Written By:
mickysavage - Date published:
10:25 am, November 15th, 2015 - 98 comments
Categories: democracy under attack, Dirty Politics, journalism, Media -
Tags: nicky hager
Following on from its earlier release Scoop has uploaded further documents filed in the Hager v Attorney General case. The documents include Hager’s affidavit, various other affidavits, police disclosure and some exhibits.
Discussion is building about why police resources were put into the case at all. An affidavit by former Police Controller Wayne Stringer expresses surprise at the way the case was handled.
At paragraph 7 of his affidavit he says this:
I am very surprised to see how much effort and police resource has been devoted to this case. The Counties-Manukau office routinely deals with large volumes of very serious crime, including murders, rapes, and crimes of violence and child abuse. Offenders in such cases, unless caught, have the potential to continue to cause extremely serious harm. Police have limited resources, and in my view rightly prioritise these crimes. In my view, the offence under investigation here, accessing a computer system for a dishonest purpose, is a much less serious offence than many others the police are called upon to investigate. Had I been in charge of the office, I would have accorded it a low priority. The amount of time and resource expended in this case seems to me to be akin to using a sledgehammer to crack a walnut.
At paragraph 14 he says:
I note that the search of Mr Hager’s house must have been very expensive for police. It involved five officers and a computer expert. Two had to be flown down from Counties-Manukau. Expense is always a factor in policing decisions.
Stringer was also surprised at the heavy involvement of Assistant Commissioner Malcolm Burgess. He is a member of the Police’s executive and is Wellington based. His active involvement in this investigation appears to be well out of the scope of his norman duties. We are not talking here about the great train robbery. Slater’s initial complaint was to him. He appears to have taken an active interest in the investigation and was consulted with before the decision to make the application for the search warrant.
And in a case resembling the great disappearing online Herald story there is a print article by David Fisher that does not appear to have made it online at all. Given the significant constitutional and political implications in this story you have to ask why.
Finally if you wish to contribute to Scoop’s ongoing sustainability you can donate to the Scoop Foundation.
The current rise of populism challenges the way we think about people’s relationship to the economy.We seem to be entering an era of populism, in which leadership in a democracy is based on preferences of the population which do not seem entirely rational nor serving their longer interests. ...
The server will be getting hardware changes this evening starting at 10pm NZDT.
The site will be off line for some hours.
You left out the best part which is the identity of the hacker is known by at least 3 others so perhaps there is going to be a full revelation of all information rather than selected editing of some information
http://www.donotlink.com/hcse
[Took out whale oil link and inserted donotlink link – MS]
err, everyone already knows that Hager, Nippert, and Fisher had contact with Rawshark. the only revealing in there is how silly the cops are.
Don’t forget that John Key made a public statement saying he knew the true identity of the hacker Rawshark.
I believe the police eventually spoke to the liar in chief who told the police it was just someone telling him they knew. I assume the LIC told the police who the someone was….
I guess more than 1 police officer is getting concerned with the politicalising of police and abuse of government resources instead of concentrating on the police charter to fight crime and not be used political errand boys. And Slater can hardly even be considered a guy to go all out for – apart from being on txting terms with the PM.
Yeah the best part isnt the misuse of police resources at all
🙄
“Discussion is building about why police resources were put into the case at all.”
…it was clearly political and orders came top down from the jonkey nact government…can this be proven?
It is heartening that this police officer swore that affidavit.
Was cou ties manukau that assisted Collins with helpful figures for her Papakura newslettef?
ummmmm yes it was!
ohhhh dear.
IPCA investigation for a wet bus ticket on the back of the hand you think?
Tory
They also missed out that Stringer is a stooge of Hager’s as well as being David Parker’s staffer.
Nah…none of that would have clouded his view at all.
So what? Someone used to work for a Labour MP and this means that their views should be ignored?
Besides his comments match my experience and that it is almost impossible to get the police to do anything unless it is serious crime and this is not.
And the police inaction over the Rachinger claims that Slater hired him to hack this site complete with texts and evid nec of bank deposits are in stark contrast to their behaviour over Slater’s claims.
Georgey and Tory are just parroting a post and comments this morning on a certain Dunedin-based blog on Stringer. DoNotLink is useful.
As a caregiver to four parrots, my apologies to all parrots. Parrots are smarter than these two trolls.
EDIT – make that three trolls – ppw also.
@ Georgey (3) –
Evidence to support your claims please.
