CHARLESWARDLE.COM

I am writing concerning my employment with the SIS from early 2007 to June 2009. My job was to join the Muslim community pretending to be a Muslim and gather information relevant to my job. I had converted to Islam in Pakistan in 2001 but had since left Islam, no longer considered myself to be a Muslim, and did not behave as one.

While a Muslim I spent a lot of time with Lashkar Taiba members in several countries and was with Ansar al Islam in Northern Iraq when the United States invaded in 2003.

There have been a couple of articles published in news papers on me:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/2915220/Ex-militants-home-searched-in-Auckland/

http://www.ilriformista.it/stories/Prima%20pagina/154705/

Here is a link to my website where you can see an old passport of mine:

http://www.charleswardle.com/my-old-passport-lsv-course-burnham-military-camp-christchurch/

Here you can see a copy of a search warrant executed by the police at my former residence:

http://www.charleswardle.com/police-execute-search-warrants-at-my-apartment/

My reason for writing is that from my experiences working with the SIS I am concerned that they could be expected to operate more effectively in areas of importance. I am motivated to write as from my experience there is a growing community of Islamic literalists in New Zealand who are inspired in part by the likes of popular Saudi scholars ibn Baz and Uthaimin. I personally know a large number of Muslims of interest to the SIS in New Zealand, who take Islam both seriously and literally, who were of far more liberal backgrounds, and who became involved with potentially harmful ideologies through contact with members of the Islamic community in New Zealand. The literalist community is very active in attempting to convert both Muslims and non Muslims to their views.

Even if the current risk to New Zealand is low, situations exist overseas that could potentially be critically involved in motivating some resident Muslims to launch an attack inside New Zealand. The effectiveness of the SIS in obtaining, analysing, and acting upon information could well make the difference as to whether an attack succeeds.

When a serious threat emerges one cannot expect an organisation like the SIS to suddenly be prepared to successfully counter such a threat if it was not already so prepared. Organisational improvement takes time. Gaining information and access to information takes time.

There are of cause areas of concern other than that of an attack by Islamic militants in New Zealand, and New Zealand’s potential involvement in conflicts overseas via the actions of Islamic militants. An example of another issue would be the well-being of women in the Muslim community. There are some potential general solutions I could write about, such as the secular education of the general population. However, this letter is only focused on the SIS, and what I understand to be the main focus of their work.

I will give several examples from my experiences that I think may indicate areas for improvement (no particular order). I refrain from drawing conclusions as some likely issues are obvious and my experience is limited to exposure to only a few SIS employees. I will be mostly talking about experiences with my old boss who I know as, **** ****. I will casually refer to him as “my boss”.

When I formally agreed to the offer to work for the SIS I agreed to an offered $25 per hour with part time hours. I made it very clear that I did not consider that amount reflective of what the job requires. I also said on a number of occasions that I would make use of a higher pay to live the kind of double life that would have made a big difference to me in terms of doing the job. I was told that I would be on a 6 month trial. I was assured that there was considerable opportunity to make much more money and work abroad with other intelligence agencies. My boss told me he “could do much better”. He often said that soon I’d be “earning more than him”. I said that that it was on the basis of such potential future agreements that I would work for $25 per hour. If such opportunities were to change then it was important to me that that I be told.

After the trial period my pay was moved to $450 per week. I had from the beginning reimbursement of such expenses as my mobile bill, home phone/internet bills. Initially I received several bonuses as within a short period of time I had achieved such as joining the board of a small Islamic organisation and becoming the kick boxing instructor of At Taqwa mosque which was the main focal point of my work.

The seemingly haphazard performance based bonuses I received in the beginning eventually become an assured annual bonus and overseas travel. Then, after a year since my last bonus I was told that I may not receive one every year and not that year. I didn’t say anything but considered that I had worked for that year for much less than the agreed upon pay.

I received a pay increase of $10 probably at the end of 12 months. I was told it was meant to allow for inflation. I received at the same time a bonus of several thousand dollars. I kept my mouth shut and didn’t say what I thought of the pay raise considering what I had often been lead to believe regarding future prospects.

In June 2009 I decided to no longer continue in the job as I doubted my ability to handle my personal life in an agreeable manner and announced publicly on youtube that I was no longer a Muslim. I thought that in so doing some people may benefit from my experiences having been an Islamic militant and in the academic and scientific education I am undertaking. My personal troubles were not responsible for me leaving the job. Rather, thinking about them was decisive in my decision to leave the job at that point in time, as I will elucidate. I had already told Muslims about my militant past in order to further my aims with the permission of my boss (though obviously putting a video on youtube was a different story).

I had been clear from the beginning that I would not do this job at all if I did not get what I considered an agreeable contract. Much information relevant to the terms of my employment with the SIS was not made clear, contradicted or ignored. Including information regarding future prospects and even what I was currently being paid.

