NRT: Just the beginning
I/S at No Right Turn on current and future spying legislation. “I will not vote for a party which supports spying. Neither should you.”
GCSB
Submit today!
I/S at No Right Turn yesterday: “Yes, that’s right. An important bill with major human rights implications, and we have one day to speak up about it.” I/S supplies a submission guide to make it easy…
Let them go to war
Back when I was a teenager, a mate of mine decided that he was going to give up on school and would get in some combat. So he worked his way into the Rhodesian Light Infantry. A few years later I heard that he’d been killed in action. Other young men going overseas with similar excitement issues have came back a lot less interested in excitement. Sounds safer to me than letting them have a car.
NRT: The GCSB has been using our embassies as spybases
I/S at No Right Turn summarises a post from The Intercept on NSA keywords, and what they illustrate about the involvement of our GCSB.
The terrorism card
Terrorism is whatever John Key wants it to be.
Two tier strategy on spying
Key ditching responsibility for the GCSB and SIS, and adopting the newly created title of Minister for National Security and Intelligence, is another example of the dirty politics two tier strategy.
The long reach of “5 Eyes”: re-post
With Chris Finlayson just announced as minister in charge of GCSB & SIS, I thought it appropriate to re-post something I published on The Standard back in July 2013: links 5 Eyes’ attorney generals, cyber-security, Dotcom, etc.
Key’s last fig leaf
Key’s last fig leaf on GCSB surveillance is to plead ignorance. Unfortunately for him the evidence is compelling. If he does manage to lead the next government, these issues will continue to haunt him.
NRT: Key admits the GCSB has broken the law
If the GCSB has access to XKEYSCORE, and XKEYSCORE has information on New Zealanders, then arguably they’ve intercepted it even if that information has been collected by another agency, as they have “acquired” it. And if they actually look at it, there’s no “arguable” about it.
The circle is complete
From “There’s no ambiguity. No middle ground. I’m right. He’s wrong”
to
“[Snowden] may well be right” in just 4 days. Impressive.
A Matter of Simple Logic
One of the few journalists to do his job properly over the course of the dirty politics scandal has been Guyon Espiner. He […]
Slip, slip, slip
John Key will no doubt – like with Dirty Politics – keep saying that “most of it is proven false” about the Snowden revelations… while slowly admitting most of the charges against him.
X-KEYSCORE
John Key planned our mass surveillance
John Key and National let the GCSB spend 12 months on plans to conduct our mass surveillance. Without telling us. And he intends to release the details now only for political considerations. Without Glenn Greenwald’s presence we probably would never have learned about this.
“Moment of Truth” – a key claim
Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Glenn Greenwald is standing firm in the face of Key’s attacks and denials. A fascinating interview with Steve Braunias yesterday contains a key claim.
NRT: “National security” or “National’s security”?
information is supposed to be classified only for valid reasons of national security. The information Key wants to release is likely classified SECRET or TOP SECRET. Its worth remembering that Key and his office are already under investigation by the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security for politically-motivated declassification decisions.
“Moment of Truth” – Preview
The positioning re Kim Dotcom’s “Moment of Truth” has started this morning.
Greenwald on the GCSB
Glenn Greenwald has arrived in New Zealand and has been interviewed on the Nation. He has alleged that the GCSB is a fully fledged member of the 5 eyes network and has been engaged in mass surveillance of New Zealanders, contrary to assurances previously given by John Key.
Hager, fear & the surveillance state
Nicky Hager’s latest book will be unveiled tomorrow. I look at his research interests, & his approach to investigative journalism; plus Hager’s speech on the GCSB Bill, & opposition party policies on state surveillance services.
Imperator Fish: Read the law
Imperator Fish discovers that the official legal website for law in NZ has been hacked. The law that the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) used to look at complaints about the interception of communications for Kim DotCom, political parties, and anyone that the police deem as being suspicious was obviously incomplete. So the IPCA used some invisible law in their ruling. Who cares what the real law is anyway?
IPCA review of the illegal spying on Kim Dotcom
The IPCA has upheld the Police decision not to prosecute members of the GCSB for illegally spying on Kim Dotcom.
What’s so important about 15 September?
I’m intrigued by Kim Dotcom’s announcement of earth-shattering revelations to be made on 15 September – just 5 days out from the last voting day of this general election.
