Spying for torturers
The most disturbing allegations yet in the Snowden leaks on the activities of the GCSB.
nicky hager
GCSB spied on foreign communications to help Groser’s WTO bid
More embarrassment for the Government as it is revealed that the GCSB spied on internet communications involving diplomats competing with Tim Groser in his bid to be elected as the Director General of the World Trade Organisation.
Hager: “The GCSB is not a New Zealand operation”
Selwyn Manning’s new EveningReport site got off to a massive start last night with a long, interesting interview with Nicky Hager. Take home quote (courtesy Russell Brown): “The GCSB is not a New Zealand operation, in any practical sense”. Watch the video…
The Ferguson interview
An extraordinary interview with former director of the GCSB Sir Bruce Ferguson on RNZ this morning. He confirms that NZ is conducing mass surveillance. (Any help with transcription?)
Key fails the leadership test
Fine work form David Fisher at The Herald. Does Key get to lie and deny his way through yet another crisis?
NZ spies on its Pacific neighbours
Nicky Hager and the Herald have reported that the GCSB has been collecting data en masse from New Zealand’s pacific neighbours and handed it over to the Americans for inclusion in xkeystore.
Hager vs police – suppressing debate
The police and Hager are in the process of initiating legal proceedings against each other. The police action against Hager was and is designed to intimidate, to suppress debate. Rod Oram calls shame on dirty politics and the people who perpetrate it.
Raising money for good works
One of the features of recent weeks has been the remarkable success of the online fund raising to allow Nicky Hager required to challenge the police raid. My partner Lyn has similarly had success in raising money for her to transfer skills to charity workers in India. I am now resigned to living on my own for a time while she does good works elsewhere.
Donations still rolling in for Hager
Assisted no doubt by attempts to have the fund shut down, donations are still rolling in for Nicky Hager’s defence.
Who is trying to shut down Hager defence fund?
The Hager defence fund stands at over $41,000 $43,000 $44,000 and still climbing. But some mean-spirited wingnuts are trying to have it shut down…
Even the police sense the hypocrisy
It looks like even the police can sense the rank smell coming off their theft of Nicky Hager’s systems and documents. They ignored a complaint about Cameron Slater two years ago. But the police are still on a holiday. This looks like a limp PR exercise by the police to prove that they aren’t John Key’s poodles. Updated.
Hager defense fund approaching $35K – Make that 40K
The legal defense fund for Nicky Hager is approaching $20,000 $25,000 $35,000 $40,000. Why not help it over the line?
Hager defense fund about to hit 20K – make that 25K
The legal defense fund for Nicky Hager is about to hit $20,000 $25,000. Why not give a little?
How far will the harassment of Hager go?
Hager has said that he will go to prison rather than reveal the identity of the Rawshark / Whaledump hacker.
Police raid Hager
Breaking news, police raid Nicky Hager.
Get clean politics into the Herald
Action Station want to run a full-page ad in the Herald calling on politicians to clean up NZ politics. (Update: only $580 needed! Let’s do it!)
My Thinks: A manufactured consent
Here we sit just a week out from an election. It’s a week in which you face a stark choice. Three more years of smile and wave dirty politics or a new direction.
Giovanni Tiso on Dirty Politics
In a series of tweets Giovanni Tiso has highlighted important issues concerning the relationship between the media and National as disclosed by Dirty Politics.
Dirty politics in Dunedin
No. Not Pete George. Instead Andrew Geddis appears to be up to his neck in the mire of organising “Debating ‘Dirty Politics’: Media, Politics and Law”, at a ‘scholarly’ debate on Friday from 1pm-4pm. It is a long-winded scholarly debate inside work hours. But it will be streamed on youtube and hopefully not only live.
Wakeup call for the media – has Slater done us all a favour?
National’s dirty politics, for all its corrosive damage, also marks an opportunity for NZ. An opportunity to take stock, recognise such tactics for what they are, and reject them. An opportunity to clean up both politics and the media’s coverage of it.
