Showing posts with label GCSB. Show all posts

Friday, September 27, 2013

New Zealand: Kim Dotcom V The PM, Police, GCSB, and now Oracle.

Dotcom: I'll fund Team NZ's next America's Cup bid

Kim Dotcom

Internet millionaire Kim Dotcom has vowed to help fund Team New Zealand's next America's Cup campaign.

I have a certain respect for Dotcom, or more accurately I have very little respect for certain New Zealand ( NZ ) government agencies. John Key and his National Party mates have defended the indefensible when it comes to Dotcoms treatment by various arms of the NZ state.

Dotcom the founder of file-sharing site Megaupload, who has been charged with various copyright infringements by the US Government and is now fighting his extradition, was arrested in a police operation on his Coatesville mansion in January last year.

The raid has since been deemed illegal by the High Court, when Justice Winkelmann ruled the warrants authorising it were too general.

The New Zealand Government clearly broke the law. During the 1980's NZ developed an independent world view and pretty much told America to either get over it or fuck off, they chose the latter. We abandoned that policy and climbed back into bed with America with the election of the John Key National government 5 years ago and now are the USA's South Pacific Office as well as the laughing stock of the world.

The new images clearly show armed police arriving at the mansion, where they climb fences and arrest a guard at the gate. They then enter the house with guns and dogs, while more officers arrive in helicopters.

Other shots show Dotcom’s cars being towed from the property.

Previous footage of the raid gathered by police was released in court in August last year. It showed two helicopters landed in quick succession in the mansion’s courtyard.

Five armed men exited each helicopter and then three vans and a car quickly arrived with more armed men, some with dogs.

The New Zealand police being dickheads while trying to effect the illegal arrest of Dotcom

This is New Zealand, most of us don't have guns and I haven't seen a gun in this country tor years unlike Europe where they are common place and still give me a shock when I see them there. Can you possibly imagine just how over the top this behaviour was by our authorities ?

The officers, from the elite police Special Tactics Group, entered the mansion and went upstairs to Dotcom’s bedroom.

On finding it empty, police used sledgehammers and a mechanical saw to breach the walls of a dumb-waiter, where they wrongly suspected Dotcom was hiding.

You don't need a hell of a lot of education to become a cop in New Zealand and really some of the decisions made here would have been better made by the above mentioned dumb-waiter.

He was eventually located, with the help of bodyguard Wayne Tempero, in a safe room. While arresting Dotcom, police said they stood on his hand.

Dotcom also accused police of kicking and punching him during the raids. They have denied these allegations.

I believe Dotcom. I also think the FBI should be put on trial in New Zealand for their role in this farce. The FBI may be prepared to jump when hollywood gets worried about internet piracy but I am stuffed if I can see any reason why we should do their bidding in what in my view is essentially a civil lawsuit.

That said I love yachting and it doesn't get any better than the Americas cup.

The team's future hangs in the balance after Oracle Team USA retained the Cup in San Francisco yesterday, with boss Grant Dalton's position uncertain and the Government yet to confirm whether it would fund another tilt.

The Government stumped up $36 million for the latest campaign, but Prime Minister John Key yesterday said decisions were yet to be made about whether it would help again.

However, he indicated it was likely, and hoped to discuss whether another campaign was possible.

From an investment point of view I think it is probably worth the NZ Government throwing some taxpayer dollars at this. Had we won on Thursday we would have realised that investment many times over as it stands losing 9-8 to Oracle demonstrates just how good we are at the high tech stuff and it should be remembered Oracle's boat was also made in New Zealand. The Americas cup is not only a sport's event it is a technology event and from the perspective of nations NZ is the only country in the game. We just about about bet the billionaires and that makes Team New Zealand a very valuable entity.

" Before the competition began last Saturday, cup defenders Oracle Team USA had already been penalized by the international sailing body for weighting their boat with “too much money.” Under the federation’s rules, competitors are allowed to strap a maximum of $15 million cash to each individual part of their boat."

Internet entrepreneur Dotcom, whose relationship with Mr Key has been tense since the GCSB spying revelations, today said he would back Team NZ if the Government did not.

The Mega founder said on Twitter: "Prime Minister John Key says no more funding for Team NZ? I say #Mega will become a Team NZ sponsor & we will win next time. #AmericasCup."

There is no love lost between the NZ Prime Minister and Kim Dotcom. Again we have the embarrassment of the NZ government getting caught behaving illegally.

The Prime Minister has suggested that the GCSB should be able to spy on New Zealanders if it has the right oversight.

The bureau is prohibited by law from spying on New Zealand citizens or permanent residents.

