Lt. Colonel Samraoui’s character assassination of Zaoui
On 4 December 2002, Algerian refugee Ahmed Zaoui was detained at New Zealand Customs after he had torn up his passport at 32,000 ft and flushed the pieces down one of the passenger jet’s toilets.[1]
Zaoui was seeking political asylum partly because he had been sentenced to death in an Algerian Court, where he was tried in absentia for terrorism charges, weapons trafficking and for being a guerilla leader. Zaoui was also seeking a new life in the South Pacific country of New Zealand, partly because the French, Swiss and Belgium authorities had joined in the persecution. Also, because he thought the South Pacific country’s geographical isolation would afford the authorities political distance, a learned investigation and abstemiousness.
Unfortunately, Zaoui had believed the South Pacific Neo-Colonial state’s tourist marketing.
The Algerian-born asylum seeker’s actual sin was he had been a member of a political party, the Front Islamique du Salut or Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), which in late 1991 won the majority of Algerian Parliament’s seats. The Algerian military regime not only found this election win intolerable and cancelled the election result. The Algerian military dictatorship hunted down FIS members and the most unfortunate souls were imprisoned, tortured and murdered.
Amid the mayhem, Ahmed Zaoui fled Algeria for Europe in 1993.
Mr Zaoui was interviewed in the noisy customs hall at Auckland International Airport by a barely trained customs officer, who incorrectly noted that the man claiming refugee status had said he was a member of the GIA, or the Groupe Islamic Armé, which was a militant group opposing the Algerian military junta.
Evidently, Zaoui said he was a member of “FIS”, the political party, Islamic Salvation Front, or (Front Islamique du Salut) that was overthrown by the Algerian military junta after winning the 1991 election.
Journalist Selwyn Manning, reporting for Scoop News, stated Mr Zaoui — whose command of English was limited — verbally spelt out the letters: “F.I.S.” to the customs officer. However, the customs officer who conducted the interview without the aid of an interpretator, heard “efeeyes”. The Refugee Status Appeals Authority found what Zaoui said was “F.I.S”. Zaoui’s pronunciation of the letter ‘I’ is pronounced as an ‘E’ rhyming with Bee. Thus, what the Customs officer heard was phonetically “efeeyes”.
Like a cliched scene in a movie that goes from bad o worse for the protagonist, the Customs officer did not comprehend “efeeyes” stood for the acronym F.I.S. of the political party that was overthrown by Algeria’s military junta. As a consequence of structural professional incompetence, which pervades the New Zealand state bureaucracy, and amid the post-9/11 propaganda environment, the Customs officer asked Zaui if he was GIA, to which Zaoui evidently “nodded and said yes”. Evidently, Mr Zaoui misunderstood what he asked.
The Customs officer alerted the Counter-Terrorism Unit, who then telephoned the SIS to “advise of developments”. Zaoui’s “admission” was relayed by Customs officials to New Zealand Police, and then New Zealand Interpol Bureau issued an email to 12 foreign Interpol offices stating: “He (Zaoui) is a member of the Armed Islamic Group, which is known by the French acronym G.I.A.” The Police’s threat assessment to the Crown Law Office stated Zaoui “admitted belonging to a terrorist group”, as Mr Manning reported, 30 March 2004, on the developing case’s twists, turns and translations.
The news snowballed. Little New Zealand had not had a terrorist since the French DGSE bombed the Rainbow Warrior.
On March 23 2003, the then-Director of New Zealand’s Security Intelligence Service (SIS) Richard Woods issued the South Pacific Neo-Colonial State’s first ever Security Risk Certificate, finding that Ahmed Zaoui posed a terrorism risk to New Zealand.[2] Zaoui was released on bail in December 2004 after a Supreme Court hearing, and lived with the Catholic community in the Dominican Priory in Auckland awaiting the hearing to review the certificate. That hearing did not take place until the winter of 2007.
Because Zaoui had been locked up for two years, New Zealand’s Neo-Colonial Crown was able to inflict a vexatious, malicious propaganda campaign in the absence of conducting a thorough investigation, as is meant to be due to any human being. Due to this avoidance of following its owns statute laws, case law and its marketed image of overseeing liberal democracy, the Neo-Colonial stoked a multi-season psy-op news special.
It turns out that New Zealand’s Security Intelligence Service (SIS) had relied on planted intelligence from Belgium, France and Switzerland based on a black flag operation produced by Algeria’s military intelligence agency, the DRS, to discredit Zaoui.