Chooky, perhaps Police involvement has been driven by individual personal agendas
http://www.donotlink.com/hcse
[Replaced with donotlink link – MS]
mate, WO is an admitted fantasist who talks things up. that was own sworn testimony the AG investigation of Collins. He is not what investigators call ‘a reliable witness’.
WO has gone pretty quite of late about his claim that he knows for sure who Rawshark is. That was going to be the big lanch of FreedNZ his mighty MSM busting media venture that has died on the old vine. Then it was going to be in his fantastic book that reveal once and for all the evil plotters against him, but nope, didn’t happen.
The list of possibilities for who Rawshark could be has grown considerably rather than narrowed given how slack WO’s security was. Loads of rumours about how weak a password was that he used for multiple purposes. Using your screen name plus a few digits? oh dear. Still hacking to crack it, but doesn’t take any sort of genius.
WO did publish a shitty little book about the evils of trade unions or something, probably sold 10 copies or so
pamphlet #pffft
Makes you wonder if slater is the one the PM relied upon fr his claim he was pretty sure who rawshark is… had to backtrack when the police eventually asked… t
Is that in any doubt whatsoever?
Georgey, this gets better every day 🕵🕵
Labour are donkey deep in this dirty politics, the snivelling creep Hagar and his enablers will be covered in much of the same muck that they’ve been flinging around.
Where is Jason Ede?
Having dinner with your mother ?
Weird.
proud poopy wearer eh.
Wishful thinking isnt a fact.
First john key was a victim… now slater… what a tiny world you live in.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11350276
John Armstrong – 5:00 AM Thursday Oct 30, 2014
The Prime Minister believes he knows who hacked Whale Oil blogger Cameron Slater’s computer and produced the source material for Nicky Hager’s Dirty Politics, according to a new edition of a recently published biography of John Key.
In a new chapter in John Key: Portrait of a Prime Minister devoted to this year’s election campaign, Mr Key is quoted as saying: “Someone phoned and told me who the hacker was, but other than having a look at this person, I thought, ‘Oh well … nothing will come of it. Life goes on’.”
There is a reason Key apologise publicly to slater and no one else….
Don’t let’s beat about the bush. The police were instructed to pull out all stops in their hunt for Rawshark and to look for evidence against Hager that could be used to discredit him. And we know the instruction originated from John Key although his involvement will have been heavily covered up from possible public exposure.
He has now surpassed Rob Muldoon as New Zealand’s most venal and corrupt prime minister. But like all psychopaths, he knows how to turn on the superficial charm and the fools -including some in the media – fall for it every-time.
Nutter
[Back up your comments with facts or you will find your commenting ability is terminated – MS]
You can’t address the argument with a rebuttal, so you say she’s a nutter? That’s pathetic. Try harder.
I agree poopy wearer shouldn’t be claiming that Key is a nutter without proof …. Let’s start with his ponytail fetish ..
Why would anyone need more than a comment of ‘nutter’ to someone who suggests that we live in a corrupt police state with the PM ordering the police to do investigations on his behalf.
Detest Key and his political party all you want but to suggest we live in anything but a fairly benign democracy is the stuff of fantasy.
So what is your explanation for why the raid on Hager took place, when a senior police officer has said, had he be in charge, he would have prioritised the raid very lowly.
*crickets*
The ‘senior police officer’ you quote is an ex Police Officer, has been a friend of Hagar’s for 20 years, is a past employee of David Parker, and obviously wear Hagar tinted glasses.
For propaganda to be effective it must be seen to come from a reliable and trustworthy source – unfortunately this fails on both counts.
“For propaganda to be effective it must be seen to come from a reliable and trustworthy source”
You jest, surely!?
Hemeans lie Cameron Slater I think.
Why do you think Slaters home and office werent searched by police after he published personal info obtained from a hard drive whose ownership slater didnt verify?
Care to day how what he said is wrong? Under your analysis no one with a friendship or a political opinion will ever be able to comment on anything.
Its like a plague of crickets in here today
PPW wake up, the cops even lie to politicians.
I’d personally like to see a number of cops ranked from inspector to assistant police commissioner explain some of their lies to politicians.
One of the biggest lies which is repeated is that the matter has been investigated and that there is no new evidence. This happens when you take a police complaint to an MP and the complaint has been under investigated because the cops have covered up wrong doing by one of their own or they have misled a politician/s.
