Be afraid!

Written By: - Date published: 8:24 am, November 4th, 2016 - 19 comments
Categories: Abuse of power, accountability, defence, law and "order", rumour - Tags: , , , ,

After the “Jihadi brides” beatup got busted, how to keep the “terrorism in NZ” threat alive? Like this?

Terror threat to New Zealand revealed in security handbook

New Zealand’s top security systems were activated to deal with a serious domestic terrorism threat, it has emerged.

Concrete evidence has emerged that there has been an actual attempt to carry out a terrorist attack on New Zealand soil.

The security services will release no details of how the plot was foiled or when it emerged….

“Concrete evidence” of which we have “no details”. Hooookay.

I don’t want to be too flippant about this, maybe our security stopped someone nuking Auckland, in which case, cheers, thanks very much. But without details it is a bit hard to take seriously. Folk on twitter had fun with it – see #KiwiTerrorPlots including:
• Someone conspired to steal all the Pineapple Lumps.
• Screening Sevensharp on every single TV channel in NZ.
• Peas are added to Mac&Cheese.
• Novopay responsible for EVERYBODY’s paycheck.
• Trapped in a room full of NZ male political bloggers.
and so on…

In other news, something to be actually afraid of, and angry about:

Spying files missing, incomplete – was the law broken?

Our electronic surveillance agency might have illegally spied on New Zealanders to a greater extent than previously revealed, Parliament has been told.

But the scale of any illegal surveillance by the Government Communications Security Bureau might remain hidden because documentation which detailed it was either not kept or is missing.

The few details of the GCSB’s latest legal problem are revealed today in the annual report of the Inspector General of Intelligence and Security, Cheryl Gwyn.

The revelation opens the bureau again to allegations of sloppy handling of the world’s most sophisticated surveillance technology which it uses through a partnership with the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada. …

Well that’s just great isn’t it.

The issue emerged through an internal GCSB investigation, which is part of its obligation to ensure it is compliant with its own laws.

That’s a good sign at least. But it isn’t the first time:

There is nothing in the annual report to reveal how the new issue emerged more than three years after then-Cabinet secretary Rebecca Kitteridge authored a report which revealed poor systems and illegal practice by the GCSB.

The report is here (pdf).

How long do we put up with a broken spy agency functioning illegally? Why hasn’t the government fixed it? (Do they fix anything, ever?) Oh don’t worry – John Key says we have more to fear from Google and Facebook than the GCSB. So that’s OK then.

19 comments on “Be afraid! ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. Kevin 1
    4 November 2016 at 9:09 am

    If they are not going to tell us anything about it, why say anything?

    I guess we can now look forward to a further erosion of our personal ‘freedoms’ to keep us safe and warm.

    • weka 1.1
      4 November 2016 at 10:31 am

      “If they are not going to tell us anything about it, why say anything?”

      They couldn’t find the panda?

    • Lanthanide 1.2
      4 November 2016 at 12:45 pm

      “If they are not going to tell us anything about it, why say anything?”

      They’re taking lessons from Comey.

      • Anne 1.2.1
        4 November 2016 at 3:44 pm

        Perhaps another suitcase containing a Penthouse magazine and a meat pie went missing.

      • Cricklewood 1.2.2
        4 November 2016 at 4:56 pm

        To be fair, I think Comey was between a rock and a hard place.
        Option 1, he says nothing and someone within the FBI leaks that they have found more emails and are investigating them (or not) Trump can say I told you that the establishment is trying to rig the election by burying evidence etc. This would possibly prompt his supporters to riot etc and it would probably be worse in terms of appearance for Clinton.
        Option 2, Do what he did and face condemnation.

        I think me made the right choice given the options in front of him.

        • Lanthanide 1.2.2.1
          4 November 2016 at 6:35 pm

          Option 3:
          Make it VERY clear in the letter exactly why he was sending it, and what information was known and what information was not known, so that the media, Trump and Clinton could not project their own meaning into the letter.

          Option 4:
          Send the letter at the start of October when his department first knew about the new emails, not the end of October. This requires him to have used foresight to tell his underlings that anything about Clinton’s emails should be brought to his attention immediately.

