C.I.A. link ‘own fault’

Press, 24 February 1987, Page 7

C.I.A. link ‘own fault’

The Maori loan affair has done enormous damage to New Zealand, says a peace and defence researcher, Mr Owen Wilkes.

'Mr Wilkes was in Christchurch last evening to speak at a public meeting on possible Central Intelligence Agency involvement in the affair. He said such involvement was “in a way our own fault.” “It is the latent racism in the country that makes this kind of scandal possible, it is our own fault that something like this can cause so much disruption.”

Peace groups have suggested that the C.I.A. was trying to destabilise the Government in opposition to its anti-nuclear stance. Mr Wilkes said the C.I.A. link was a hypothesis at the moment, based on circumstantial evidence, but it had "covert

action footprints all over it.”

“You have to weigh the evidence available, and remember that the essence of a covert operation is that you do not know it is happening — unless it is forced out into the open.” He hopes research will produce enough evidence to persuade newspapers in the United States to investigate the matter, and bring it into the open. “I do not want people to think that every time something goes wrong, it must be the C.l.A.’s fault. If it was involved, I think it was in a very limited capacity,” Mr Wilkes said.

“If we can show this is the result of foreign intervention then maybe we can make people realise that we have to be on our guard against future interference. ' r

“This has happened once with the Rainbow

Warrior affair. That really woke people up to the kind of . Government France had and how callous it could be in protecting its own interests.”

Mr Wilkes believes the Government is denying the link because “even though it has differences with the United States it still regards it as a friend, and it is humiliating to admit those very people are working against you.”