second of five children to Thomas Hulme Stubbs, a Manchester-born insurance agent, and Colleen, from the Waikato town of Ngaruawahia.

Thomas was 50 when Sanders was born, Colleen 21.

The family moved to Weymouth in South Auckland, where they went to school. Family members did not wish to speak to the Weekend Herald.

Sanders is remembered by some for his dedication to the martial art of wushu, at which he became an instructor.

A man who, as a 13-year-old, trained with Sanders, was impressed: "I used to watch in amazement as James would throw Ninja death stars with absolute precision into a target in the backyard."

The man said the redheaded Sanders would "dye his hair jet black and shape it in Bruce Lee fashion".

A former schoolmate remembered Sanders as a likeable rogue, "a punk rocker".

Sanders has told journalists that after leaving New Zealand in 1990 he spent time in troubled Eastern European states, where he first encountered the intelligence world. The Weekend Herald has not been able to establish the truth of this claim.

It is known that he has set himself up as a businessman in China with considerable success. He was based in the province of Guangzhou where he married a local woman and had children. It is believed members of his wife's family were involved in the Government. They include an uncle, who represents his region in Beijing. Such connections would have helped Sanders' success in China. He has been involved with several companies, has interests in hotels, and published Insight, a magazine promoting business connections between China and the West.

Most in the expat community considered Sanders a maverick and were curious about his activities although were never too concerned. But others were aware that he had been at the centre of vicious disputes over money, which made them uncomfortable. The Weekend Herald tracked down one foreigner who had gone to Chinese police about a business fallout with Sanders. The man alleged to the police that one of his staff members was kidnapped and threatened. The result of the police complaint is not known.

Although Sanders has travelled the world - getting his picture taken with notables such as the Clintons, Helen Clark, Don McKinnon and Mike Moore - his siblings haven't moved further afield than Weymouth, with the exception of youngest brother Paul, who had a stint in jail.

In May, 2002, Paul Stubbs was sentenced to 26 months in jail over a people-smuggling scam. After arranging for two Chinese people to check in at Auckland airport, he took their boarding passes and handed them to a Chinese couple. The scam was exposed when the couple were caught hiding in airport toilets in Fiji on the way to the United States.

Paul Stubbs told authorities he was working for Integrated Marketing Services, a company to which Jack Sanders has been linked. Sanders has told the Weekend Herald neither he nor that company had anything to do with the matter.

The Australian journalist, who is now distancing himself from Sanders, says he believes PS does operate in the covert world.

PS's father told the Weekend Herald he very much doubted his son was a spy but confirmed that he was an associate of Sanders. The 1988 electoral rolls list PS, then 24, as unemployed and living with his parents in a North Island town.

Four years later he was sentenced to 150 hours of community service for dangerous driving. The judge said PS, who listed his occupation as "student", was guilty of "horrifying driving". An off-duty traffic officer gave evidence that PS passed him on the left doing 110km/h, locked the brakes and skidded through an intersection against a red light at 80km/h, then continued at high speed through traffic. The officer later saw PS get out of his vehicle carrying an open bottle of beer.

He appears to have left New Zealand within a few years of the conviction. His father told the Weekend Herald that PS has lived in Southeast Asia for about 10 years and was in Cambodia late last year. He said PS had done immigration work for Chinese and then worked for Chinese trade interests. "He was at one stage getting passports for Chinese and went to Nauru, so it may be that is how he knew Jack [Sanders]," his father said.

A couple of years ago, at his son's request, PS's father escorted a Chinese family from New Zealand to Fiji, from where his son took them and another group of Chinese to Nauru where they obtained passports.

Last month, the Sunday Star-Times acknowledged growing doubts about its sources and yesterday a spokesman for the paper said that had not changed.

The paper said that since publishing the first story on November 21 it had uncovered "anomalies", and reported that the source it called "Peter" had disappeared since sending an email on December 3 to the iwi he was alleged to have bugged: "Did anyone talk to you about me? Don't worry, it was all a big story. Please keep confidential."

Editor Cate Brett said last month that the paper's sources had become elusive since publication and that it would continue to investigate their credibility. But at the time it first published, the Sunday Star-Times had information which ordinarily would warrant caution. The nub of its story was that the SIS had targeted Maori, yet rather than the so-called spies making contact with their targets it was the other way around - the quarry contacted the hunter.

Jack Sanders responded to an email "bugging target" Maori activist Whititera Kaihau sent to many embassies - including Nauru's, with which Sanders was associated.

And "Peter" - whom the paper alleges bugged an iwi's computers - was hired by a senior member of the iwi to upgrade the RAM on his own computer and install programs.

How did he find "Peter"? The Sunday Star-Times reported that he asked a friend who recommended the local computer technician.

It seems a funny way to run a spying operation.


How the story unfolded

November 11:

The Scoop website cites "intelligence sources" claiming an SIS covert operation was investigating the Maori Party.

November 21:

After a six-week investigation, the Sunday Star-Times alleges a widespread SIS campaign to spy on law-abiding Maori individuals and organisations. The allegations are sourced to three unidentified "spies".

November 22:

Prime Minister Helen Clark, having spoken to SIS director Richard Woods, labels the story "a work of fiction".

November 24:

The Herald reveals that one of the sources of the Maori-bugging story is mysterious New Zealander Jack Sanders, who has been linked to sensational hoaxes.

Clark announces a wide-ranging inquiry by the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, Justice Paul Neazor, saying she believes the story to be fiction but wants no room for suggestion of a cover-up.

November 27:

The Herald reveals that Sanders and an associate, Gerald Thorns, who also claims government connections, are wanted for questioning by police about their activities in Asia, unrelated to the bugging claims. Both men have been sources of Scoop stories.

November 28:

The Sunday Star-Times says a phone at the home of Maori Party leader Tariana Turia appears to have been interfered with, causing conversations to be transmitted to an AM radio frequency. But in an editorial it says establishing credibility of its sources and corroborating their claims was "especially difficult given the shadowy world in which they operate".

November 30:

The Dominion Post reports that no bugs were found in Turia's home and that transmission of phone conversations across the radio was not happening when the property was swept.

December 19:

The Sunday Star-Times retreats further from its stories, saying it had uncovered "anomalies" and a source who claimed to have bugged an iwi had gone to ground after sending the iwi an email saying: "Did you talk to anyone about me? Don't worry, it was all a big story."