The FBI also wanted DotCom to stay in New Zealand

Written By: - Date published: 6:25 pm, July 15th, 2014 - 38 comments
Categories: im/migration, john key - Tags: , ,

The FBI had been working with the New Zealand authorities for a year before he was arrested. They wanted to arrest him on his birthday “because it would be a big party and all the assets would be there.”A Department of Justice official revealed this to ex-Senator Dodd, chief lobbyist for the Motion Picture Association of America.  The FBI is a Justice Department agency.

The MPAA had wanted the US Congress to pass a law allowing for the overseas prosecution of people they considered were avoiding copyright. Pressure from a variety of sources killed the idea, and when Presidential candidate Obama went cold on the idea the MPAA threatened to scupper his fundraising in Hollywood.

So it looks like the fallback position was to keep DotCom in New Zealand for his birthday, confident that New Zealand government support, already demonstrated by neutering the industry unions, would return him to the US for prosecution. Alas for them, our Keystone cops and spies botched the birthday operation.

But that’s why he had to be kept in New Zealand. And that’s why there was political pressure from the National government to do so, once Simon Power had left the building.

38 comments on “The FBI also wanted DotCom to stay in New Zealand ”

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  1. One Anonymous Bloke 1
    15 July 2014 at 6:34 pm

    In what universe have National Party Ministers obeyed New Zealand law?

  2. Anne 2
    15 July 2014 at 6:49 pm

    Aha. Thanks for a missing link Mike Smith. So, that’s how they got Obama on board!

    MPAA – the ultimate bully boys who even bullied the President.

    My God, American politics can sink no lower…

    And yes, I long suspected there was another reason why Simon Power left the Tory nest. There are quite a few Tories who actually have principles. Many have passed on, but there’s still a few left and I always suspected Power was one of them.

    • Draco T Bastard 2.1
      15 July 2014 at 7:17 pm

      My God, American politics can sink no lower…

      No, they can’t. The US is the leading nation on the path to returning to feudalism. NZ is close behind. It’s what a society gets when it privatises everything.

  3. fdx 3
    15 July 2014 at 6:52 pm

    I despair at the depths New Zealand politics have plummeted to in the last 6 years , this government that is stacked with hypocrites, liars and charlatans has destroyed any hope the underclasses ever had of self betterment (and yes there are now distinct classes in NZ). If this lot is returned to power, this country,the people, our way of life will be further doomed. God help us.

  4. Weepus beard 4
    15 July 2014 at 7:02 pm

    That’s my industry Joyce and Key killed. </sad face icon>

    • felix 4.1
      15 July 2014 at 8:27 pm

      Are you a birthday party planner?

      • Weepus beard 4.1.1
        15 July 2014 at 8:33 pm

        Heh, no. Film and TV.

        Joyce and Key killed it stone dead both by sucking up to one powerful producer (Jackson) who demanded the weakening of worker’s rights, and then by stalling on vehicles for attracting foreign producers.

        Momentum gone. Skills gone. Will take years to recover.

        Thanks National.

        • felix 4.1.1.1
          15 July 2014 at 8:36 pm

          but but but Hobbits. Don’t you love Hobbits? Key does, he even said his wife looked like one.

        • Lanthanide 4.1.1.2
          15 July 2014 at 8:59 pm

          National’s handling of it really made no sense to me.

          Joyce was going on for months that there was no problem. Then at a drop of the hat, everything was reversed and they now had a scheme to attract the biggest budget productions. But it seems it’s the medium-budget productions (especially TV) that are the bread and butter, and they didn’t do anything to keep them rolling.

          • Weepus beard 4.1.1.2.1
            15 July 2014 at 9:10 pm

            Absolutely. The flags had been up for many many months but a combination of weak lobbying by SPADA and the Film Commission, Joyce and Key’s reticence after the public backlash from their own screw up of the Hobbit situation, and the general focus on primary industries at the expense of all else has led to a collapse in the Film and TV export industry. This has had a knock on effect on the domestic scene compounded by the current government’s unwillingness to fund local content.

