New information showing that the Prime Minister was in fact briefed about the SIS releasing information to right wing blogger Cameron Slater has come to light.It shows that the Director of Security at the time, Warren Tucker, had written directly to John Key to specifically inform him in accordance with the no surprises rule.
The issue of the information being fast-tracked in order to cause collateral damage to Labour aside, it appears that Warren Tucker did the right thing in accordance with the rules by briefing John Key, the Minister responsible for the SIS.
Here's what Key was saying last Monday in a Radio NZ interview with Guyon Espiner:
Espiner: Did that [SIS OIA] request come across your desk?
Key: No.
Espiner: So, you’re the Minister responsible for the SIS, yet you did not sign off on that request?
Key: No.
Espiner: You had no knowledge that a request had been made?
Key: I knew there were requests, cos, you know, yeah I would have known because generally they say “there’s a series of requests in to the SIS or the GCSB. But they often – well they always sign off on things on their own timetable.
It's well worth listening to the entire interview:
Here's what Key was saying just yesterday:
"The Inspector General absolutely needs to prove that they're independent and ah so on that basis ah that it's an issue worth looking at they should go and do that."
"Ah I mean at the end of the day, ah we're very confident that position the SIS has been running themselves that process quit independently and they've been commenting that everything is above board."
"But the really good thing here is that the Inspector General is going to have a look and absolutely clarify that for everyone."
"All I know is that I wasn't told but ah what happens is that my office was told that an OIA was going out but more often than not they don't tell me."
Today, the NZ Herald reported:
Letter contradicts Key on SIS document release
A letter from a former SIS chief appears to contradict Prime Minister John Key's claim that he was not briefed about a controversial decision to release intelligence documents to Whale Oil blogger Cameron Slater.
The 2011 letter from former SIS chief Warren Tucker was posted to Twitter by Newstalk ZB political editors Felix Marwick and Barry Soper this morning.
Here's the letter which confirms John Key lied, tweeted by Felix Marwick and Barry Soper:
What the PM said about his knowledge of Slater's SIS OIA http://t.co/u8AmXeX7jy What the SIS told me in 2011 pic.twitter.com/tPNvehTzJ0
— Felix Marwick (@felixmarwick) August 20, 2014
This categorically shows that the Prime Minister was informed about the SIS releasing sensitive information to Cameron Slater that he used to discredit Phil Goff. In my opinion the Prime Minister misleading the public on such an important issue is entirely unacceptable! He should resign!