John Key has confirmed that some of the people who were the subject of legally questionable GCSB operations were New Zealanders or New Zealand residents.

Dotcom told One News he would pump millions into the campaign regardless of the Government's contribution.

He had not discussed it with Team NZ but said there was no better brand to be associated with, and he liked the idea with going up against another technology entrepreneur, Oracle boss Larry Ellison.

Lets get the money out of him pronto because if the Americans get their hands on him they will take the lot. That said I think it might be time to give America the one finger salute over Dotcom, he has demonstrated a commitment to New Zealand, sure he has had a a bit of a dodgy past but I think in the grand scheme of things he might well be more sinned against than sinner. Apologise for his lousy treatment by our government give him citizenship and spend his money building a boat that can go one step further than we did in this edition of the Americas Cup.

Dotcom told One News he was impressed with the team's skill and like most New Zealanders he had been glued to the racing for the last fortnight.

The German national is facing extradition to the United States on internet piracy charges relating to his recently rebooted Mega internet service.

The next few weeks will be interesting but I hope Team New Zealand survives.

Saturday, May 11, 2013

New Zealand intelligence agencies fuck it up yet again.

Stuff reports

US scholar embroiled in NZ security row

Craig Lebamoff

An American expert who came to New Zealand to write a report on border security claims he was subject to heavy-handed tactics by intelligence agencies that seemed determined to shut him down.

Craig Lebamoff has worked on border security around the world, including Afghanistan and Iraq.

He was working for the high-powered Department of Homeland Security when he won the prestigious Sir Ian Axford Fulbright Fellowship in public policy, and elected to have a stint as an "embedded attorney" with New Zealand's security, intelligence and police agencies. His aim was to write a thesis on border security.

OK one at this point might question his judgement. Let's face it we are at the end of the Earth and our biggest security threat are the Australians.

It gets better if that is possible.

But the New Zealand sabbatical quickly turned sour after seven months and his thesis was never published after the New Zealand Government refused to clear its release.

In an extraordinary series of allegations, he says he was threatened with an investigation by the Security Intelligence Service, locked out of his office at NZ Customs, had his computer hard drive and research materials seized while colleagues reported his rubbish bins being searched - he believes by the SIS.

Lebamoff was at one stage so concerned by the reaction of New Zealand authorities to his border security report he says he feared being stopped as he tried to leave the country.

In an even more bizarre twist, he says he was warned off by the director of New Zealand's Intelligence Co-ordination Group, Roy Ferguson, who is based in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC).

Adding weight to Lebamoff's claims, Ferguson does not dispute the meeting and acknowledges he became involved as a matter of national security. He also confirms that a representative of the US Embassy was at the meeting. The embassy has refused comment.

This should actually not surprise anyone in New Zealand or in fact the broader international intelligence fraternity, the simple fact is when the Prime Minister of New Zealand intervenes in the appointment process to ensure that an old mate of his is appointed to the directorship of the GCSB who incidently, initially couldn't be arsed applying you can expect that the NZ security services are some what less than the international norm of second rate. However this story gets even better.

It all adds up to what seems like an extraordinary over-reaction to a report that largely concluded the major threat to New Zealand's borders was not terrorism but a biosecurity breach.

Which I think justifies a fairly loud " For Fucks Sake " Danyl at the Dim Post actually puts the whole thing into perspective with this observation.

The government is cutting funding for biosecurity while expanding the funding and powers of our intelligence agencies, so it’s not too surprising someone saw red over such a finding.

New Zealand is a very remote, very small country, but we have a sizable intelligence apparatus with extraordinary powers and virtually no oversight. We keep getting told that these agencies are engaged in incredibly important work protecting us from terrorists and other evil-doers, and that the critical nature of this work justifies the utter secrecy.

But every time – EVERY TIME – we get a glimpse into what our spies actually do, it’s nothing to do with keeping us safe or fighting terrorism, or anything that even justifies the cost of their existence. If there is a case to be made that biosecurity breaches are a grave risk to New Zealand and the SIS – or whoever – suppress that finding then they’re actually endangering the state.

New Zealand is fast becoming a major joke mind you that is what happens when you put clowns in charge of a country.

Hat Tip Dim Post

Thursday, October 11, 2012

NZ Politics more bat shit crazy

Scott at Imperator Fish produced a satirical piece highlighting the failure of the NZ Labour opposition and their inept media strategy.

Transcript of Labour Leader's Speech to Caucus Members

Thanks, team, for joining me here. It's been a good spell for us. John Key's in serious trouble, and we haven't had an own goal from one of our MPs for at least 24 hours. Wait... Trevor, are you tweeting again? Trevor! Put it away!

