New book from Nicky Hager

32 comments on “New book from Nicky Hager ”

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1. ropata 1

   11 August 2014 at 1:05 pm

   Original blog link: http://www.medialawjournal.co.nz/?p=634

   Earlier posts about Nick Smith (fish&game bully) and Mike Hosking (climate expert) are worth a look also

   [lprent: Arrgggh missed it. Fixing. ]
2. Tiger Mountain 2

   11 August 2014 at 1:20 pm

   Nice timing if Nicky’s new volume helps the left cause, but you never know with him he is an equal opportunity investigator which is partly why he gets such good sources.
   • karol 2.1

     11 August 2014 at 1:44 pm

     Exactly, and if it’s about the GCSB/SIS – there were problems prior to 2008 – it’s just that under Keys watch we have seen an escalation of the US-friendly surveillance state – and the shift to a focus on economic “security”.
   • Mike Smith 2.2

     11 August 2014 at 1:46 pm

     I think that’s a shade unfair. Seeds of Distrust certainly caused some problems for Labour in 2002 – I remember it well. On the other hand The Hollow Men led to a National leader’s resignation – how could we forget that. Nicky’s been against spies all his life – I’d certainly be going to the launch if I wasn’t going to be in Auckland.
3. crocodill 3

   11 August 2014 at 2:10 pm

   Directly led to Brash resigning? Is that what you mean, Mike Smith? I’d disagree, or at least I don’t remember an illustrated joining of the dots. The guy seemed to be victim of internal National Party mechanics, and then got thrown to the sanctimonious media wolves over his choice of one woman too many. Then his pollie friends didn’t want to be his friends anymore, and they stole some emails off him and then the cops wouldn’t care. Dodgy stuff. As dodgy as what Brash was up to. Losing elections is reason enough to bail a leader, but curious that English is still around then.

   I hope Hager’s book is better than Hollow Men. HM read like preaching to the converted and although I knew what he was saying, it wouldn’t be conclusive to someone who had never heard of any it before. More artistic than scientific, I thought. Seeds of Distrust was much better, by comparison.
   • Anne 3.1

     11 August 2014 at 2:49 pm

     What a load of polluted dish water crocodill. Apart from not making sense, you’ve made the whole lot up in your head!

     I’ve met Nicky Hagar and had the privilege of listening to him at a private function – that is, no journos present. He researches everything thoroughly and is rarely wrong with his findings. He is famous for his book “Secret Power” which, for the first time, alerted the non intelligence world to the now well known Echelon surveillance system. I think it could be said that he is NZ’s top investigative journalist and he has an international reputation to be envied.

     He’s been quiet for so long, I felt sure he was investigating something. 🙂
     • Tracey 3.1.1

       11 August 2014 at 3:34 pm

       plus one
     • cyclonemike 3.1.2

       11 August 2014 at 5:37 pm

       Sorry to disagree Anne, but Aussie academic Desmond Ball outed Echelon almost 30 years ago with The Ties That Bind.
       While I have nothing but admiration for Nicky Hager’s work, he most certainly not alone in waking the world to Five Eyes. Ball’s book was in general circulation and proved the bedrock of much later investigtion of our nations’ spies.
   • lprent 3.2

     11 August 2014 at 4:31 pm

     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicky_Hager

     In November 2006 Hager’s book The Hollow Men: A Study in the Politics of Deception was published. The book details a wide range of National Party internal party documents including emails which Hager stated were leaked by six National Party insiders. The documents were said to be written by the party leader Don Brash and a wide range of people associated with him. The book was initially prevented from being published when Brash obtained an injunction preventing anyone from publishing material from emails that he had written. At the time Brash was unaware that Hager had completed and was about to launch his book.[4] However, on 23 November 2006, Brash announced his resignation from the leadership of the National Party. The following day he had the injunction lifted, allowing the book to be released. Political scientist Raymond Miller wrote that “Had he not resigned, he would not have survived the fallout from this book’s release.”[5]

     My bold.

     I gather that is why Nicky Hager is pretty secretive about what his books are about. He is adverse to injunctions. Better to have the book released first because then there can’t be an injunction taken to prevent publication.