            And then, as you pointed out, suddenly, after it was far too late they decide to have a photo op with James Cameron. Whoopdy shit! Horse. bolted.

            National, they know how to hang an industry out to dry, that is for sure.

      • Tracey 4.1.2
        16 July 2014 at 10:26 am

        Chuckle felix

  5. Sable 5
    15 July 2014 at 7:12 pm

    Just a bunch of sell outs who are a disgrace to this country and everything we are supposed to stand for….

    • Paul 5.1
      15 July 2014 at 7:21 pm

      Yup, they got the ladder up themselves( Bennett, Key) and then firmly and ruthlessly removed it from the generation below.
      As to the governments of Lange, Moore and Bolger who started the fire sale of this country, history will show how they betrayed the country.
      What people do for 30 pieces of silver.

      • Sable 5.1.1
        15 July 2014 at 7:24 pm

        Agreed 100%. Nice to see someone who has the blinders off when it comes to Labour too, not the party of the “working person” anymore. More a case of National 2.0…..

        • Paul 5.1.1.1
          15 July 2014 at 7:32 pm

          They are better than National, no doubt. However, their right wing rump in the caucus continues to act as a barrier to removing the neoliberal doctrine from New Zealand.
          Simple solution is to vote for parties that will force them to abandon Thatcherite and Randian poison.

  6. Penny Bright 6
    15 July 2014 at 8:21 pm

    Excuse me? Simon Power went through the ‘revolving door’ as Minister of Justice and Commerce to head Westpac’s Private Bank. Westpac being the bank the Govt uses. On his watch – NZ failed to ratify the UN Convention Against Corruption. ‘Principled’? Not in my view – just another corrupt self -serving ‘nest-featherer’- like his replacement …… Penny Bright

    • Tom Jackson 6.1
      15 July 2014 at 11:10 pm

      Grammar in the last sentence there, Penny. I didn’t know you’d been promoted.

    • William 6.2
      16 July 2014 at 12:21 am

      And let’s not forget his speech from 2004 when defence spokesman, “where Britain, the United States and Australia go, we go”.

  7. Lloyd 7
    15 July 2014 at 8:24 pm

    And the MPAA is a feudal organisation, trying to preserve an antiquated market which ‘owns’ artists. So the attack on Dot Com is part of the dying spasms of neoliberal feudalism.

  8. Jrobin 8
    15 July 2014 at 8:36 pm

    Really interesting links Mike, thanks. The tone of American corporates is so cold and dismissive. The “Matrix” view of human existence. Hit him on his birthday for maximum material gain. i wish these people would find a new planet and push off permanently

  9. fambo 9
    15 July 2014 at 10:46 pm

    Was listening to Colin Espinor and some jock called Jock just before 6pm on Newstalk ZB arguing amongst other things that there can’t be a conspiracy because otherwise it wouldn’t have gone so badly and Kim DC has run a very good PR campaign. I’m just not sure why they can be so stupid but maybe they just cannot accept that they have been duped by the PM.

    • Paul 9.1
      16 July 2014 at 5:40 am

      They aren’t stupid.
      They’re told to run lies to stamp out the flames.

    • One Anonymous Bloke 9.2
      16 July 2014 at 7:30 am

      It isn’t stupidity it’s bias, and we all have one.

    • karol 9.3
      16 July 2014 at 9:23 am

      The thing is “conspiracy” doesn’t automatically mean “run well”. It’s not necessarily a clear-cut difference between conspiracy vs cock-up. Key, Joyce et al are all about opportunism and short term planning and gains.

      As I have written a few times, Key is about inserting himself in networks of influence, and drawing on those networks when the need or opportunity arises. Such networks are not organised as one entity, but are networks of a range of entities. Plenty of rooms for the occasional cock-ups in between the networks and inter-related issues.