Fairfax Media’s polling on Dirty Politics
The latest Dominion Post contains survey data on people’s responses to Dirty Politics but attempts to manufacture a message by quoting selected interviews suggesting that Labour and not National have been hurt by Hager’s revelations. The headlines though are that half of all New Zealanders think less highly of John Key and 7.9% of voters are considering changing their vote. National should be afraid.
Careering to the right
“Dirty Politics” and “The Hollow Men” have revealed the extent of the National party’s nasty internal war over the past decade. Cameron Slater is merely one of the noisier but dumber sock puppet weapons in use against National’s centre and moderates. Looking at the actions of Simon Lusk using his sock puppet is more revealing…
Nicky Hager public lecture Wednesday
A public meeting meeting with Jesson Prize winner Nicky Hager will be held Wednesday 27th August, 7.30pm, at the Mt Eden War Memorial Hall (Cnr Dominion Rd & Balmoral Rd). If you can’t make it, we will be streaming the lecture.
Timeline: Key responsible for SIS release
Key is responsible for the release of SIS briefing notes to Cameron Slater – one of the main issues summarised in Dirty Politics. Here’s the timeline in detail.
Polity: Through the looking glass
John Key has been running a pretty simple diversion strategy over the past week asserting that Labour knew about Hager’s book (they didn’t), that they aren’t interested in policy (our mailbox is full of their policies), and that the public will ignore the book (our stats are skyhigh). He is a loser. Rob Salmond puts his view.
Dirty Politics roundup
Pot pourri, grab bag… Nicky Hager’s sister’s response, Media Take, John Key’s wanting to talk about policy, political passion, at the end of the day…
Aaron Bhatnagar – I barely know the guy
BLip has a look at Aaron Bhatnagar and his role in the disgusting events documented in “Dirty Tricks”. In particular the way that Judith Collins seems to have rewarded her crony Cameron Slater’s mate on the taxpayers purse.
Key’s farcical “Don’t ask, don’t tell” routine
John Key is sticking to his defensive strategy: deny everything, label Hager’s book a smear campaign, and – when pressed on specific allegations – say he doesn’t know the details. There is of course a very easy way for Mr Key to become acquainted with the details, which he doesn’t seem keen to do, and that’s to simply ask the right people….
Casualty of Dirty Politics?
Has Jordan Williams been dumped from Franks & Oglivie? Or is it merely coincidence that he disappeared from the web pages within days of the release of “Dirty Politics”? Could this be contributing to his foul mood?
Why does Jason Ede still have Beehive access?
Andrea Vance has reported that as late as last week Jason Ede still had access to the Beehive. And Key’s replies to her questions concerning this suggest that there is a lot that he does not know. It makes you wonder why he can be so insistent that Nicky Hager’s allegations are wrong when he has such little information.
Rob Gilchrist On Nicky Hager
Unmasked by Hager, former activist and police spy Rob Gilchrist says “It may come as a surprise but I have the utmost respect for Mr Hager, He doesn’t write ’baseless allegations’, ’what-ifs and fanciful speculation’ Mr Hager is also not a ‘conspiracy theorist‘, he’s just extremely good at finding conspiracies.”
Was a crime committed when Slater accessed Labour’s computer system?
Occasionally erudite disagrees with one part of rocky’s analysis of the legality of Cameron Slater and Jason Ede’s accessing and copying the data from the Labour party’s computer. However he still thinks it is likely to be criminal.
John Key’s defence to Hager’s book starts to unwind
The Herald is reporting that the first of Key’s denials about the allegations in Dirty Politics has been refuted. National did hack Labour’s crippled server in 2011 and even apologised for it but Key claims National had no involvement.
Some confirmation about Collins and Slater
Over at The Ruminator there is a post corroborates the Judith Collins and Cameron Slater mutual back-scratching in private vendettas. It appears to me that there has been rather a lot of fiddling of the OIAs in recent years. In particular I’m thinking about the OIA requests on Liu for TV3.
Who took Slater’s emails?
Some interesting comments on Hager’s book by John Armstrong and Danyl McLaughlan and the nagging question of who is responsible remains …
The Credibility Stakes: John Key vs Nicky Hager
BLip comments on John Armstrong’s article yesterday. Then he updates his “Honest Man” list about John Key and his limited understanding of the truth.