Billy Big Stepper

Written By: - Date published: 6:54 am, March 20th, 2013 - 27 comments
Categories: john key, Spying - Tags: ,

Our wee James Bond wannabes had a code name for Kim Dotcom (you know, in case their comms were intercepted by the bad guys). They called him Billy Big Stepper. So witty! But Labour’s uncovered something more serious too. It seems that the GCSB was aware in February that they may have broken the law and went into a quite a tizz, before covering it up.

This bit is interesting:
“In February, the GCSB knew spying could be illegal but it took seven months until it was revealed to Dotcom, the Prime Minister and the public.”
Well, that’s the official version. I reckon there’s three possibilities:
  • They did tell him and they’re lying about it now.
  • His own officials deliberately keep him in the dark for 7 months
  •  The GCSB is out of control on Key’s watch
None of those are good for Key. But which is more likely?
Well, I just go back the basic facts.
  • Kim Dotcom was one of the wealthiest people in New Zealand.
  • He lived in our most expensive mansion.
  • That mansion was in Key’s electorate.
  • Dotcom had been in contact with several of Key’s ministers (not least, John Banks).
  • Key’s electorate office had been contacted with reference to Dotcom at least twice.
  • Key’s spies were investigating this powerful figure in Key’s electorate.
  • The spies casually mentioned the Dotcom case in a briefing to Key.
I just don’t buy that Key wouldn’t be up to speed. It’s basic arse-covering from a public servant’s perspective – do you want to take the risk of incurring the Minister’s wrath if something goes wrong on something so close to them and you haven’t informed them?
So, Billy Big Stepper is still making political earthquakes. More than a few careers have been squashed so far. The question is: can Key keep on slithering out of the way?

27 comments on “Billy Big Stepper ”

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  1. Athena 1
    20 March 2013 at 7:27 am

    Key slithered out of explaining how he knew about David Shearer being signed up for MRP shares last week, while this is more serious, he’ll get out of this too. Nothing seems to stick.

    • felixviper 1.1
      20 March 2013 at 7:38 am

      Yep, but the problem isn’t Key’s stonewalling and lying, the problem is the media stop asking the questions.

    • Joe Bloggs 1.2
      20 March 2013 at 11:31 am

      Hmmm, you have a point. I wonder if Key also knew about Shearer’s hidden millions?

  2. mickysavage 2
    20 March 2013 at 7:44 am

    Add in that Billy had donated a huge amount of money to Banksie’s mayoral campaign and must have been targetted by the National Party for a few dollars more.

  3. Lanthanide 3
    20 March 2013 at 7:54 am

    Dotcom says he has proof that Key knew about him before he claimed he did, and that he’ll be presenting that evidence at his trial.

  4. Colonial Viper 4
    20 March 2013 at 8:31 am

    One thing you can say: at least this illegal Government surveillance and over the top Hollywood armed raid with automatic weapons wasn’t against Maori on tribal land.

  5. vto 5
    20 March 2013 at 8:35 am

    Just more evidence of what people know already….

    The government and its officers break and bend the law all the time, especially under the current national party lot. And they get away with it easily. Far more easily than the young male down the road for whom no quarter is shown when he gets caught with a pipe in his pocket.

    The government is crooked.

    So why should anyone else follow the governments laws and regulations when they don’t themselves?

    Fuck them.

  6. Red Rosa 6
    20 March 2013 at 9:09 am

    Can’t blame the media for Shearer’s monumental stuff-up in Parliament on this issue, last time.

    All looked set for major battle, then…..flop….;)

    But DotCom’s not going away, so maybe next time…or the time after….

  7. Afewknowthetruth 7
    20 March 2013 at 9:32 am

    The boot is emblematic of the operators of The Standard. By applying heavy-handed censorship they have driven away the well informed commenters and left themselves with the uniformed fools. Presumably that was the plan. .

    [lprent: Yeah right. Like you’d know..

    There is a curious thing that happens after we go through a period of fairly high levels of moderation on this site. Over the six months or so following, we get an pretty strong increase in the numbers of new people commenting and the numbers of people who stop commenting diminish relative to the long-term averages.

    Similarly the numbers of people leaving longer comments increases and the numbers of larger comments increase. Note that I’m not talking about the super-sized comments – the ones I’m monitor are the ones that have several paragraphs. It is statistically significant. I often start moderating much more heavily when I see the proportion of small and super-sized comments increasing because this usually means that the comments are getting over-colonised by nutters and trolls.

    Basically you’re just talking crap. The intent of having comments in this place is to allow people to discuss and argue in public about posts and what is going on. It is not to be bored shitless by the fringe of haranguers pushing their unlistening and unargued points of view. Nor is it there for trolls to have ‘fun’ boring everyone else with written equivalents of dogs pissing on fences.