File after file of mine has gone missing by the police.
for ppw..
https://youtu.be/5vH64GFs_0g
You’re quite right ppw. Key is a Nutter.
opium poppy smoking destroys critical thinking faculties in the prefrontal cortex
So does Key derangement syndrome amongst the commenters at the Standard apparently.
[Off to moderation you go. Will let through comments where you are not abusing anyone and trying to actually debate the merits – MS]
Well of course dear boy – you are a boy aren’t you? There are degrees of psychopathy. Not all of them run around shooting people you know. Some at the lower end of the scale can be quite reasonable at times. It’s when they start feeling threatened they turn feral. We saw an excellent example of it with Key just last week.
But I guess you can’t comprehend these things because you are obviously in the bottom half of the NZ IQ scale.
That’s because this is a Left wing blog dedicated to political debate, not your toilet paper.
I’m surprised you know what toilet paper is with all the dung you post on this site.
I tell you what: you keep up the vacuous one-line insults, and I’ll keep on pointing out factual inaccuracies and laughing at you, and we’ll see who lasts longest.
How old are you?
If you don’t like it here, then leave.
Continue with this kind of behaviour, and I will start acting like a provost. I am sure that you are familiar with that.
“proud poppy wearer” gets that from his beloved hero – who, in the House of Reps often used to refer to certain sectors of the opposition as “loonies”.
All cast in the same mold, I suspect. Or should that be “the same mould?”
fixed it for you MS> If you are going to be fair about these things this should also go here.
[Back up your comments with facts or you will find your commenting ability is terminated – MS]
“He has now surpassed Rob Muldoon as New Zealand’s most venal and corrupt prime minister.”
What really got to Key, was the fact that Key was challenged outside of the debating chamber on an important issue (human rights) and Key had a big reaction in the house following being challenged.
Muldoon accused Moyle of being picked up by the police in the house on 3 November 1976 regarding an incident which occurred on 17 June 1975. (Muldoon sat on the incident for 16 months). Key accuses Labour of defending rapists and murders.
The question I have for Key is:
Do you know how many murders, sex offenders or those convicted of aggravated crimes have been deported from Australia to NZ in the last 12 months?
And
What has your government done to ensure that these criminals are monitored and supported?
The full police evidence into the handling of the Moyle incidents were put in lock up for 25 years by the attorney general when part of the inquiry was released in mid April 1978 and still remain locked up.
Self interest by a PM in a police matter = a police state.
Wayne Stringer is so right when he states that the resources put into Hager are not JUSTIFIED. I would like to add that the police once again are not prioritising their time trying to solve homicides or sexual assaults which heavily impact on the community.
If some of these top cops want to play a part in politics I suggest that they stand for parliament and tell the executive to not interfere in the day to day running of the police and to also ask for the police budget to be increased.
Exactly. Rapists and murderers have been deported fr years…. Key made people think it was new.
+100 Anne…well said
PPW. +1👍
+1
Is one more than the number of murderers and rapits Key said were amongst the kiwis on christmas island
+1 is one more than the number of times slaters home and business ha been raided by police after he published info from a stolen hardrive or one wrongly given to him
+1 is 1 more than the number of times you or ppw have read the documents released from this case
I have read through the Hager affidavit and noticed this which signal’s a possible political/police connection although impossible to prove.
Oh.Sadly I cannot copy and paste. One word per line.
Anyway para 157 and 158 interesting.
And the Conclusion para 167-171 interesting.
The case is finished and the publishing of the judgement has been imminent – for a while. Hope it is just the Court delay and not another one where the report is sent up the chain for approval or “modification.” Paranoia?
Hi Im – are you able to give document no and page no for those para’s
page 46 from the KEB [Key Evidence Bundle] Vol 1 (Applicant’s Affidavits) ie Nicky’s evidence/ affidavit and the last page for summary.
http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/1511/KEB_Volume_1__Applicants_affidavits_Redacted_v2.pdf
Highlight – “search google for” – opens a new tab – copy from new tab search bar – should paste okay.
Awaiting the judgement with interest.
” 157. There is a pattern in New Zealand politics of politicians attacking the messenger when they are caught out doing things they preferred would not become public. After Dirty Politics was published, I received a series of personal attacks from the Prime Minister John Key and others. By deciding to raid my house, the Police made this worse. The implication to some sections of the public was that there was something criminal about my legitimate occupation.”
