Why was GCSB spying on Dotcom? Big business is watching you!
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- Date published:
1:49 pm, October 2nd, 2012 - 22 comments
Categories: business, copyright, internet, Spying -
Tags: john key
Kim Dotcom was arrested on charges related to copyright infringement, not national security or “terrorism”. There is a worrying trend that the surveillance network involved the “Five Eyes” (NZ, Aussie, US, Canada and the UK), has shifted from it’s original mission and is being used for intelligence related to promoting corporate interests.
The GCSB’s website states:
The Mission of the GCSB is to contribute to the national security of New Zealand through:
- providing foreign intelligence to support and inform Government decision making;
- providing a 24/7 intelligence watch and warning service to Government;
- ensuring the integrity, availability and confidentiality of official information through information assurance (IA) services to Government; and
- contributing to the protection of Critical National Infrastructure from cyber threats.
NZ investigative journalist, Nicky Hager, was responsible for exposing the so-called “echelon” network of surveillance, by the Five Eyes, and the shift in its mission.
Intelligence monitoring of citizens, and their communications, in the area covered by the AUSCANNZUKUS security agreement has caused concern. British journalist Duncan Campbell and New Zealand journalist Nicky Hager asserted in the 1990s that the United States was exploiting ECHELON traffic for industrial espionage, rather than military and diplomatic purposes.
Today the story broke that John Key is traveling to Hollywood to promote NZ’s movie industry.
Today Kim Dotcom tweeted:
“Prime Minister meets studio bosses in Hollywood about doing business in NZ. Getting paid for the raid.”
Dotcom has made other claims about Key’s involvement with Hollywood:
Dotcom said he believed US Vice President Jo Biden personally ordered the closure of Megaupload on behalf of the American film industry, particularly his close friend and former senator Chris Dodd, who now heads the Motion Picture Association.
The Scoop team put out a press release today, explaining exactly what the GCSB was able to provide to aid the US in getting NZ police to arrest Kim Dotcom back on January 2012.
They claim that GCSB was able to provide real time viewing of the January 20 raid for interests in the US and elsewhere:
When New Zealand police raided Kim Dotcom’s mansion on Friday 20 January they were being watched by one of their colleagues 14,000km away in Washington D.C. — courtesy of GCSB-TV. …
Created by the FBI’s Law Enforcement Online (LEO) network in 2002, the Virtual Command Centre (VCC) enables enforcement agencies to post, track and spread information in a quick, secure environment. …
The GCSB’s value to police in the Dotcom raid was its expertise in managing top-secret data feeds so that New Zealand, at the centre of the FBI’s global move against Dotcom only because he chose to live here, could hold its own in the international law enforcement community.
I’m not sure how much truth there is to Dotcom’s claims about Dodd and Biden. However, just a few days after Dotcom’s arrest in January, the bill s targeting online piracy, which Dodd was championing, were pulled from both the US Congress and the Senate.
It’s been a rough two weeks for former senator Chris Dodd, who left government and took a gig as President of the Motion Picture Association of America. The SOPA and PIPA bills on online piracy he was fighting to get passed were pulled in both the House and Senate after a massive online protest.
It’s not easy to get to the truth about what has been going on with the Dotcom case and NZ authorities. But altogether there are some worrying trends in the use of surveillance capabilities by the “five eyes” international network.
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All that bootleg software in Russia left a stain on Kim Dotcom methinks.
And we all know what the US thought of them for man many years.
YOu forgot to mention the Bildebergers, the Rockefellers and the Seven Sisters…
except that this stuff is happening in our backyard, backed by agencies we call our own. Of course, Key, is part of the wider international bankster cartel.
I think you’ll find that Kim Dotcom was in fact about to blow the whistle on the Pentagon/Majestic-12’s new online espionage artificial intelligence. He had to be silenced. The truth is that he died in the raid on his house, and it has been an actor ever since.
Wake up sheeple!
Yeah i figured this was what happened, thanks for the confirmation.
Perhaps the same explanation is relevant to John Key’s recent (past 4 years) behaviour as well . . .
“The GCSB’s value to police in the Dotcom raid was its expertise in managing top-secret data feeds so that New Zealand,”
Interesting; and Mr Bull English couldn’t use this “top-secret data feed” to inform Mr Key of the document he signed?
The international surveillance network “…being used for intelligence related to promoting corporate interests.”
This issue regarding the power that corporate interests have really needs to be addressed
Are our MSM ‘journalists’ onto this? Will any of the MSM toadies that accompany John Key on his Hollywood trip actually find out who he is meeting with and why?
marsman, it seems to me the MSM are largely following Key’s lead and trying to contain with damage within quarantine limits. Key has also attempted to inoculate himself from criticism beyond that of the limited issues of law breaking by the GCSB and/or police by raising the “conspiracy” specter.
So questions of mission creep (into corporate and commercial activities) never get raised by the MSM.