In mid-2007, the New Zealand Crown’s case against Algerian refugee Ahmed Zaoui collapsed because of secret witness testimony given by Algeria’s former head of intelligence and counter-espionage for Northern Europe, as the documentary Behind the Shroud Juxtapositioning Truth, Intelligence and Tradecraft shows. The Algerian security service agent, Lieutenant Colonel Mohamed Samraoui, produced his evidence in classified hearings showing that the asylum seeker had been framed for character assassination. Lieutenant Colonel Samraoui, a former assassin, was able to prove to New Zealand’s Inspector General of Intelligence and Security, Justice Paul Neazor, that the Security Intelligence Service (SIS) had relied on false information maliciously planted with their NATO counterparts.
The Crown’s case against Zaoui had already been damaged when it became public knowledge that the director of the NZSIS, Richard Woods, had been New Zealand’s ambassador to Algeria based in Paris at the time when Zaoui was in Algeria, a former colony of France that appeared to gain independence after a revolutionary war from 1954-1962.
Subsequently, the SIS Director Woods retired on Halloween in 2006 and was replaced by the director of the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB), Warren Tucker.
Moreover, Ahmed Zaoui’s dedicated defence team and helpers gathered counter-evidence. This effort included human rights lawyer Deborah Manning and immigration lawyer Matt Robson whom traveled to Europe to interview between 30 to 40 people and gather supporting evidence from people who either knew Zaoui, could ‘throw light’ on aspects of the story, or provide context on Algeria. This effort included interviewing Lieutenant Colonel Samraoui, the leading Algerian Deep State author primarily responsible for Ahmed Zaoui’s character assassination.
However, neither Ahmed Zaoui, his defence team, the news media or the public were allowed access to these classified hearings in which Lieutenant Colonel Samraoui gave his damaging evidence to the Neo-Colonial Crown’s case. Ironically, New Zealand’s Neo-Colonial Crown appointed special advocate Stuart Grieve QC and Chris Morris.
In Behind the Shroud, one of Zaoui lawyer’s, Deborah Manning, recounts that periodically the special advocates would state they needed to discuss the classified evidence and Zaoui private counsel Rodney Harrison QC, Richard McCleod and Manning would have to leave the hearing. Human rights lawyer Deborah Manning said:
“It was like two parallel universes going on”.[3]
Lieutenant Colonel Samraoui stated he was the principal author of the false biography constructed for the character assassination of Ahmed Zaoui. This false bio became known as the ‘GIA Communiqué’, which was created by Algeria’s equivalent to the CIA, the Département du Renseignement et de la Sécurité – or DRS. The ‘GIA Communiqué’ claimed that Zaoui was a member of the Groupe Islamic Armé (GIA), which had adopted violent tactics in 1992 after the Algerian military junta voided the 1991 election results. The GIA itself was infiltrated and manipulated by the DRS, Lieutenant Colonel Samraoui said.
Incongruously, the ‘GIA Communiqué’ also claimed Zaoui was the GIA head of the caliphate government in exile. A caliphate is an Islamic government lead by a religious successor or steward to the prophet Muhammad that traditionally ruled a transnational multiethnic empire. The GIA dossier was incongruous because the structure of this apparent government in exile replicated the government structure in Algeria, complete with the same ministerial positions but with the names changed to frame enemies of the state. In other words, the DRS had used the existing Algerian secular government structure as a template to fix the narrative of violent Islamic religious fundamentalists plotting a coup d’état takeover of Algeria from Europe. In fact, the DRS became scared that Zaoui would be taken seriously sewriously in Europe, persuade other to join the non-violent, peace advocating and law-ward Islamic Salvation Front (FIS).
With a devilish smirk, Lieutenant Colonel Samraoui says the DRS sent the ‘GIA Communiqué’ to European media. The inference is that the news media reproduced the false legend of Zaoui on a presumptive accuracy basis without investigating because the material originated with an intelligence service aligned with France, Belgium and Switzerland.
Samraoui added details, saying that in order to fix the Algerian court case – in which Zaoui was tried in absentia and given the death sentence – the DRS slandered Zaoui by saying he was responsible for a planting a bomb, weapons trafficking and was a guerilla leader organizing terrorism. Lieutenant Colonel Samraoui stated that:
“Ahmed Zaoui did not know anybody in the GIA.”
Yet, Lieutenant Colonel Samraoui was a principle player in the legend that Zaoui created a terrorist organization.