My boss told me perhaps a year after I began working for them that he had been wrong in terms of the prospects he had previously talked to me about. He told me that I was one of the most highly paid agents.

The job impacted on every aspect of my life. I had to be someone I was not and maintain the reputation needed to be successful at gathering information with observance of numerous religious behavioural restrictions. For example; if I went out in the city with some non Muslims at night and someone saw me and a rumour began to circulate amongst the Muslim community then this could affect my ability to do my job effectively. Other restrictions meant that I would often have to roll my jeans up to expose my ankles and take measures not to be heard listening to music even in a causal encounter in the street.

My de facto partner, who I claimed falsely to be Christian, a virgin prior to having been with me, and to be my wife, also followed numerous restrictions. We often walked separately when outside and she followed conservative restrictions on what she wore and how she behaved in public. I tried to keep the SIS informed of what was going on.

Not only could I not socialise as I would have liked outside of the community without risking my reputation and thus ability to gain information. I had to look like I had very little money. Grow my beard. Never get caught in the possession of music. I couldn’t just go for a walk outside with my partner without considering my job and being cautious. Had to mostly avoid taxis (due to a large number of drivers being Muslim). I could make a very long list indeed .

After perhaps a year and a half my boss began to get agitated when I would mention, even in the most casual terms, the impact that the job was having on my life. He would tell me I should quit, and then when I didn’t say anything would change the subject. He didn’t speak seriously about me quitting. Eventually, I asked him to stop saying that I should quit, as I found it annoying. He responded by offering me a deal whereby I would stop mentioning the impact the job was having on my life and he would stop saying I should quit.

At one point, after perhaps a year and a half, I took my boss’s advice; he had been trying to convince me that I didn’t have to undergo such behavioural restrictions, that they weren’t important, and that the SIS didn’t require me to follow them, and so I started to socialise more with non Muslims. Very soon there were several rumours going around the community about me. One; that I had been seen drinking and touching a half naked blond girl in the park (a fellow student I had been talking to). Another, that I had been seen with a Chinese girl at the “Lantern’s in the Park” festival (probably my partner or someone I talked too). Luckily, the people who I was close to didn’t believe the rumours, as they knew me so well, and I stopped going out with non Muslims (and even Muslims in ‘haram” situations).

I was told by my boss that his superiors would become angry and shout at him. One time he said that his boss had acted as such toward him when I had not paid my mobile phone bill and had no credit to make calls for about a week.

Around the 2008/2009 Uni holidays my boss came to a meeting in a very bad mood. I remember being very surprised at his behaviour from the beginning. He criticised me harshly, I am quite sure there was no pressing issue, for some time until I became frustrated, as I found the criticism unfair and inaccurate, and told him that in the previous year he had failed to pay me for an entire month twice. At that he stood up, with a large amount of pay that I had earned, and started to walk away saying that the job was finished. I kept seated and calmly told him that I “didn’t mean to offend him” and that I was just defending myself. He sat down but was still agitated. I had to sit there for a while listening to him being critical about me, and I thought rude and inappropriate, until he finished by saying that in the end he was the boss and I had to accept that. He also had said that I should be grateful to them and something like that I should be remorseful and was working to redeem myself. After this dialogue his behaviour was much more normal for the rest of the meeting.

At the time I quit I had become involved in training physically for Jihad with some Muslims in the community. I had decided a long time ago that I would quit the job if conditions didn’t become acceptable to me. But I wanted to stick it out and bring my work regarding training for Jihad to some sort of conclusion. I would have liked if I had achieved that regardless of how I felt about some aspects of the job. It was at this time, when I was involved in what should be considered very important work, that I was told I would receive no bonus that year. Also, for about 6 months prior to that many of my expenses were being denied after I had given them in. The explanation I received for such things was that the new government had restricted funds.

I do not think that I received much direction at all during my time working with them. I was given lots of very good advice. Questions were asked, peoples or information of interest were given. But many questions that I had, especially concerning sensitive topics such as what direction I should take Jihad training in, were not answered. I acted very autonomously with regard to these issues. I was encouraged with regard to discussing Jihad, activities I was involved in regarding Jihad, and also for supplying materials related to Jihad to other Muslims.

Sometimes I was not impressed with my bosses analysis on an issue. The example I remember the best was when I was asked whether I thought my trouble with remembering names was because “people aren’t important to you?”. This was asked seriously during the course of an important interview regarding my militant past. I also did not get the impression that my boss had been trained in statistics. A subject of vital necessity for the understanding of any data. My impression was that a lot of thinking that was done in analysis of information was conducted more by experienced based confidence and guess work than a solid understanding of analytical methods. However, I do not know the extent which my boss acted as an analyst for the SIS.

