- Bob Leonard
It is very likely that if the events of September 11
2001 had never happened we would not have been paid a visit in March 2002 by
Robert S Mueller III, head of the American Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI). Although the conference he attended was hush hush, he did not escape
media attention. The US VIP visit made the national TVNZ One News, but Mueller had yet to be identified. This was soon
followed by both the New Zealand Herald
and the Press publishing the same
large colour photo of Mueller boarding his US Air Force C-20 Gulfstream
aeroplane and pointing a finger toward the tarmac (“…and don’t try to follow
me…”). The FBI has been widely pummelled in recent months for its apparent
failures in apprehending terrorists who might have had something to do with the
September 2001 attacks in the US, including the continuing investigative fiasco
over the lethal anthrax letters. Casting about for comment on the visit the Herald approached researcher and author
Nicky Hager for his views on the purpose of the conference. PR
thinks his comment had just the right tone:
“They are like funeral-home owners – they have conferences”. Luxury
conferences are clearly an integral part of the global struggle against
terrorism.
Also notable in the Herald article was the fact that Anti-Bases Campaign’s own Murray
Horton had his say: “…[Mueller’s visit]
was reminiscent of a meeting in the early 1970s at the Mt Cook Hermitage when
the CIA director Richard Helms attended”.
Mueller was trying to leave Queenstown Airport on the
quiet after attending an international security summit held at the exclusive
Millbrook Resort.[1] According to the news accounts the two-day
(11-12 March) summit was attended by both British and NZ security service
agents and had the blessing of PM Helen Clark.
She thought it was “good for New Zealand”. No doubt any time somebody important from the US deigns to visit
little NZ, it’s bound to be good for us.
Peace Researcher commends the Press and the Herald
for doing a bit of digging on this one.
Such visits by security bigwigs from foreign countries are interesting
if not alarming. The public is kept in the dark as much as possible and even
Defence Minister Mark Burton’s office apparently knew nothing about the visit.
But the American authorities did not hesitate “to take over” a bit of NZ real
estate to protect their own perceived interests. The truly alarming bit is that
the NZ government is all too ready and willing to yield authority to a foreign
power, especially if that power is the United States. Recall the incredible
fuss over the Clinton visit in 1999 which involved another occupation of poor
little Queenstown (not to mention Christchurch’s Cathedral Square), and the US
military occupation and virtual sovereignty for over 40 years of a sizeable
chunk of Christchurch Airport.
“Millbrook Resort has been under strict surveillance,
possibly including CIA agents, since the weekend when the group arrived. Media
were escorted off the grounds and agents in golf carts patrolled the area” (Press, 13/3/02). “Any slightly
suspicious camera-toting visitors, normally not out of place on a Queenstown
holiday, were politely bailed up and briefly interrogated by special agents
wearing ear-piece wiring before being asked to leave Millbrook yesterday” (Radio NZ National News, 12/3/02).
Intrepid Green MP Keith Locke got up Helen Clark’s
nose when he did a bit of his own digging at Parliamentary question time. “Mr
Locke asked under what authority US special agents interrogated people around
the Millbrook Resort. ‘I suggest he phones the United States embassy if he
wants to make those sort of allegations,’ Ms Clark said.” (Press, 14/3/02). Doesn’t that just say it all so well? The Prime
Minister tells an MP to ask the Americans about who gave them authority to take
over a New Zealand resort and harass the locals.
Keith also got stuck into the Minister of Police,
George Hawkins, about foreign law enforcement officers at Millbrook. Hawkins
denied that the foreigners were armed, and he branded their blatant takeover of
the resort as “normal security co-operation between New Zealand Police and
foreign officials”. But according to the National
News report, “About 20 special agents, some
of whom appeared to be armed, surrounded the restaurant grounds” (emphasis
added). That was at the Gibbston Valley Winery where senior American and
British officials dined on the Sunday night before the conference began. Was
the Minister of Police telling New Zealanders the truth?
As a final note, it is interesting that Mueller
apparently did not use the American military facilities at Christchurch
Airport. According to the Press, “A
Queenstown Airport control tower spokesman said one aircraft arrived from Guam (a US possession, Ed.) and the other flew
in from Kiribati. Mr Mueller flew to Canberra, and the second jet flew to
Hawaii”. We checked our flight records for American aircraft at Christchurch
Airport and found an Air Force plane, described as a C-37 (ID number 90904 DV),
arrived on 9 March and departed on 12 March. Was its visit related to the
Queenstown conference? It’s hard to say. We have never seen such an entry
before in the many years of flight records that ABC holds. And we could not
determine what a C-37 aircraft is in an Internet search. A C-37 apparently
doesn’t exist.
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[1] Mueller’s NZ visit was part of a trip that included Australia and several Asian countries, all of which were visited to discuss “security matters” and to lay down the American line on the “war on terror”. Ed.