Ironically, Lieutenant Colonel Samraoui was known as a key figure in the character assassination of Ahmed Zaoui as far back as February 2004, when the NZ Listener published Gordon Campbell’s exposé, “The French Connection”. Campbell wrote:
“Zaoui has been accused by New Zealand authorities of being a member and supporter of the GIA – when, in fact, it seems the relevant classified information has been fed to the SIS by the same security organisations that enabled the GIA to commit its most bloody exploits.”
Campbell related that he had conducted phone and email interviews with Lieutenant Colonel Samraoui – in French, via a translator – at his refuge in Germany. In great detail, wrote Campbell, the exiled Lieutenant Colonel had recounted during interviews and in his 2003 book, Chronicle of the Years of Blood, how the GIA’s reign of terror targeted the voter base of the FIS following their 1991 election win and sought to discredit Islam in Algeria, while garnering sympathy and political support for the Algerian regime in France. In “The French Connection” exposé, Campbell quoted Lieutenant Colonel Samraoui:
“Ahmed Zaoui has never been a member of the GIA, or any armed group whatsoever. Ahmed Zaoui is even innocent of the crimes of which he was accused in Belgium and France. I am sure of this [Zaoui’s innocence] because I was personally involved in the campaign launched against the Islamist leaders in Europe, of which Zaoui was one, in order to discredit them, and to obtain their extradition to Algeria.”
New Zealand’s Police-Intelligence-Surveillance-Security-State apparatus faced an imminent threat to its credibility following the collapse of this expensive, long-running Zaoui case. If classified evidence leaked about why the Crown was forced to let Zaoui go after almost five years, the reputation of New Zealand’s security-intelligence-surveillance services would have been severely diminished. At this time, amendments to the Terrorism Suppression Act of 2002 were going through parliamentary select committee processes. Parliamentary lawmakers such as Keith Locke, who had first raised concerns over Zaoui’s case, needed to be overwhelmed with fast-moving deep state conjured events, or speed politics, where the spectacle presented in news sheets, screens and scripts is the evidence for framing targeted scape-goats.
It was Lieutenant Colonel Mohamed Samraoui’s testimony, given in classified hearings held by New Zealand’s Inspector General of Intelligence and Security, Justice Paul Neazor, which resulted in the New Zealand Government releasing Ahmed Zaoui with little explanation. The Crown Law’s legal services cost $1.3 million.[4]
The record shows that a statement from then-Director of the NZ Security Intelligence Service, Warren Tucker, on the Deep State Easter Bunnies’ favourite day of any month, the 13th of September 2007, failed to satisfactorily clarify that Ahmed Zaoui had been framed for character assassination by Lieutenant Colonel Samraoui.[5]
Because Warren Tucker left Lieutenant Colonel Samraoui’s part in framing Ahmed Zaoui classified, he was able to get away with insinuating that Zaoui had been guilty of “participating in and leading terrorist networks” in France and Belgium, and that his deportation from “Switzerland for issuing statements supporting violence in Algeria and attracting extremists” were legitimate records of Zaoui’s life. Therefore, New Zealand’s Deep State rabbit warren was left-free to double-down in their efforts to expand their power.
The task to explain why the Clark Government simply released Ahmed Zaoui with little explanation in 2007 was left to journalist Selwyn Manning. Tree months after Zaoui’s release independent media outlet Scoop Media, ran a story in December 2007, “Secret Zaoui Witness Arrested, Flees To Germany”. In his Scoop report, Manning wrote:
“Col. Samraoui was a secret witness who in July/August 2007 testified at the closed and classified SIS V. Ahmed Zaoui ‘Open Hearings’ in Auckland, New Zealand, before the Inspector General of Intelligence and Security, Justice Paul Neazor.”
In other words, New Zealand’s establishment media performed their Fourth Estate function to protect the other three estates of this Neo-Feudal Realm – by refusing to supply the context to their mass news audiences. This context was available sparingly in the independent media, with this Scoop News scoop three months after Samraoui’s release and nearly four years prior in the NZ Listener‘s exposé, “The French Connection”.
In 2009, Manning traveled to Europe to interview the former Algerian intelligence agent and assassin. Lieutenant Colonel Samraoui told Manning it was standard procedure in security risk assessments to decide the suitably for action against a political target on a spectrum from character assassination to actual assassination – weighing the risks with the threats the targets were perceived to pose to the structures of power.