Anyway, we're still having a devil of a time connecting with the voters. We're struggling to get our faces in front of the public. Part of the problem is that whenever the media want a quote from the opposition they go to Winston or Russel instead of us.....

This means we need a new strategy to get the media's attention. We complain a lot about how the news is being dumbed down in favour of stories about celebrities and football stars, and yet there it is, the answer right in front of us.

Let's play their game. Let's give the media what they want.

The other thing we need to work on is how we look. It's an unfortunate fact that most politicians are just pig-ugly. The only reason any of us ended up here was because we joined the high school debating team and discovered we liked the sounds of our own voices, and the only reason we joined that team was because we were regarded as lepers by our peers. Don't take this personally, because it's not just you guys here. Whenever I look around in Parliament I find myself thinking "f**k me, there are some seriously ugly people in this room".

And I acknowledge that the problem starts at the top. Looking back over the years I'm struck by how astonishingly ugly some of our prime ministers have been....

It is an excellent read, ironically life sometime imitates ~~art~~ sorry blogging

We have this from Cameron Slater aka the Whale.

INQUIRY INTO GCSB NEEDED

by Whaleoil on October 11, 2012

After 3News tonight and all the media repeating Labour’s claims that a secret recording was made of John Key at GCSB it is abundantly clear that there needs to be a wide ranging inquiry into activities at GCSB.

Firstly because the Leader of the Opposition is now alleging there is evidence that an agency has gone rogue, where their spies are breaking the law and now playing politics in a bid to protect themselves from accountability. Not only that it appears also that Labour has politicised and compromised the GCSB by playing politics with the spy agency.

Labour claims it has sources inside the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) spy agency who are adamant Mr Key gave an address to staff in which he spoke of Dotcom.

That one sentence should ring alarm bells. No political party should ever have “sources inside GCSB”, ever. That is very concerning and also very curious because I understand, from my own sources, that the trail from GCSB to Labour is very, very short.

My sources tell me that the information that Labour is running has come directly from the agent who had a lead role of the GCSB operation who is currently under the gun for his botched handling of it. I will call him Agent “G”.

Former Agent “R” is the root of a member of Shearer’s office. He is best mates with Agent “G”

So we have a rogue agent, attempting to cover his butt, feeding information to a senior person in the Labour party via their partner and a leader of a political party who has decided to compromise both the Agent and his staffer so he can play politics with one of our national security bureaus.

GCSB appears hopelessly compromised, out of control and rogue or at the very least have a couple of of mischievous politically motivated and connected troublemakers.

If Shearer’s claims are true it also looks like the GCSB has broken the law, again. If it is illegal for the GCSB to record NZ residents then surely it is also illegal to record the New Zealand Prime Minister who also happens to be a NZ citizen. Is David Shearer complicit in assisting the GCSB to break the law?

For the Record GCSB says Shearer is wrong as Felix Marwick reports:

This whole debacle needs an urgent inquiry to find out who, in GCSB has decided to play politics to either leak a recording illegally obtained, or to make it up for political gain.

If they are prepared to leak or manufacture stories and feed them to a political party then what else are they prepared to leak or do. If Labour can willy-nilly release information or manufactured about the GCSB then what is stopping them releasing information from briefings to suit their political agenda.

Neither the GCSB (until the rogue agent is caught) nor Labour can be trusted at the moment. If you can’t trust your spies then who can you trust. John Key must act to reign in the rogue players.

Either Shearer is making this up, or the GCSB cannot actually be trusted.

UPDATE: Shearer has no evidence, massive facepalm for Davi Shearer and tame journos at TV3. This is a new league of ineptness that is beyond the capabilities of even Trevor Mallard.

UPDATE: GCSB denies a recording even exists. Looks like Shearer has been set up by Robertson loyalist Fran Mold.

Spy boss Ian Fletcher has denied Labour claims that Prime Minister John Key was caught on camera discussing Kim Dotcom in February.

Earlier today Labour claimed a tape existed of Key giving speech to staff in cafeteria at the Government Communications Security Bureau’s Wellington headquarters in which he made a quip about Dotcom. Key has said he remembers the speech but not the remark.

Fletcher said “exhaustive enquries” at the GCSB have revealed no video tape. Still photographs exist but would not be released because they identify staff at the super-secret agency.

An investigation was now underway into the ‘‘leak’’ at the agency, he said.

They won’t need to look far…Agent “G” would be my pick.

Make no mistake this is a total fuck up by the government and it is a very serious issue as Pablo explains but Labour it would appear have done fairly much what Scott satirically suggested they do. They have in fact handed the Government a win in what was a no win situation.