Defence Force was orchestrating for foreign interests. Hager concludes that New Zealand needs greater accountability and neutrality in its armed forces. It was recognised internationally, with investigative journalist Seymour Hersh stating in a review, "Nicky Hager has more knowledge and understanding of the American intelligence world in Afghanistan – both its good and its very bad points – than any reporter I know." Other People’s Wars was also adapted into a play by Dean Parker in 2012. In late November 2022, the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS) apologised to Hager and paid NZ$66,400 in compensation and legal fees after it illegally accessed his phone records in 2012. The spy agency believed that a member of the Defence Force had illegally provided Hager with information for his book Other People's War. The NZSIS had seized two months' worth of his home phone's metadata in an attempt to track down the NZDF member. Ultimately, the phone data found no link between Hager and the suspected NZDF member. In August 2019, the acting Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security found that the spy agency had no reasonable grounds for suspecting espionage and had failed to exercise caution when investigating Hager's source. Dirty Politics In August 2014, Hager published Dirty Politics: How attack politics is poisoning New Zealand’s political environment, featuring leaked emails between National Party figures and right-wing bloggers. According to Hager the book aims to tell the story of "how attack politics is poisoning NZ's political environment". Among the claims in the book are that during the 2011 election campaign a right-wing blogger, Cameron Slater, who is the son of former National Party President John Slater, obtained a database of Labour Party members, emails and donations which were used to attack the Labour Party. Also in 2011 the PM's office used its knowledge of secret SIS documents to tip off a right-wing blogger and arrange an attack on Labour leader Phil Goff, and drafted Official Information Act requests for a right-wing blogger to use in other attacks. In mid-June 2018, Hager accepted an apology and compensation for "substantial damages" from the New Zealand Police for raiding his home in 2014 as part of their investigation into the hacking that led to the Dirty Politics book. The Police also acknowledged accessing his financial records as part of the apology settlement. Jordan Williams' lawsuit against Colin Craig On 21 September 2016, Nicky Hager was