     And 5pm is a great time to release the book. Pretty hard to get a judge at that time of the day. Can just sneak it into the evening news. 😈

     I bet a few people will have their lawyers on speed dial on Wednesday.
   • tricledrown 3.3

     11 August 2014 at 5:07 pm

     Crocodill so is the smiling assassin who had the most to gain i.e. Motive.
     Key’s ambition to become Prime Minister that’s why no one was found or outed Don Brashes number was up when he lost the election who put the knife in an assassin.
     maybe we get to find out.
     Could be the KDC spying info,
4. Karen 4

   11 August 2014 at 2:24 pm

   I have a feeling it could be about the TPPA – just a guess – no inside knowledge.
5. Brit 5

   11 August 2014 at 2:28 pm

   Brash and National did their best to deflect attention away from the E. Brethren scandal. The leaked emails revealed by Hager also implicated John Key, but the media ignored the scandal …and no one investigated further or verified the email’s authenticity. I rememberer first seeing these Brethren pamphlets the day they were placed in the mailboxes. I thought that that were propagandist pamphlets (Libelle) that even Goebbels, Putin or the old Soviet guard could not have topped (well maybe… they were ultimately pretty lame red-baiting.)

   “Brash initially denied National had anything to do with it, but later admitted that the Brethren had told him at a meeting some months earlier that they planned to run a campaign opposing the direction of the Labour Government. Brash has maintained his position that the pamphlet-campaign took place on the Exclusive Brethren’s own initiative.” …though if accepting the authenticity of the emails that Hager published that was not true for Brash (or Key) who both wholeheartedly supported this illegal smear. But we will never know. One of NZ’s most embarrassing episodes was simply swept under the rug by the authorities and the 4th estate.
   • ghostwhowalksnz 5.1

     11 August 2014 at 3:27 pm

     I always wondered about Don Brashs email administrator DPF and why he would feed info to Nicky Hagar.

     But wait, Kitchin seems to be suddenly busy in the last few days as well, digging up old info about Sutch fed to him via MI6
     http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/10369208/Fresh-twist-in-40-year-old-Cold-War-spy-mystery
     • Anne 5.1.1

       11 August 2014 at 4:54 pm

       My understanding that the information – including the emails – came from several sources.

       In her Foreword Marilyn Waring describes them as principled Conservatives inside National who were horrified at what was happening to their beloved party and the level of cynicism that had crept in to the activities of the hierarchy in particular.

       Nick Hagar in his Preface describes them in similar terms and adds: … over two years they fronted up with evidence – internal reports, emails, travel itineraries, and meeting minutes – documenting the inside story of Don Brash’s rise to leadership and the details of how National went about trying to gain power.

       Of course the culprits all claimed Hagar was lying and had made up the whole thing – a telling sign it was all true.
   • tricledrown 5.2

     11 August 2014 at 4:59 pm

     the exclusive Bretheren are back in the game just keeping a much lower profile ,at the church near where I live their has been a lot more activity big meetings a lot more of them all rolling up in flash cars I would say they are gearing up for the election as usually their is only about a dozen or so cars up to 20 but in the last 3 weeks the numbers have gone up considerably
6. Brit 6

   11 August 2014 at 2:31 pm

   Brash and National did their best to deflect attention away from the E. Brethren scandal. The leaked emails revealed by Hager also implicated John Key, but the media ignored the scandal …and no one investigated further or verified the email’s authenticity. I rememberer first seeing these Brethren pamphlets the day they were placed in the mailboxes. I thought that that were propagandist pamphlets (Libelle) that even Goebbels, Putin or the old Soviet guard could not have topped (well maybe… they were ultimately pretty lame red-baiting.)

   “Brash initially denied National had anything to do with it, but later admitted that the Brethren had told him at a meeting some months earlier that they planned to run a campaign opposing the direction of the Labour Government. Brash has maintained his position that the pamphlet-campaign took place on the Exclusive Brethren’s own initiative.” …though if accepting the authenticity of the emails that Hager published that was not true for Brash (or Key) who both wholeheartedly supported this illegal smear. But we will never know. One of NZ’s most embarrassing episodes was simply swept under the rug by the authorities and the 4th estate.

   crocodill who said “The guy seemed to be victim of internal National Party mechanics” is probably right since Hager implied that it was a National dissenter who sent him these emails.
7. ropata 7

   11 August 2014 at 3:23 pm

   Would be great if it was about TPPA and other arrangements that result in huge transfers of wealth, assets, and land to the oligarchs and corporations.

