Terror camps' recruits in NZ

By EUGENE BINGHAM Herald inquiry

Young men trained in foreign terrorist camps lived in New Zealand in the 1990s when Osama bin Laden's deputy says he twice travelled here.

Herald inquiries into claims Ayman al-Zawahiri visited New Zealand and Australia between 1992 and 1996 reveal authorities are aware of people with fundamentalist links, although they do not believe they are part of a terrorist cell.

Zawahiri's claimed Downunder missions have highlighted suspicions held by security agencies - and exposed flaws in New Zealand's border protection.

"Today, or then [in the 1990s], there were opportunities for people who have been well prepared to get past," said a well-placed source.

But the head of the police's counter-terrorism operations, Assistant Commissioner Jon White, said yesterday that gaps that might have existed in the 1990s had been closed. As well as physical security enhancements, border officials and other agencies were a lot more alert.

A Pakistan newspaper editor, Hamid Mir, said last week that Zawahiri had boasted about travelling through the West, including New Zealand where he said he used false passports with Western names to enter the country posing as a leather salesman. The 52-year-old Egyptian former surgeon is second only to bin Laden in the United States' "most wanted" list and is said to be the brains of al Qaeda's global terror operation.

An Immigration source said of Zawahiri's purported visit: "I think he probably was here but there is absolutely no way you could tell unless someone wants to go through years and years of airport surveillance footage.

"He could have been here scoping for a safe haven, the ease of obtaining documents, researching immigration movements, making contacts with the local community, visiting people who were here he would have been interested in meeting, or promoting various ideologies.

"There was an influx of refugees at that time who had a political bent in their home countries so there would have been people here who would have had an interest. But from what I know of those people, a lot of them would have just paid lip service to him if he was here.

"They come here for a quiet life and they lose interest."

Publicly available documents show the Security Intelligence Service has investigated possible links between people in New Zealand and the al Qaeda network, including collaborators in the September 11 strikes.

One source told the Herald of suspicions about groups sending money to al Qaeda and other fundamentalist groups. There was also evidence dating back to the 1990s of young men spending time in terrorist training camps.

"A lot of young guys would have trained in those terrorist camps but they came here as refugees.

"There would also be a number here who are supporters of al Qaeda but you have to balance that by saying that the vast majority would not [be] and within the community there is this kind of fear of these people."

Perhaps more disturbing is the ease with which people have been able to pass through New Zealand undetected and even obtain official documents under bogus identities.

The Herald has learned of one man well known in people-smuggling circles who came to New Zealand and obtained refugee status and a passport. He lodged his asylum claim as an Afghan, but authorities who have investigated him believe he is probably a Pakistani or Iranian.

The man ran a major smuggling network responsible for illegally sending hundreds of asylum-seekers to Australia, Canada and New Zealand. One of his most notorious deals was putting 75 people on the Tampa.

One source said that, because of September 11, border security was tighter now than in the 1990s, but a number of high-profile international leaders' meetings in Auckland, culminating in the 1999 Apec conference, meant New Zealand was well protected then too.

* Email Eugene Bingham