    Both behaviours eventually draw the attention of moderators to preserve the comment space, and that is why we keep slowly increasing the numbers of participants. ]

    • johnm 7.1
      20 March 2013 at 10:12 am

      Hi Afktt
      But yourself and Robert Atack are still commenting. Re. Xtasy The standard is for some reason ignoring the draconian changes to Benefit law set to come in in July.
      That it’s all up for Industrial Civilisation is something most understand but we still have to deal with the minutiae of everyday life which obscures the bigger picture.

      • The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell 7.1.1
        20 March 2013 at 10:20 am

        The Standard is in on the conspiracy?

        It’s so obvious when you think about it.

    • Enough is Enough 7.2
      20 March 2013 at 11:13 am

      Afewknowthetruth….You are awesome. Please never change.

    • Zorr 7.3
      20 March 2013 at 11:45 am

      It wouldn’t have anything to do with the foaming at the mouth?

      Sometimes you (and the rest of the conspiracists) say something worth reading but trawling through the dross of your large posts but color me unsurprised that one of you finally got a warning boot for, most likely, thread jacking.

      Because claiming The Standard has heavy handed censorship would be the exact opposite of how the site has been run for the entire time that I have been here

    • ghostrider888 7.4
      20 March 2013 at 12:56 pm

      on the bold: it appears that The Standard is an open forum to air perspectives on local and international politics, the environment, economics,media, sociological and psychological perspectives on the human condition and matters of scientific interest, the looming future etc; personally, I just write “it” as I “see” it.
      Lynn, appears to permit latitude, even for “loonies” like me. (but then, always helpful to “check assumptions”. 🙂

      • lprent 7.4.1
        20 March 2013 at 3:09 pm

        Moderators mostly intervene when peoples behaviour causes problems for the site, authors, or other readers/commentators. We usually don’t care much about peoples opinions unless they are directed at being hateful towards others (which disrupts discussions). But we’re very interested in how people behave and participate (or more commonly how they don’t participate) in discussions. And we’re not shy about making it clear when we’re starting to watch particular people.

        But we really don’t get too involved in the wrangling, arguing, and sniping that goes on, because that is just part of any normal open discussion process.

      • Vicky32 7.4.2
        20 March 2013 at 6:46 pm

        it appears that The Standard is an open forum

        Except – not really….

        Can we get back on topic and stop with the gastrpod behaviour towards management now?

        😀

    • Vicky32 7.5
      20 March 2013 at 6:43 pm

      [quote]slowly increasing the numbers of participants[/quote]

      I really rather think it’s the other way around, don’t you find? I don’t know what you censored above, and whether he was talking shite (it’s quite possible) but after coming here to read Helen Kelly’s piece, and this, I am off again.

      • Draco T Bastard 7.5.1
        20 March 2013 at 10:43 pm

        I really rather think it’s the other way around, don’t you find?

        I think you’ll find that the person with the statistics and reader numbers to hand knows more about what’s happening on this site than you do.

    • xtasy 7.6
      20 March 2013 at 9:48 pm

      As I may well be considered a candidate for criticism for long comments, I must apologise. But then again, I have a huge amount of information at hands, which is of real interest to some at least, so I always try hard to keep a balance, but still inform and spread links and messages, that lead others to more real interesting stuff.

      I hope, despite of my occasional rants and over reactions, I am not too great a “nutter”.

  9. Treetop 9
    20 March 2013 at 3:30 pm

    I do not buy it that Key did not know who Dotcom was until 19 January 2012.

    When it comes to Key knowing that the 20 January 2012 raid on Dotcom was illegal someone at the GCSB may have assumed that Key knew just because he knew about the January raid.

    It is long overdue that the GCSB and the Office of the Commissioner of Police get a long overdue reorganisation as they both need it.

    • Pascal's bookie 9.1
      20 March 2013 at 4:53 pm

      What’s really laughable is that that a long serving senior guy in the GCSB, who was responsible for the legal side of things, didn’t know whether or not spying on residents was legal.

      That’s the story we are being asked to believe.

      The story is that the legal guy at GCSB would have been stumped for an answer if asked “Who can we spy on?”

      That’s the story that the IG and the PM believed.

      Turn it up.

  10. xtasy 10
    20 March 2013 at 9:45 pm

    Dunno Dunny Don John Keypone just keeps playing the broken record. I do not know, I was not informed, I was not told, it was all just “operational” matters.

    Yeah, we believe so much in our grand leader, he is going to be the next pope too, I suppose. Honest John the new baptist may be his name.

  11. rob 11
    20 March 2013 at 11:06 pm

    I love it “honest John”
    Will you buy a used car from me?

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