    • aerobubble 9.4
      16 July 2014 at 1:25 pm

      DotCom wins even if he doesn’t get any Internet MPs! Should Mana cleanup the Maori seats then there would be no list MPs coming form the combined Mana/Internet List. And Dotcom knows this. So every extra Mana seat means two things, NO KEY and NO DOTCOM. Dotcom is willing not to have any power in parliament just to unseat Key. That’s integrity. You can tell Dotcom ain’t no politician. So its more than just good PR, Dotcom is saying what he means. And why would Harra care? She would have gotten the Greens into government.

      Key obviously thinks that his influence over the Dotcom immigration is a state secret, that helping the US copyright lobby make Dotcoms life a misery, by letting him into the country despite being investigated in the US, is a matter of state secrets. And Dotcom can, I speculate, show that Key was implicated. Its a damn disgrace that when even Harra says Dotcom should not be in NZ, that Key hasn’t resigned. Its illegal to entrap. Its no different than a home owner setting a trap for a burgler (for obvious reasons that firefighters and other emergency services could be so trapped). Its unthinkable that our PM willing used the NZ state to assist Dotcom to gain entry so as to bring him to alleged justice in the US. I think the US legal system have a term, bad fruits of the tree or something. That the case now in the US should be thrown out, as any evidence collected in NZ is equally besmirched.

  10. Judge Holden 10
    16 July 2014 at 6:46 am

    The FBI conspiracy thing is far-fetched. The fact is Dotcom was rich and Ministers wet their pants when they heard he wanted to come here. The wheres and where-fors of his past and the immigration rules were set to one side as they creamed themselves over the very thought of a wealthy person living here. That’s every bit as bad as kowtowing to the FBI, if not worse, as it shows how embarrassingly cheap and unprincipled Coleman and co are.

    • One Anonymous Bloke 10.1
      16 July 2014 at 7:20 am

      All that can be true, and yet it provides no explanation for the GCSB’s rapid volte-face.

    • srylands 10.2
      16 July 2014 at 8:49 am

      “The FBI conspiracy thing is far-fetched.”

      Oh you think? And “far fetched” applies to the second part of your fantasy – Nigel Bickle, a respected public servant yesterday said that the Minister of Immigration had no part in the granting of KDC PR.

      You make Colin Craig look like a rational genius.

      Yes KDC should have been denied residency. Sadly the venerable institution the NZSIS – which you are such a fan of – should have been listened to, and their advice acted upon. But that had nothing to do with the Minister, the PM, or Neil Armstrong.

      • politikiwi 10.2.1
        16 July 2014 at 9:01 am

        “Nigel Bickle, a respected public servant yesterday said that the Minister of Immigration had no part in the granting of KDC PR.”

        And the fiasco with the Malaysian diplomat was entirely the fault of MFAT….

        If there was no “political pressure” involved, then why were the words “political pressure” used in the internal emails released under the OIA? Did someone misunderstand the term “political” or something?

        This would not be the first time a department CEO had been thrown under the bus by a National minister intent on keeping their nose clean.

        • One Anonymous Bloke 10.2.1.1
          16 July 2014 at 9:08 am

          “…the Minister of Immigration had no part in the granting of KDC PR.”

          Probably true, it wasn’t the Minister of Immigration.

      • One Anonymous Bloke 10.2.2
        16 July 2014 at 9:03 am

        Listen to them because KDC is/isn’t a threat to our security?

        The FBI were interested enough to give the SIS a heads-up and why wouldn’t they? I hardly see how that constitutes a conspiracy, by the way.

        What’s wrong with the FBI preferring that KDC be resident in a friendly English-speaking country?

        Perhaps in hindsight they will come to regret their reliance on a bored insincere big-noting lightweight and his #team, who couldn’t organise an extradition if their lives depended on it.

      • bad12 10.2.3
        16 July 2014 at 9:04 am

        The relevant bit of comment 10 SSLands is: ”it shows how embarrassingly cheap and unprincipled Coleman and co are”,

        The ”and co” is a short biography of you SSLands…

  11. philj 11
    16 July 2014 at 9:10 am

    xox
    Have the National government (NZ Inc.) outsourced Immigration decisions to the FBI? Is JK currently scoping his next role at Warners in the sequel to The Wolf of Wall Street?

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