Secret Power: New Zealand's Role in the International Spy Network

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Secret Power: New Zealand's Role in the International Spy Network

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Secret Power - New Zealand's Role in the International Spy Network, published in 1996, was Hager's first book. The book is about the type of spying known as Signals Intelligence (Sigint) that involved electronic eavesdropping between countries. It is based on interviews with staff in New Zealand's Sigint agency, the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB), who revealed the workings of the agency in minute detail: the intelligence targets, equipment, operating procedures, security systems and training, as well as the staff and layout of the intelligence agency's facilities. 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. In particular, Hager documented the US-coordinated ECHELON system, through which the five agencies intercept and process huge volumes of international e-mail, fax and telephone communications. As a result the insights into the New Zealand agency provide information about the allied agencies as well. The book makes special mention of GCSB's facilities at Waihopai and Tangimoana. The book contained two forewords; one written by former New Zealand Prime Minister, David Lange and one by Jeffrey T. Richelson, a leading author on U.S. intelligence agencies and the author of the books America's Secret Eyes in the Sky and The Ties That Bind.

Hager was one of the earliest to write about the secretive ECHELON worldwide electronic spy network. As a result of his book, in 2001 he testified before the European Parliament on his research into the network.