But his latest response on the legal issue is that he doesn’t need to know every operation that the GCSB are involved in, if it doesn’t involve national security issues…..cause that would be, like, too autocratic of the PM….
really? so if the GCSB is doing a bit of moonlighting – lending out their technology and expertise, say, to the US, FBI….. “No problem” as far as key is concerned….????
Two weeks after the Dotcom raid Obama held two private fundraising events in Hollywood (invitation only, no press). Price of admission: $39,000 USD per person!
What a perfect made for Hollywood Obama fund raiser!
At the time I was willing to bet the US would quietly drop the Dotcom case once the election was passed. 35 more days to go.
Must be “another conspiracy theory” eh bro’s…..
They know all about you, and what you are up to!
You know SFA, about them, or what they are up to!
PS – Karol – fine work!
Ah, well, muzza, an issue that rolls through the whole Dotcom affair is to do with privacy, surveillance, legitimate use of digital technologies etc.
But of course Key et al don’t want to do that. Dotcom himself tends to raise some of the wider issues in a jokey, exaggerated fashion, within 130 characters. But maybe he knows no more than the rest of us about the role of US corporates and their political alignments.
Just not enough transparency.
Karol, I’ll second muzza: fine work indeed.
sadly, big brother won a few years ago, but people haven’t noticed yet. It was when hard drive density/cost dropped to the point that it becomes feasible to store everything, permanently. add to that the phenomenal progress in dealing with huge datasets, image recognition etc and we’re screwed.
for those of you who aren’t paranoid yet, look how cool smartphones are:
http://gizmodo.com/5947385/scary-new-malware-uses-your-smartphone-to-make-a-map-of-your-house-for-robbers
this world is full of ghastly little creeps and snoops who find their home in security orgs prying on others.
@ muzza. It is NOT a conspiracy theory.
I gave ONLY facts you could easily verify.
These two fund raising events and their admission price are a matter of public record. They were reported as part of the battle for campaign bribes (correction, “contributions”) between the Democrats and Republicans. The fact that BOTH major parties spend a lot of time courting Hollywood for celebrity endorsements and big contributions is also an age-old well-known fact.
“Follow the money.” (Deepthroat to Woodward while trying to uncover the Watergate conspiracy.)
P.S. “Follow the money” is also a basic IRD tactic. It is also why Key is going to Hollywood except we are not sure if the Hollywood money will be only for the NZ economy or perhaps others, too.
Hi Ama – I think those who are familiar with some of my comments will realise that I was being /sarc.
Hollywood = Propaganda machine, close “working relationships” with the military/intelligence communities, and behind all that of course you have the banking/financial systems.
Its all the same control mechanism, that should be reasonably clear to all but the most challenged of minds!
Yup, missed that.
The problem is there are conspiracy theories that would make a great spy movie but are contradicted by the facts. I don’t doubt the timing of the Dotcom raid was not a coincidence, coming a fortnight before the Obama’s invitation only Hollywood fund raisers. It might not be ethical, but it’s legal. It’s one of the huge advantages of being the incumbent.
Only the team that’s behind wants a level playing field.
Agreed, muzza. It’s not so much some carefully planned and orchestrated conspiracy (I’m not into those myself), as a load of loosely interconnected international networks, of power, wealth, and common interests
I suspect it includes cronies, colleagues, and acquaintances, with similar attitudes and aims, who bend a little in each others’ direction, and lend a bit of help when it’s mutually beneficial.
The only writers I’ve seen raise issues beyond the current media-focused concerns of legality, can be seen mostly on Scoop: the Scoop Team article of the use of GCSB technological capability for the benefit of the FBI, and of course Gordon Campbell’s latest article.
Campbell extends the idea of national security to include economic security. But in the Dotcom case he says:
http://gordoncampbell.scoop.co.nz/2012/10/02/gordon-campbell-on-the-kitteridge-inquiry-into-the-gcsb/
Campbell also kind of refers to the possibility of mission creep when he says:
Will this be the new, New Zealand police force look?
http://www.buzzfeed.com/jtes/walmart-workers-strike-for-safe-warehouse-conditio
As our security and police are already in lockstep agreement with the US in taking over-the-top action in partizan defence of corporate interests, 9even if it entails breaking the law). It can only be a matter of time.
When it comes to civil liberties, as the saying goes; “You will only know what you’ve got, when it is gone”
The civil liberties which we enjoy today have been hard fought for over centuries by previous generations, and are there for a reason.
Fight to keep New Zealand sovereignity and civil liberties inviolate.
Demand:
NO illegal spying!
NO soft touch for police perjury!
NO extradition with out a hearing!
NO hearing without evidence being presented!
http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/technology/7706772/Dotcom-in-court-for-documents-appeal
Well bloody said Jenny!.
O it’s broken the lock and splintered the door;
O it’s the gate where they’re turning, turning;
Their boots are heavy on the floor
And their eyes are burning.
-Auden