NRT: Dysfunctional
In short, a report on our intelligence services says that they don’t know what they’re doing, they don’t know why they’re doing it, and they’re not doing it well. NZSIS can’t do its core job – security vetting – in a timely fashion, GCSB can’t even count, and they hate each other. Plus they’ve got poor financial management practices and no idea of how much stuff they own to boot. And then they wonder at the level of public hostility?
NRT: Evidence: The NSA is funding the GCSB
Last week, The Intercept published details on the NSA’s programs with partners to tap international communications cables. Most of the article focused on a program which seems to involve Denmark and Germany, with each helping the NSA to spy on the other. But buried in one of the background documents – the US “black budget” for Foreign Partner Access Project – was this titbit. It turns out that second parties in the five eyes program like the GCSB are funded from the USA. So, “our” spies take foreign money to work for a foreign power.
Key-Fletcher nexus: anti-democratic ‘Intelligence communities’
Campbell Live pointed to a massive, integrated shift in NZ governance under John Key’s watch. This enhances the power of international trade and commerce, incorporating the GCSB the US, & 5 Eyes . At the centre of this shift, is the murky relationship between John Key & Ian Fletcher.
The smoke & mirrors of the surveillance-military-economic-complex
There are a range of issues, which are part of a GCSB-intelligence-surveillance-military-complex. Some significant elements seem to be posing as diversions from other parts of the complex, and the way all parts hang together. What will he offer Obama to advance NZ’s position in the TPPA?
Campbell Live: Fletcher, Key, Clapper et al
Campbell Live broadcast a special on the GCSB. It is presented information never before made public. Campbell pointed to how a major shift in NZ and 5 Eyes’ approach to intelligence. Whose interest is the GCSB operating in? Why has John Key mislead us, or at least, fudged the details? Updated.
Five Eyes, One Network
Edward Snowden revelations indicate that the US NSA pressured the NZ government to make last year’s hasty changes to the GCSB and TICS laws, to enable mass surveillance. John Key sometimes denies he knows of visits to NZ by the NSA’s Gen Keith Alexander – but Key would have to approve the visits.
NRT: Did the NSA write John Key’s spy bill?
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden gave evidence to the European Parliament last week about the NSA and mass-surveillance. The most interesting revelation? The NSA’s use of lawyers to subvert other countries limits on surveillance – including our own. So what did GCSB receive “legal guidance” on? What about the careful loopholes in the new Act
NRT: So much for Parliamentary oversight
When Parliament in its select committee oversight role asks the GCSB about whether it is obeying the Public Finance Act, or whether it has formal NSA moles in its organisation, then suddenly its an “operational matter” which they can’t answer. The natural conclusion: they do and there are – because if either allegation was false, they’d just deny it. Looks like John Key’s assurances about greater parliamentary oversight over the GCSB are a lie.
The GCSB can’t count
The GCSB has eroded public confidence in its performance by displaying a concerning inability to count beyond four …
NRT: The NSA spies on its own government
Since Edward Snowden leaked proof of widespread NSA spying on US citizens, people have been wondering who exactly they’re spying on. Are they spying on their own government? Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders wanted to know, so he asked them directly. The response was not reassuring.
Perhaps the same question should be put to the GCSB? After all its oversight seems even more incompetent and incestuous than that of the NSA.
GCSB: They do listen
It has been a surprise at just how far the revelations about the GCSB governance have made into the collective conciousness of NZ. Bearing in mind the continuing outpouring from Snowden and other whistleblowers about the US and their allies surveillance efforts on citizens and friendly states, it isn’t going to be a surprise if this winds up being an issue in the election.
Discourage the pantie sniffers
It isn’t that hard to get around the prurient arsehole peekers that populate the NSA and the kiwi puppets – John Key being a prime example. Encrypt, falsify your “metadata”, and send lots of crap purely so they have no idea what to look at. Hell – even the NZ Herald gets it these days as in an anonymously published article in the weekend rag…
Rob Gilchrist on Sunday
The Sunday programme this evening has Rob Gilchrist, police spy and provocateur, breaking his silence about the decade he spent amongst mostly peaceful […]
NRT: Laws are for little people – again
No Right Turn looks at the police decision on the unlawful GCSB interceptions of DotCom’s communications. Of course getting the police to investigate their own requests for the GCSB to perform an unlawful activity is like putting a stoat in charge of kiwi chicks. Perhaps a private prosecution of the GCSB and the police would be a more productive.