Also being done by posters in this thread. The right throwing alotof sunday resource at this thread
I thought that too Tracey.. seems recently there are a high number of right wingers on The Standard. I have no problem with right wingers offering reasoned argument but clearly many of them are simply trolls out to hijack threads and topics.
I’ve also noted the number of right wing comments in the online MSM receiving far more “thumbs up” or “likes” than has historically been the case.
Now our comrades on the right will try and put that down to a change in public opinion and the love of John but things don’t change that quickly.
Could it be the right is trying to win back Social Media from the left by devious/technical means, could it be the online MSM themselves manipulating the comments or both?
Just speculating like….
“Just speculating like….”
you mean something like this ?
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/mar/17/us-spy-operation-social-networks
Can anyone tell me what the police have charged Hager with?
Can anyone tell me why Slater’s home has not been forensically raided like Hager’s was?
(Were Slater’s home to be raided the police would probably not like what they found and would they reveal any information were it to potentially ruin a politician?)
The Hager raid could just back fire on the PM like what Muldoon did to Moyle (asked the police for the contents in the Moyle police file).
Moyle was never charged with an offence.
The sergeant doesnt explain ghe process he went through to decide.
A. Whether to invrstigate and
B. What resoures it warranted
If he did it was at the end of his affidavit.. i didnt read that far
“The sergeant doesnt explain ghe process he went through to decide.”
Accessing a computer system for a dishonest purpose is what is being investigated, I am not sure if this is what the charge is? FFS if anyone feels that Hager has defamed them they should take a civil case out against him. The problem for me is the misuse of police resources by the police and that political interference may be involved. Were this to be the case, Hager needs to add a chapter to his Dirty Politics book.
Lynch says he knew hager had written a prior political book. Is he referring to Dirty Politics?
Obviously there was an extreme emergency to find the data concerning individuals and whatever communication could be there from them or associates that could be linked to any govt facilities also being specific to certain key individuals in the govt
Strange they never put all that effort into finding out about a real crime of the burglary of an office that resulted in Slater receiving a stolen hard drive and a set of file cabinets full of paper documents from that burglary. Why is it they are not using as much resources for that crime to find out who committed that physical theft to hand over those records to Slater to then print an attack article on the target of that burglary?
Why also is it that they did not charge Slater for receiving actual physical property and seize it all back with a search of his premises?
My answer to your question is ignorance is bliss. The crazy thing for me about what could be on Slater’s computer is that he would not use it against a government politician unless he really had to, to save his own arse and that he would not be ruined for spilling the beans).
It must be real lonely being in a position which is untenable.
Nixon and Watergate comes to mind with your comment of an office being raided.
I have been slowly wading my way through the second set of court documents released by Scoop. My impressions so far (including from reading the first set) is that there are a lot of anomalies, contradictions etc in the Police’s MO in this case and in their evidence as presented to the court. This includes some basic checking and editorial errors in the evidence that I would not expect to find in final documents presented to the court. Usually such documents are checked by many pairs of eyes …
Some of these errors are quite funny,as well as being basic.
For example, Felix Geiringer, one of Hager’s legal team, has tweeted a mistake in the Police transcript pf a radio interview at page 598 onwards in this document – https://t.co/U2bdrOQ2dY. This is stated as being a transcript of an interview with Mike Hosking on Radio Live on 17 August 2014.
It is in fact a transcript of this interview by Wallace Chapman of Hager on RNZ on 7 October 2014! Oooops.
https://t.co/O1eMwBGG8X
Similarly, earlier in the overall document starting at page 71, there is a Police transcript of an interview of Hager by Sean Plunket on Radio Live on 14 August 2014. Halfway down page 78, the indentifiers of SP and NH get reversed and remain that way almost to the end of the interview.
Inconsequential but makes for fun reading – but again a basic lack of proof reading that should have been picked up long before the transcript was submitted in the Police evidence to the court.
Odd indeed. I wonder what the legal costs have been for we taxpayers?
Very high, I suspect, in terms of the resources assigned to the raid and investigation – as well as preparation for and legal representation in court. Hence Wayne Stringer’s comments in the hard print Herald article in the post. (Full article can be read on Scoop – on the link to the second set of documents).
And for a bit of light relief on this subject, I laughed at this tweet on the Police task sheet for information on Rawshark’s suppposed trip to Vanuatu – https://twitter.com/Te_Taipo/status/665377440215072769
At the time, my immediate reaction to R’s mention of going to Vanuatu was that it was a blatant red herring – as unlikely as Alpha Centauri.