During my employment it was very common for my boss to say that something was going to happen and it wouldn’t happen. A case in point was software that I required to secure reports on my computer against access by a stranger. My boss seemed to consider this important, and yet for well over a year I was often told by him that he would give it to me next time we met. I never got the software. Another thing that never happened was that the numerous offers of counselling that I was given and that I accepted were never acted upon with funds or access to a counsellor. My partner did receive some funds for a counsellor through me for herself. That one occasion of payment for perhaps 5 sessions with a counsellor was all that was provided with regard to my partner.

Several offered opportunities to work overseas also fell through though they had been talked of as being a certainty in general and in detail on very many occasions. Training courses that were mentioned also did not eventuate.

I got the impression, very strongly, and my boss stated this clearly, that the SIS operated in a rigid bureaucratic structure. We both seemed to me to be frustrated by bureaucratic restrictions that meant that almost anything significant needed previous approval. Approval that was often subject to restrictions that seemed to me to ignore the SIS’s organisational objectives. For example; once I failed to attend a camp run by Al Manar for Muslim youth that was of considerable interest to the SIS (my boss stated that my not attending was a shame), as were some of the attendees, as approval could not be obtained in the few days I had from being invited to the event to its starting. I would expect an organisation like the SIS to be flexible and innovative. Though I strongly doubt that the rigid and bureaucratic nature of the SIS, as I experienced it, is the sole area in need of review and improvement.

I was told that if I had any trouble with the law regarding my past or my current job that they would intervene on my behalf. I had been told that the Americans had offered a verbal assurance that I was welcome to travel to the States. When I quit I was told that I should keep in touch, and asked that I take down my youtube videos and that I may well go to jail and never be able to travel overseas again. Later my boss asked to meet and told me that contact was finished between us. He repeated that I may well be prosecuted, go to jail and lose my passport. He said the SIS would deny I worked with them. He said he couldn’t offer me any advice. He asked me to sign a contact he said was identical to that I had signed at the beginning of my employment and in which I guaranteed secrecy regarding the job. I had not read the original contract that I had signed in front of my boss and which may have expired if it had been dated for the 6 month trial period. My boss had consistently praised the reports I provided through my time with the SIS. We parted on good terms.

The police (who I haven’t heard from in many months though they told me there would be a second interview a long time ago) told me they were worried I would be a “firebrand” creating trouble, and that they were worried about reprisal attacks from foreign Islamic militants. I was told there had not yet been an incident in New Zealand. I was told all this after posting my address book containing contact information on Islamic militants, among others, that I had gathered during my time overseas as an Islamic militant, on my website. I even thought I heard a detective who was returning property obtained from me in a search warrant express concern over his personal safety when he suddenly removed police paperwork from the packages he was returning to me as I was taking them from the boot of his car. This same detective also told me he was unaware of Al Manar trust, which is an Islamic centre of concern to the SIS located in Stoddard Rd, Mt Roskill. He also asked me to list the Muslims I had concerns about. I said I’d email it to him. He said that that was fine but made it very clear he would never acknowledge an email from me with a reply. He asked me not to make anything I send him public and stated dislike for my “openness”. I mention these experiences with the police in passing.

About my boss. I consider him to be a highly capable, hard working, dedicated, experienced, insightful man. I greatly enjoyed the vast majority of all the time I spent with him, and there was never a meeting that took place during which we were not on good terms for some of it (usually all of it). His inspiration, advice, and support, made the job a great deal easier for me. I would be incredibly surprised if the issues I have brought up did not reflect areas of concern that may well be general to the organisation at large.

I am aware that publicly owned companies can suffer from an inability to fire staff when appropriate. But I would be very surprised indeed if a competent review of the SIS’s organisational practices resulted in a recommendation for the dismissal of someone as capable as I consider my boss to be.

Blame, and finding solutions to challenges, are two totally different things. I would like the SIS to be as effective as possible. A tendency to find blame could easily be counter-productive to any investigation into the issues I have raised. I would expect the SIS to be focused on their organisational objectives.

I would like that the SIS conducted best practises and was up-to-date on current research and analysis regarding; management practises, information gathering, information analysis, and counter militancy activities. I would like that the SIS be focused upon its organisational objectives; in measuring their performance, and in improving the quality of that performance. I would like that the SIS be supported in its aims both in leadership and legislation, and also in being given the appropriate resources.

I can well see how this letter could come across as a series of complaints. However, I enjoyed my experiences working with the SIS, and the challenges, and am not interested in complaining. I am only interested in whether I have done the best thing I could in regard to the issues I have raised in this letter given the situation I find myself in.

Yours sincerely

Charles Wardle