   I reckon something really smells in the JK government, Oravida is just the beginning
8. lurgee 8

   11 August 2014 at 4:47 pm

   Oddly, I pulled out my copy of HM yesterday and added it to the pile to be read or re-read …

   Surely it will be Snowden related, as that is one of Hager’s areas of interest.

   Just hope it is better than Other People’s Wars, which I found nearly unreadable.
9. Stuart Munro 9

   11 August 2014 at 5:50 pm

   I’ll trust NH hasn’t been wasting his time.

   But FJK’s money trail and connections with Kordamentha have the makings of novel, and the serious fraud office probably need a few connections made before they’ll risk official ire to do what’s necessary.
10. fisiani 10

    11 August 2014 at 5:58 pm

    No matter what Hagar writes the extreme Left here will cream their jeans with excitement believing that it will bring down a popular government. I can tell you now that it will not. Get yourself a cold sponge.
    • Chooky 10.1

      11 August 2014 at 6:36 pm

      @fisciani…that is very rude of you….do you have insider knowledge?
      • Stuart Munro 10.1.1

        11 August 2014 at 6:54 pm

        Common knowledge – Key is not popular.
        • Bob 10.1.1.1

          12 August 2014 at 2:24 pm

          Stuart, I think you are getting Key and Cunliffe mixed up again, click on the Preffered PM tab here for clarification http://origin-interactives.stuff.co.nz/polling/
          • Stuart Munro 10.1.1.1.1

            12 August 2014 at 5:26 pm

            Preferred PM is meaningless except in party leadership contests.

            Key was not preferred PM when he defeated Clark for example.
    • felix 10.2

      11 August 2014 at 7:06 pm

      syrlands, it has been a long, long time since you have been correct in anything you have written here.
      • Tracey 10.2.1

        12 August 2014 at 2:34 pm

        Titter
    • Kiwi Local 10.3

      12 August 2014 at 10:36 am

      fisiani

      What a load of crap you spin,

      This Natz leader does not show the cool calm collected hallmark that was his winning ways before.

      That is because everything is now unravelling in his and you imaginary brighter future.
      Now he faces an inquisition of epic proportions against Kim.com & Nicy Hager.

      Go cream your pinstripes you zealot.
    • thatguynz 10.4

      12 August 2014 at 12:54 pm

      🙄
11. Stephanie Rodgers 11

    11 August 2014 at 6:17 pm

    The #NickyHagerBookTitles hashtag is well worth a look if you want a giggle.
    https://twitter.com/hashtag/NickyHagerBookTitles?src=hash
12. Chooky 12

    11 August 2014 at 6:41 pm

    3 guesses about Nicky Hager’s new book

    By Martyn Bradbury / August 11, 2014

    Nicky is about to inject some critical analysis into politics with the launch this Wednesday of his brand new book.

    Nicky is about to inject some critical analysis into politics with the launch this Wednesday of his brand new book.

    Here are my 3 guesses on his book.

    1 – Right wing spin doctors in Wellington will be crying harder than Matthew Hooton post the Hollow Men.
    2 – We won’t hear from the Taxpayer Union for a while.
    3 – This won’t be the only time Nicky makes an impact before the election.

    • See more at: http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/08/11/3-guesses-about-nicky-hagers-new-book/#sthash.Y3qb9YLn.dpuf
13. Valleyman 13

    12 August 2014 at 7:25 pm

    There’s more than a good chance this book will end Keys rule of tyranny over NZ, Also with electrol commission saying the music parody about Key is election advertising is just another example of our dictator Führer Key & his natzi storm troopers are supressing freedom of speech.

Links to post

1. Hager, fear & the surveillance state « The Standard The Standard: posted on 12 August 2014 at 1:05 pm

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