EDIT – actually, having now looked at that Te Taipo Twitter account, it is well worth reading with a lot of IT analysis of the IT aspects of the police raid ….
I wonder if their OIA was delayed or just took the whole 20 working days
Malcolm Burgess comes up again and again as a government apologist and a guy that appears to espouse the 60’s and 70’s arrogant, small minded, blinkered and bigotted type of policing.e.g. his refusal to see any possibility of the innocence of David Bain from compelling evidence of finger burns on 3D (TV3) and his biassed comments on the unfortunate journalist that left his equipment on john key’s tea table.
I wish someone would investigate his suspicious behaviour or at least start a ‘Blip’ list on him. Maybe my two examples could start it.
do behave on the balance of probabilities Bain is as guilty as sin.
interesting…
Blip has just done a list of Education disasters by National here…
http://localbodies-bsprout.blogspot.com.au/2014/03/the-destruction-of-new-zealands-public.html
Even more depressing.
Thanks Macro. So important we keep on top of these wrongs, otherwise they just slip into the abyss of forgetfulness and incompetent and dishonourable people get away with their utter indecency again and again.
Does anyone know if Lynch gives a definition for
” … serious crime investigations or investigations of an
otherwise sensitive nature….” which require a higher degree of oversight.
You have got me thinking, what is going to happen to Rawshark when they find him?
Rawshark could be a savant for all I know or a 13 year old or they could live in the North pole with Santa.
Well with all those resources they couldnt find him….
Around the time of the last election both Rawshark and Jason Ede disappeared off the radar within a week of each other. Tell me if I’m barking up the wrong tree…..
You are barking up the wrong tree. Ede had to disappear to save his master and was nicely compensated in a cushy new job.
Rawshark went cos of the heat coming on to out him. Also he was acting from anger at somehing slater did. Ede was a paid lackey doing whatever got him were he wanted to be, imo. Rawsharks was more personal.
So for me completely different modus operandi.
Ok, thanks
Just my observations.
For some reason I’ve always had difficulty believing the official line that they were trying to find information that could lead them to Rawshark. My suspicion was and still is that Hager was the intended target all along. Perhaps Nicky Hager is too modest and humble to fully appreciate his own role in all this; Hager is certainly not stupid or naïve but he does not have an ego the size of KDC’s.
I agree. They wanted to cut Hager of from any current or future sources
wtf police… you ought to know better
threatened Hager with jail time for not giving passwords
The note seems to be split on two different pages? Sure it is the same statement linked together?
Reading back through here it’s pretty obvious that a year on a lot of people on the right are still pretty worried about the possible ramifications of the whole dirty politics scandal … That so many should spontaneously show up here over here to comment on this one issue shows that they feel vulnerable here.
A good reason if ever I saw one to not leave the issue to die.
Yup. Hager’s name presses all kinds of buttons… and the lengths gone to ilence him are very telling. What Hager reveals they do not want their supporters to know… luckily for them some of their supporters still dont want to see.
Anyone who knows what Hager was working with at the time of the raid has no doubt that finding Rawshark was not or at least a very minor reason for the raid.
The incredible harassment of sources since has been extraordinary. The suppression of that harassment is doubly so.
I don’t just want to see virtually the entire National front bench to resign; I want to see several of them prosecuted (legally speaking) and to go to prison.
NOTES ON THE COPPER WHO DID KEY’s DIRTY WORK.
Malcolm Burgess meets with Key when wearing his “International Services Group” hat.
Assistant Commissioner Investigations, NATSEC & International
Malcolm Burgess MNZM
Assistant Commissioner Investigations, NATSEC & International is responsible for the National Criminal Investigations Group, the Organised and Financial Crime Agency New Zealand (OFCANZ), Financial Crime Group, International Services Group and Pacific Islands Chiefs of Police Secretariat.
The Investigations and International Group leads the prevention, investigation, disruption and prosecution of serious and transnational crime. It also leads liaison, overseas deployment and capacity building with international policing partners.
Assistant Commissioner Malcolm Burgess was appointed in June 2011 after two years as Director of OFCANZ, based at Police National Headquarters in Wellington.
He joined Police in 1976 and held uniform and CIB positions including area commander for Nelson and Hamilton cities and Detective Superintendent Southern, based in Christchurch. In 2005 he studied in Britain under the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Aotearoa Fellowship.
Promotion material and arse licker supreme
http://www.police.govt.nz/about-us/structure/commissioners-executive-commanders