Campbell Live is in the middle of showing broadcast a special on the GCSB. It presented information never before made public. It includes the US head of intelligence coming to NZ just before Key set up Ian Fletcher for the head of GCSB job.
Campbell is showing has shown how there was a major shift going on in NZ and 5 Eyes’ approach to intelligence.
3 News obviously think it’s pretty important. They are were streaming it live online.
John Key’s claims of not having met Fletcher much in recent years look very hollow in retrospect..
Whose interest is the GCSB operating in? Why has John Key mislead us, or at least, fudged the details?
Overview:
Dec 16th 2011, GCSB began illegal surveillance of Kim Dotcom. Ian Fletcher had taken leave of his job in Brisbane to be in Wellington that week. John Key met the GCSB that week. Key and Fletcher had a meeting that had never been revealed in spite of all the request for that info.
Timeline:
8 March 2011: Key announces that Lt general Jerry Mateparae has been appointed as Governor-General. He had only been director of the GCSB for a month.
15 March 2011: James R Clapper: US director of National Intelligence, flew into Wellington. High powered dinner at the US Embassy.
16 March 2011: Meetings with senior members of NZ intelligence community.
Clapper met John Key in Wellington.
11 May 2011: GSCB director position vacant. [ Shortlist was then drawn out and later thrown out by PM]
17 May 2011: Hillary Clinton meets with Murray McCully and announces new warmer relations between NZ and the US.
17 June 2011: Key met Fletcher for breakfast at the Stamford Plaza Hotel in Auckland. Key later seemed to have forgotten this meeting. Both Key and Fletcher have declined to answer repeated questions about who organised this meeting, how and why?
Fletcher had applied for recreation leave for just one day, 17 June 2011, from his job in Brisbane. [6 weeks after this Fletcher was successfully interviewed for the GCSB job]
6 July 2011: Shortlist for applicants for GCSB job scrapped. On some date after this, Key called Fletcher and suggested he apply for the job.
13 July 2011: Key announces he’s heading to US.
22 July 2011: Meets Obama in Oval Office. Key looks like he’s landed the big one, and crows about how all Washinton’s doors were open to him.
26 July 2011: Fletcher interviewed for GCSB job by panel selected by John Key.
Mid July 2011: At same time as in the US, Key invited Ian Fletcher to apply for the head of GCSB – according to Fletcher on Campbell Live.
In the last year or so (2012/3?), John Key initially denied he’d called Fletcher. He talked about the State Services Commissioner calling him and making some recommendations. Key also claimed he hadn’t really met Fletcher since their school days until he was recommended for the GCSB job.
3 October 2011: Meeting at British High Commissioner’s home in Wellington. Fletcher was still working in Aussie. At this meeting were: Vicky Treddell (Brit High Commissioner to NZ), John Key, Martin Weavers (Head of Dept of PM & Cabinet & head of the committee that advises PM on security & intelligence – also on Fletcher’s interview panel), Warren Tucker (Head of SIS), John Allen (head of Ministry of Foreign Affairs), Lt Gen Richard Rhys Jones (chief of NZ Defense Force), Ian Fletcher.
At least 3 of these people had met with Clapper when he was in NZ: Key, Rhys Jones & John Allen.
They have refused to answer repeated questions about what they discussed at this dinner.
8 December 2011: Letter sent to John Key by Iain Rennie (state Services Commissioner) about the appointment of Ian Fletcher. Referred to a meeting planned between Key and Fletcher for 12 Noon 12 December. [Edited 21 May 2014]
12 December 2011: PM recorded his regular video journal in Parliament office. New cabinet had been sworn in. Fletcher had been expected to attend a major meeting in Aussie on this day, but sent an apology. From 12-16 December Fletcher took recreation leave from his Queensland employer. Fletcher was in NZ that week, using NZ government funding for the trip.
Key also met with the GCSB on 12 December.
14 December 2011: Grant Wormald, police officer in charge of Dotcom case, met with GCSB.
16 December 2011: GCSB’s “illegal surveillance” of Kim Dotcom began.
12-16 December: Fletcher met Key, Simon Murdoch (Acting GCSB Chief), Hugh Wolfenson (oversaw spying on Kim Dotcom)
But we are told that no-one told Key or Fletcher about the Kim Dotcom surveillance that week.
20 January 2012: Dotcom arrested. [Added 21 May 2014]
30 January 2012: Ian Fletcher’s start date at GCSB [Added 21 May 2014]
What changed with the GCSB?
Fletcher’s appointment signalled a shift from military, to a focus on intellectual property, economics, commerce and trade.
Last year (March 2013), Clapper was questioned by a Congressional committee about collecting data on US citizens. Clapper denied collecting mass data on Americans. This turned out to be not true.
[Update 21 May] As swordfish has identified, there’s a telling moment in clip included in the Campbell Live broadcast. It’s a clip from an earlier date of John Key answering questions from the press. swordfish posted:
Probably at 7:46 on the video.
Key tells porkies (with body language that immediately betrays him) about his central involvement in the Fletcher appointment. Two journalists – rather obsequiously – mutter the reply “Great. Thank you. Thanks for that.”. And then, as he walks off to the right, Key, in turn, replies with a strangely high-pitched “Cool, see ya.”. And, I have to say, he reminds me very much of The Rain Man when he does this.
That high pitched squeaky voice is an indication of Key being under extreme pressure.
BLiP has updated his list of John Key’s changing and slippery version of the relevant events. Note the continuing references to Key’s statements about not lying to parliament.
NB: Kim Dotcom was arrested when his mansion was raided on 20 January 2012.
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