Operation Weasel is the name given to an alleged secret operation involving the governments of

Nauru Nauru, officially the Republic of Nauru, formerly known as Pleasant Island, is an island country and microstate in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies within the Micronesia subregion of Oceania, with its nearest neighbour being Banaba (part of ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

and the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. The exact nature of the operation, if it did indeed exist, is subject to disagreement — most accounts link it to investigations into the sale of Nauruan

passport A passport is an official travel document issued by a government that certifies a person's identity and nationality for international travel. A passport allows its bearer to enter and temporarily reside in a foreign country, access local aid ...

s, the defection of North Korean scientists to the West, or both. This was a classic example of what is known as a

canary trap A canary trap is a method for exposing an information leak by giving different versions of a sensitive document to each of several suspects and seeing which version gets leaked. It could be one false statement, to see whether sensitive informatio ...

- a spy tactic of feeding sufficiently important intelligence (traceable but false) to suspects to find leaks. The first public mentions of Operation Weasel were made in March 2003, when ''

The Australian ''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet daily newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964. As the only Australian daily newspaper distributed nationally, its readership of b ...

'' printed a story claiming that the Nauruan embassy in

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

was a front by which North Korean defectors could be assisted in escaping to the West. According to the report, Nauru had been approached by individuals claiming to represent the governments of New Zealand and the United States, who wished to smuggle North Korean defectors through the embassies of a third, neutral party. According to the paper, Nauru would receive cash compensation for participating, and the Nauruan embassy in Beijing would be paid for and staffed by New Zealand and United States personnel. New Zealand and United States officials were reported as denying the story. The embassy, when it was established, was run by ''

chargé d'affaires A (), plural ''chargés d'affaires'', often shortened to ''chargé'' (French) and sometimes in colloquial English to ''charge-D'', is a diplomat who serves as an embassy's chief of mission in the absence of the ambassador. The term is Frenc ...

'' Jack Sanders, a New Zealander. (The ''Herald'' also said that Sanders was wanted by police, although this has been labelled a smear campaign following an investigation by Scoop reporter Selwyn Manning. He later came to public attention as a source for a controversial news story about the

New Zealand Security Intelligence Service The New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS; ) is New Zealand's primary national intelligence agency. It is responsible for providing information and advising on matters including national security (including counterterrorism and count ...

, which was later retracted). According to the original reports in ''The Australian'', at least twenty defectors were successfully smuggled out. Nauru's embassies in Beijing and Washington were closed in August 2003, with the Nauruan government having been sent documents claiming that they were selling diplomatic passports. President

Ludwig Scotty Ludwig Derangadage Scotty (born 20 June 1948) is a Nauruan politician who twice served as President of Nauru and was Speaker of Parliament five times between 2000 and 2016. He served as president from 29 May 2003 to 8 August 2003 and again from ...

stated at the time that staff were "not serving their intended purpose". Trans-Pacific Development Corporation was involved in the sale of Nauruan passports, allowing passports to fall into the hands of terrorists — according to their claims, Operation Weasel was originally a project by various agencies in New Zealand and the United States (including the US

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

) to stop these activities, and only later became a front for North Korean defections.

References

Notes

Bibliography

Articles from the New Zealand Herald:
Shadowy Kiwi 'CIA operative'Shadowy Kiwi loses job after passport rowPolice seek man at heart of spy claims

External links

* ttp://www.listener.co.nz/issue/3390/columnists/3884/something_to_prove.html;jsessionid=78754DCFE3EF62D5D0AF619A48006504 Listener article mentioning Jack Sanders
Radio program "This American Life" featured a 30-minute story on Nauru, including Operation Weasel
{{Nauru topics 2003 in Nauru 2003 scandals Nauru–United States relations North Korea–United States relations Nauru–New Zealand relations New Zealand–United States relations