Spying

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Key needs to read the GCSB Act

Written By: - Date published: 8:37 am, October 2nd, 2012 - 23 comments

Key says that we would all be very scared if he had control over the GCSB. That’s wrong. Key is the only democratic control on our spies and he has extraordinary oversight. Every warrant the spooks need has to be approved by Key. Is he exercising that role properly, or is he just signing whatever the GCSB puts under his nose?

Key changes tune, orders GCSB review

Written By: - Date published: 7:15 am, October 2nd, 2012 - 71 comments

Last week, Key tried to tell us that the illegal spying on Kim Dotcom – which he, the minister, we’re supposed to believe wasn’t told about for 8 months – was down to one agent’s ‘brain fade’. Uh huh. So, why has he now appointed a senior public servant to review and reform GCSB? You don’t do that when the problem was one person’s human error.

[Update: Lol at Key. Police are launching a high powered inquiry after he said there was no need for one]

Neazor report proves inadequate cover for Key

Written By: - Date published: 9:23 am, September 29th, 2012 - 83 comments

Labour has written to Key calling for a much wider-ranging investigation into the Dotcom spying affair than Neazor’s narrow, tell-us-nothing-we-don’t-already-know report. They would have been better to go straight to the Auditor-General. The Greens have gone for the established illegality and called in the cops on the GCSB – cleverly citing the same offence Key claimed in the teapot tapes.

Key fails to guard the guardians

Written By: - Date published: 8:41 pm, September 27th, 2012 - 87 comments

Our government’s spies are overseen by two people – the Prime Minister and the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security. The former asked the latter to investigate he found out the GCSB had been illegally spying on two Kiwis. And, guess what, the report blamed underlings. It didn’t even investigate the question of oversight.

What does Key have to gain by lying?

Written By: - Date published: 8:52 am, September 27th, 2012 - 138 comments

John Key put on a display of incompetence in the House yesterday over the Dotcom spying affair. He claimed not to know a laundry list of basic facts that, if he didn’t know them before, he bloody well ought to have been briefed on by now. In some instances, his memory failed him over Dotcom. Yet he then showed he could recall exchange rates from 20 years ago. I think he’s lying. The alternative is too scary.

Will Key read the GCSB report?

Written By: - Date published: 7:06 am, September 26th, 2012 - 75 comments

Key has said we all have to wait and see what is in the Neazor Report on the GCSB spies’ illegal spying on Kim Dotcom.* He won’t even answer basic questions like: ‘what section of the law did the GCSB breach?’ Funny that Key’s so keen for us to wait to read this report. But will he read it? Or will it be like the Banks Police Report, which he won’t read?  And when will anyone get to read Banks’ statement?

Key plays the “don’t read, don’t care” card again

Written By: - Date published: 11:40 am, September 25th, 2012 - 19 comments

A couple of days before it was surely all going to come out – very messily and very publicly – in the Dotcom court case, Key has revealed that his spies illegally spied on Kim Dotcom. But, beyond that, Key won’t tell us anything apart from that he signed no warrant for spying on Dotcom (such a warrant would have been illegal anyway). Key has chosen not to find out more so that he wouldn’t have to answer questions.

Cynical Key

Written By: - Date published: 11:31 pm, September 24th, 2012 - 134 comments

So Key knew about the GCSB’s ‘unlawful’ actions for a week before he bothered to tell us. He happened to know that this Monday state owned companies would be announcing they were causing the loss of 500-600 jobs. Only one story would get its full due of airtime.

Wasting Police time

Written By: - Date published: 8:50 am, October 20th, 2011 - 19 comments

Anyone noticed the sudden overbearing presence of Police at peaceful protests? Bugging Greenpeace and intimidating lawful activists. 25 Police at a 150-strong anti-deepsea drilling protest in Tauranga. 12 officers at a 60 worker picket at CMP Rangitikei. Are they just hyper because of the Cup or is it about shielding businesses from people exercising their democratic right to protest?