Once the multi-season psy-war to frame Zaoui collapsed, this meant the national security state had lost their ‘poster boy’ for the ‘Global War on Terror’ in New Zealand. By being forced to free their ‘poster boy’, the national security state faced a looming crisis of legitimacy at a time when amendments to the terrorism Suppression Act were before a parliamentary select committee. This credibility crisis converged with the Crown’s looming crisis that it had zero legitimacy to deny Tūhoe the return of the Urewera wilderness.
To confront this convergence of crises, the Crown’s Deep State deftly deployed its scripted B-Grade multi-season News Special psy-op – Operation Eight and was effective enough to achieve its broad objective: to save the realm from a catastrophic collapse of Crown credibility.
Parliamentary lawmakers such as Keith Locke, who had first raised concerns over Zaoui’s case, needed to be overwhelmed with fast-moving deep state conjured events, or speed politics, where the spectacle presented in news sheets, screens and scripts is the evidence for framing targeted scape-goats. Thus, just one month later, New Zealand’s Deep State would inflicted a mass character assassination that relied in part on the intelligence gathering of private investigation firms, as journalist Nicky Hager’s investigations in late 2007 and early 2008 showed.[6]
These developments led directly to the New Zealand State’s Police-Intelligence-Spy-Security apparatus opting to prosecute the Operation Eight raids of October 15 2007 across the North Island. These raids occurred even though the Special Intelligence Group at Auckland’s Metro Crime Services found there was no terrorist plot.
Coming soon: Meet real-life NZ Deep State Easter Bunnies down the rabbit hole in Part 2 and 3 – as New Zealand’s national security state scapegoat the next ‘poster boys’ in the War of Terror era – Tame Iti and Kim Dotcom – to resolve more crises & feed the New Zealand Crown’s addition for multi-season psy-war news specials!!!
Source References:
[1] Selwyn Manning (2012). Behind the Shroud: Truth, Intelligence & Tradecraft. Lone Wolf Films. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RhP2I7KqH0
[2] Decade Since Zaoui Sought Asylum In NZ – Have We Learned From SIS’s Mistakes? « Lone Wolf Films. Retrieved from https://lonewolffilms.nz/2012/12/04/decade-since-zaoui-sought-asylum-in-nz-have-we-learned-from-siss-mistakes/
[3] Selwyn Manning (2012). Behind the Shroud: Truth, Intelligence & Tradecraft. Lone Wolf Films. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RhP2I7KqH0
[4] Figures provided by other ministers show: court costs totalled $252,000; it cost $80,000 to imprison Mr Zaoui for two years; $480,000 has been paid out in legal aid; and Crown Law’s legal services cost $1.3 million. New Zealand clears Ahmed Zaoui after nearly 5 years. Retrieved from http://www.algeria.com/forums/world-dans-le-monde/15504-new-zealand-clears-ahmed-zaoui-after-nearly-5-years-4.html
[5] NZ Security Intelligence Service 13 September 2007 NZSIS Statement Concerning Mr Ahmed Zaoui. Retrieved from http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0709/S00194/nzsis-statement-concerning-mr-ahmed-zaoui.htm; See also: Gordon Campbell. (16 July 2007). The Zaoui Case – Injustice On The Cheap. Retrieved from http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0707/S00175.htm; Scoop Media. (16 July 2007). The Ahmed Zaoui Case – The Gordon Campbell Series. Scoop.co.nz. Retrieved from http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0707/S00174.htm
Warren Tucker. (13 Sep, 2007). Statement by director of the SIS concerning Mr Ahmed Zaoui. Retrieved from https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10463352
[6] Despite a directive from then-Prime Minister Helen Clark to Solid Energy and all other state-owned enterprises and departments to desist from using private sector spies to infiltrate activist groups with informants, the Operation Eight police raids had relied on information supplied by a paid-police informant, Rob Gilchrist, who lived a double-life as an ‘activist’ for nearly 10 years. As activist and author Valerie Morse told 3News in mid-December 2007,[vi] following journalist Nicky Hager’s scoop of the Gilchrist story, “Crossing the Line – The activist who turned police informer”,[vii] Gilchrist had informed on at least three of the Operation Eight accused and had tried to get her to commit burglary and make bomb threats. Hager’s “Crossing the Line” story followed on from three prior stories: “I was paid to betray protestors” (May 27, 2007), which he followed up with, “Private Investigators still digging on West Coast” (April 20 2008), and “Coal mine spies return despite govt ban” (April 20 2008) – that showed private investigators Thompson and Clark had sought to infiltrate left-wing activist groups. As former intelligence and defense policy analyst Dr. Paul Buchanan said in the Operation 8 documentary, Gilchrist was acting as an agent provocateur.