Nicky Hager

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This article is about the New Zealand based author. For the British author, see Nicholas Hagger

Nicky Hager is an author and investigative journalist who lives in Wellington, New Zealand. Hager generally writes about issues involving intelligence networks, environmental issues and politics.

Hager is best known as being one of the earliest to write about the secretive ECHELON world-wide electronic spy network. In 2001 he testified before the European Parliament on his research into the network. [1]

Contents

[edit] Publishing History

[edit] Secret Power

Secret Power - New Zealand's Role in the International Spy Network, published in 1996, was Hager's first book. It revealed detail about New Zealand's participation in the so-called UKUSA Agreement facilitating intelligence gathering and sharing between the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The book makes special mention of New Zealand's Government Communications Security Bureau facilities at Waihopai and Tangimoana.

[edit] Secrets and Lies

Secrets and Lies: The Anatomy of an Anti-Environmental PR Campaign was co-authored with Bob Burton and published in 1999. It documents the public relations information put out by Timberlands West Coast Limited in order to win public support for logging of native forests on the West Coast of New Zealand.

[edit] Seeds of Distrust

Seeds of Distrust: The Story of a GE Cover-up claimed that government officials lead by Prime Minister Helen Clark covered up a release of genetically modified sweet corn. It was released before the 2002 general election, and helped make genetically modified organisms a major election issue. In denying Hager's claims, the Minister for the Environment, Marian Hobbs, accused him of writing "conspiracy theories".[2]

[edit] The Hollow Men

In November 2006 Hager's book The Hollow Men: A Study in the Politics of Deception was published. The book details emails leaked by the National Party written by party leader Don Brash. The book was initially prevented from being published by a court injuction obtained by Brash. [3] However, on 23 November 2006, Brash announced his resignation from the leadership of the National Party. The following day he had the injunction lifted, allowing the book to be released.

The book describes Brash's rise to power in the New Zealand National Party as being assisted by an "informal network of people from the right of New Zealand politics", including a number of ACT members, and alleges the funding of the National Party in the 2005 election was mainly from prominent New Zealand Businessmen through blind trusts. It also documents that senior National Party figures, including Brash, knew of the Exclusive Brethren's pamphlet campaigns in May 2005, although Brash denied knowledge of this until August.[4] [5]

One allegation in the book has been discredited, primarily as Hager did not have complete information about all the incidents described. This was that the National Party used its Parliamentary Funding for election advertising, which subsequently was found to be paid by the Party. This was a particularly relevant allegation as the main Government Party, the New Zealand Labour Party, had used over $800,000 of its Parliamentary budget in the 2005 New Zealand election funding controversy.

[edit] Future books

Hagar is currently working on a book about New Zealands 'secret' role in the war on terror, he is planning to use the same techniques he used to infiltrate the National Party for his last book.[6]

[edit] Print Media Articles

In 2004, Hager co-authored an article in the Sunday Star-Times alleging that the SIS was spying on Māori individuals and organisations, including those associated with the new Māori Party, for political purposes under the codename "Operation Leaf." A government inquiry led by the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security rejected these claims in April 2005. As a result, the Prime Minister, Helen Clark said the allegations were a hoax and asked the Sunday Star-Times to apologise to its readers. A full apology and retraction were published on the front page of the paper.

The Sunday Star-Times published an article[7] by Hager in March 2005 about the vulnerabilities of New Zealand's internet banking services. The article resulted in interest and investigation by both consumer groups and regulators, and since that time most major New Zealand banks have adopted the recommended two-factor authentication.

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Speech to European Parliament. April 2001 [1]
  2. ^ Government Upfront On Corn Seed. Press Release: New Zealand Government, 10 July 2002 [2]
  3. ^ Hager revealed as author of Brash emails book. Sunday Star-Times. 21 November 2006
  4. ^ Hager Book: What's in the leaked Brash emails
  5. ^ Hager Book: Brash knew of Brethren campaign
  6. ^ 'Hagar eyes war on terror' The Press March 13, 2007:A7
  7. ^ 3 minutes to get your cash

[edit] External links

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