Petard, meet hoist

Written By: - Date published: 3:02 pm, October 14th, 2011 - 55 comments

Attentive readers may recall some time back, when talk about illegal police video surveillance was to the fore, that there was also mention of the existence of video surveillance of a politician having an affair with a P user. Now of course having an affair isn’t particularly dreadful by today’s standards, even if the person […]

Why’s Boscawen really quitting?

Written By: - Date published: 12:38 am, September 25th, 2011 - 43 comments

Out of the blue, John Boscawen has announced he is withdrawing from ACT’s list. It’s an odd departure from an odd man. ‘Family reasons’ is the line. Not exactly creative. Is the real reason National’s ‘fixit’ Bill? Boscawen is a true believer in ACT’s libertarian principles and doesn’t do compromise. Was being asked to sign a retrospective blank cheque the final straw?

National security

Written By: - Date published: 8:37 am, July 21st, 2011 - 56 comments

Were a group of Israeli spies operating in Christchurch?  The question has emerged as a result of the death or an Israeli national and the events that followed in the aftermath of the February quake.  In the name of “national security” we’ll probably never be told the truth.

It gets much much worse

Written By: - Date published: 8:47 pm, July 5th, 2011 - 14 comments

New revelations out today that hacker Glenn Mulcaire who bugged celebrity phones for Murdoch’s News of the World also hacked into the phone of murdered teenager Milly Dowler after she went missing. NoW journalists deleted messages which gave Milly’s parents false hope that Milly might be alive. This happened when Rebekah Brooks, friend of David Cameron was the paper’s editor, and Andy Coulson, later Cameron’s communications director was deputy editor. This won’t stay under the carpet.

The silence of the poodles

Written By: - Date published: 8:31 am, June 15th, 2011 - 87 comments

National’s first dirty tricks operation of the 2011 election campaign has ended in an embarrassing own goal.  But they’ll be back with more of the same.  Because the last thing National wants is an election campaign focused on the issues.

Blown up in National’s faces

Written By: - Date published: 6:26 am, June 14th, 2011 - 385 comments

National’s raid on Labour donor data was a grubby, amoral little operation, with no point except to intimidate innocent individuals.

Unfortunately for the Nats it has blown up in their faces.

Operation 8: Deep in the Forest

Written By: - Date published: 8:46 pm, April 19th, 2011 - 15 comments

Last night walking into the film screening in Auckland I was a bit apprehensive about how it would all be put together. Fortunately my fears were unfounded and the film did justice to the complex issues involved.

It couldn’t happen here?

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, April 9th, 2011 - 17 comments

When I went to China on a private visit in 2008, Helen Clark sent me a text message telling me on no account to leave my cellphone or computer unattended. Over the last few years I noticed baskets in Ministers’ offices for visitors and officials to deposit their cellphones before they went in to see […]

Dealing with the DIA website-harvest parasite

Written By: - Date published: 2:27 am, February 3rd, 2011 - 13 comments

Periodically I run a scan to identify network parasites that are sucking up our bandwidth and processing resources in excess. Of course I leave the benign parasites that provide search facilities alone. But I stomp on the nasties.

Tonight the biggest parasite appears to have been a New Zealand government department – the Department of Internal Affairs.

Assange voluntarily goes to British court on extradition

Written By: - Date published: 9:15 am, December 8th, 2010 - 50 comments

Now that the Swedish prosecutors have finally given the British police a document that they can work with, Assange turned himself in, and has gone before a British court on the extradition request from Sweden. The court has remanded him without bail. I have already commented on exactly what I think of the charges – […]

Sunday Morons: an omnibus of silly people

Written By: - Date published: 1:02 pm, October 10th, 2010 - 19 comments

With all of the political activity over the last week, there are a few items that missed getting covered as well as the ones that we covered extensively. Rather than do individual posts on the idiots of the week, I’ve written an omnibus post of my notes from the last week.

Take it out of my ‘tax cut’

Written By: - Date published: 9:22 am, April 9th, 2010 - 30 comments

So the govt wants to sue the Waihopai 3 for $1.1 mil. No pesky jury this time. The dudes only have a grand between them. Spending a couple of hundred thousand on lawyers’ fees to bankrupt some hippies. Doesn’t seem like the best use of taxpayer cash. Tell you what. If the govt really wants its $1.1 million they can take it out of our tax ‘cuts’. 25 cents each. That’ll be my tax cut pretty much gone.

