‘K.G.B. infiltrators’ in Ministries

Press, 24 September 1980, Page 1

‘K.G.B. infiltrators’ in Ministries

By

BRIAR WHITEHEAD

A former member of British Counter - Intelligence, Mr E. Haliburton, told a Parliamentary Select Committee yesterday that Soviet agents were infiltrating the New Zealand Public Service to increase drug abuse. The campaign, “Operation Sidewalk,” was mas-ter-minded by the Soviet K.G.8., and centered on the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Industry, Defence, Justice, and Health.

British public servants who were Soviet agents sought jobs with New Zealand Government departments and were 1 often accepted on the basis of their British service, Mr Haliburton said.

The New Zealand police had corroborated most of his evidence, he said. The names of 15 “Operation Sidewalk” agents were “with the Security Intelligence Service.”

Mr Haliburton was the first to give evidence to the Select Committee on

the Misuse of Drugs Amendment Bill. He proposed a change to the bill giving the Minister in charge of- the Security - Intelligence Sendee power to make drug enforcement a matter of national security, for any period of time.

After the hearing, Mr Haliburton said he had written to the Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon), the Minister of Justice (Mr McLay), ' the Minister of Health (Mr Gair), and the Commissioner of Police (Mr R. J. Walton) outlining his theory, and had received “favourable” responses. He said he left British Counter-Intelligence in 1960 to work privately with “some members of the British Intelligence Service” for 15. years against collaboration of the British Government in “Operation Sidewalk.” He left the Intelligence Service because it refused to investigate the operation. He is a member of the International Society for the Study of Addiction.

In 1975, Mr Haliburton emigrated to New Zealand.

He told the committee yesterday that the first aim of “Operation Sidewalk” was to decriminalise drugs, after creating a factitious, insuperable drug problem.

The rationale was that widespread drug abuse could only be met by removing the profit motive protected by the illegal drug market. The targets in the programme to make dangerous drugs legal were doctors, the news media, and through private secretaries, departmental heads, and the Legislature. New Zealand might be a target because the international drug trade lacked a permanent Pacific base, Mr Haliburton said.

The factitious drug problem was partly created by inducing doctors to over-prescribe barbiturates. Departmental heads released false statistics which understated levels of drug addiction. Minor criminals were employed as drug smugglers. The British Official

Secrets Act, and news media defamation action kept the issue from the public, Mr Haliburton said.

“Editors were reminded it was not in the public interest to discuss matters which would undermine confidence in the medical profession and in the Government’s measures to cope with addiction problems by decriminalisation.

“Only several years ago, no reputable doctor in New, Zealand would ■ have favoured decriminalisation,” Mr Haliburton said. Now it Seemed that many G.P.s had been won over to the proposal. This year the New Zealand Medical Association supported in a circular to members the success of British decriminalisation. “There is reason to believe the Government caucus raised the possibility of a bill introducing decriminalisation,” he said. However, in May the Minister of Health (Mr Gair) rejected British statistics linking a drop in drug addiction to de-

criminalisation and the Director of Clinical Services (Dr J. Phillips) urged all general practitioners to tighten up on barbiturate prescription.

“But it must not be overlooked that the international drug trade, with unlimited money resources and the political backing of the Governments of both the Soviet Union and Britain, is incomparably more powerful than the New Zealand . Government,” Mr Haliburton said. ■

He told the committee that until recently the New Zealand conspiracylaw had been neglected as a law-enforcement weapon.

Mr G. W. R. Palmer (Lab., Christchurch Central) asked if Mr Haliburton intended giving the S.I.S. powers to “wave’a wand making drug enforcement a matter of national security, and outside police control.”

Mr Haliburton said the police should .continue to be involved in drug enforcement but that in-

vestigation of a Soviet intelligence network was more properly the work of the Security Intelligence Service. Mr Haliburton said he was not trying to start a witch-hunt, but that members of the “Operation Sidewalk” network would be discovered by the S.I.S. to have “certain political motivations.” Asked if he was intending that certain political minorities be banned, Mr Haliburton said he was not.

“Operation Sidewalk” was an attempt by the Soviet Union to use narcotics to weaken selected nations for. Soviet-type revolution. If it were allowed to proliferate it could result in the takeover of New Zealand. Asked if he classed marijuana as a dangerous drug, Mr Haliburton said that once cannabis could be legally grown for the relatively innocuous marijuana, the toxic “in? sanity-producing drug,”' hashish, could also be made.