    • Michelle 1.3
      4 November 2016 at 1:42 pm

      They( the gnats ) have to justify there actions somehow but didn’t they say our terror risks were assessed as ‘very low ‘ and then they said our terror risk was now a ‘low risk’. All of a sudden they say we had a real terror threat. The problem is when you have been told so many lies and spin it is difficult to know what and who to believe. This is the kind of people we now have ruining/running our country

    • Guerilla Surgeon 1.4
      5 November 2016 at 12:35 pm

      Because they want to stir up fear and uncertainty, because fear and uncertainty creates right-wing voters.

    • smilin 1.5
      6 November 2016 at 6:19 pm

      we have nothing to fear except fear itself
      ie not being told jack shit about what the govt knows or doesnt just to fill up the msm when we are taking our favourite substance of choice to avoid hbeing upset from what little peace we have in our lives since bloody JONKEY Took over our country for his homeland security bosses
      fuckin zionist

  2. save nz 2
    4 November 2016 at 9:29 am

    Love it, the spies can’t have lost the documentation or didn’t bother doing it on their illegal spying. surprise surprise. Nothing to see here, (yet again) move on, move on.

    Maybe the security scare was Brownlee circumventing the airport security again…

    Or the free visas for high wealth gamblers via China Airlines at Sky City let in a few suitcases of meth and more…

    • Thinkerr 2.1
      5 November 2016 at 8:19 am

      Yes, I thought that, too.

      Christchurch airport security was supposedly sufficient to cope with world-class security risks, but they’ve had to add an extra door lock (alarm?) and a turnstile, to protect the country from its own government!

    • Wensleydale 2.2
      6 November 2016 at 1:22 am

      The next time Gerry Brownlee wishes to circumvent airport security because he’s “in a hurry”, let him. Funnel him out onto the hardstand and hope he’ll be sucked into a jet engine. This will allow both Christchurch, and the national pie stockpiles to sufficiently recover from the drubbing they’ve been subjected to under his delicate ministrations.

  3. dukeofurl 3
    4 November 2016 at 11:03 am

    Strange that the Report covers material from 2014 and yet is issued at the end of 2016.

    I have a suspicion that NZSIS has fought tooth and nail with lawyers to get this report watered down, much like McCully did and those in the PMs office did when they were investigated for their role in the Goff affair.

  4. dukeofurl 4
    4 November 2016 at 11:06 am

    Another interesting point

    2.2 “…they had not specifically demonstrated how those
    activities were primarily directed towards the statutory purposes of the Act, as distinct from other ancillary purposes.”

    Would this be about the Police operation against Hagar or other politicals ?

  5. Gabby 5
    4 November 2016 at 12:18 pm

    Turned out to be Munter McMutton and his exploding sheep.

  6. Keith 6
    4 November 2016 at 12:23 pm

    Is it because Key heard that a rogue Nat MP was threatening to go honest from now on and tell the truth on everything?

    Am I warm?

  7. Greg 7
    4 November 2016 at 12:25 pm

    I guess reading the standard. Will put you on some black list somewhere

  8. SMILIN 8
    4 November 2016 at 8:46 pm

    we have more to fear from facebook
    do tell us more John and what the f are you doing about that ?
    giving them all of the country ?

  9. Thinkerr 9
    5 November 2016 at 8:12 am

    What is there left for ISIS?

    – Wreck our education system?
    – Trigger a borrowing programme so vast it will take a generation to pay off?
    – Force a large proportion of kiwis and kiwi families to live on the street, or in cars?
    – Deprive the country’s largest city of a world-class public transport network, causing gridlock for hours each day?
    – Sign up NZ to a supposed free trade deal that has arguable benefits and significant obligations, such that neither Republican nor Democrat candidate support it?
    – Sell off publicly owned infrastructure investments that generated double-digit returns to taxpayers?
    – Play mind games with mining families, promising to do whatever it takes to recover the bodies of their relatives, then sealing the mine up?
    – Change the tax system to promote a wider gap between rich and poor, then promise to do it again?
    – Control the recovery of Christchurch from two earthquakes and a flood, such that 6 or more years later the city is still not rebuilt?
    – Take away freedom of thought with 1984-style spying on everyones emails, just in case the information is needed later, if the government spy agency decides to label someone a subversive?

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