The Waihopai spy base

Written By: - Date published: 7:31 am, April 9th, 2010 - 31 comments

The Waihopai spy base is very much in the news. Last month the Waihopai Three were acquitted of charges, provoking a storm of controversy (and congratulations). Yesterday came the news that the Government is considering further action against the three. There was also a “very unusual” statement about the role of Waihopai from the GCSB. Who to believe?

The PM’s private spy agency

Written By: - Date published: 7:33 pm, March 22nd, 2010 - 5 comments

While the public has been focusing on the acquittal of the Waihopai Three, there’s been a quiet revolution in our intelligence community. The Prime Minister has got himself a private spy agency.

As well as looking at foreigners, it will also be “assessing”, and advising the government on, the beliefs, actions, and plans of New Zealanders.

The problem is compounded by the lack of oversight.

Nat kneejerk over Waihopai 3

Written By: - Date published: 12:52 pm, March 22nd, 2010 - 17 comments

Key is talking ‘toughening’ the law in the wake of the Waihopai 3 acquittals. He clearly doesn’t understand that a jury decision, let alone one in a district court, has no precedent effect. Others Nats are muttering about canning jury trials. It’s scary the way the Nats resort to heavyhanded tactics so quickly. They never work either, just ask the boyracers in their uncrushed cars.

Woman’s Day pays creep to stalk Mau

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, February 16th, 2010 - 58 comments

Tabloid trash mag Woman’s Day has being paying someone to follow Alison Mau and her family to take pictures to fuel their prurient interest in her personal life, according to a statement by Mau on TVNZ’s Breakfast. In her statement Mau pleaded for Woman’s Day Editor Sarah Henry to “call off the dogs” and the “creepy guy in […]

Warning: Beware what you say on the net. Humourless bastards are after you.

Written By: - Date published: 1:42 pm, January 21st, 2010 - 23 comments

No Right Turn has a post about the weirdness of the police forces in Britain at present. Elements of our own police force have been acting just as weirdly about ‘terrorism’ over the past years bringing a new era of police stupidity and police doing actions that are subsequently found to be illegal1. Joking about […]

Time for a Just Transition?

Written By: - Date published: 4:28 pm, December 30th, 2009 - 15 comments

With so much attention on climate change, and such a lack of concern, urgency and commitment to action from the current Tory government you would think it would be something labour would be working hard on, and be busy drafting detailed policy and vocally demanding action be taken. The Copenhagen climate summit was a cop […]

Guilty until proven innocent

Written By: - Date published: 1:01 pm, November 7th, 2009 - 9 comments

We are continuing our chilling progress towards a surveillance state. The Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act 2009 is another brick in the wall. Apparently this act reverses the fundamental presumption of innocence with respect to assets (possessions, wealth). If the police decide that your possessions were gained via “significant criminal activity” you are guilty unless you […]

Chilling

Written By: - Date published: 9:39 am, November 5th, 2009 - 39 comments

The Search and Surveillance Bill is making its way though the bowels of the government law making process. This is a terrible law, described by the Human Rights Commissioner as “disproportionately invasive” and “chilling“: Sweeping powers to spy, bug conversations and hack into private computers could be given to a web of state agencies as […]

Surveillance state

Written By: - Date published: 9:26 am, October 16th, 2009 - 22 comments

One of the most dishonest, yet most successful tactics of National in opposition was to rant on and on about the “Nanny state”. Here’s John Key fairly foaming at the mouth: I’ve had nine years of being told what lightbulb I can screw into the house, what shower I can take, what food I can […]

SIS? Or who’s spying now?

Written By: - Date published: 12:54 pm, September 13th, 2009 - 27 comments

On Thursday Animal Rights Activists did a protest outside the Norwegian Embassy against the fur trade there. This was to support the campaign in Norway, where activists have just released an investigation into 50 fur farms. During the protest a man was observed sitting in a car across the road taking photographs of the protest […]