Poor John Key.
It must be hard for a Prime Minister to keep up a far-fetched façade for as long as John Key has in denying GCSB involvement in mass surveillance of New Zealanders.
Confusing and confounding the public with smelly red herrings is a normal part of his job but when Key has to explain again and again because his previous dishonesty has been exposed and new obfuscations are needed it gets tedious and frustrating.
This week in the face of incontrovertible evidence that the GCSB conducts mass surveillance of our Pacific neighbours and sends the unprocessed data direct to the US National Security Agency the Prime Minister cracked. He offered no counter argument or evidence but simply delivered strident attacks on the messengers – Nicky Hagar in particular – who were exposing his various fabrications.
In the normal course of politics a Prime Minister wouldn’t get away with any of this but he has two important factors on his side.
Firstly the mainstream media have poo-poohed the latest revelations. They say it tells us nothing we didn’t already know and are ready to move on. So aside from widely reporting the Prime Minister’s incredulous bluff and bluster there has yet been little deeper analysis.
Secondly and just as important to Key’s position is that Labour has essentially the same policy and Labour leader Andrew Little’s comments have simply added to the smokescreen John Key is doing his best to create around this issue.
In my lifetime the Labour Party has been as tightly wedded to unquestioned support for US global surveillance as National. Even when the rift over access to New Zealand ports for US nuclear warships came to a head in the mid-1980s under Labour and the US directed heavy criticism of New Zealand’s position, the flow of surveillance information to the US continued untroubled. It was under a Labour government that the Waihopai mass surveillance spybase was commissioned to ensure the New Zealand “deep state” kept up business as usual with the National Security Agency.
So while Labour expresses concern at indiscriminate mass surveillance it has no policy alternative to National. The best it would come up with during last year’s election campaign was support for a “security review” to ensure the GCSB was following the law. In other words business as usual.
Later this year the government will conduct a security review of our intelligence agencies with Labour on board and we can be absolutely assured the outcome will ensure the GCSB can continue to provide unfettered support for global mass surveillance by the US.
We owe a huge debt to people like Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning, Julian Assange, Katharine Gunn and Nicky Hagar who have exposed global mass surveillance an in whose interests it operates. It is over to us as citizens to act on it.
Great article. Totally agree. It is time for Labour to be reassessing the blind dedication to the US. Standing up to them over Nuclear free NZ did not do NZ any harm. It helped tourism and the brand of clean green NZ. We are all playing happy families again, no lasting rift. If you can’t disagree with ‘friends’ you are not in a friendship, but a dictatorship or cult.
Now that the US is out of control invading the Middle East, forming 5 eyes which is a separate ‘club’ to the UN, Labour should start to re address the relationship and how it effects the people in NZ. If the agreement is that Australia spies on NZ citizens and vice versa – it is the same thing, mass surveillance is wrong.
Giving citizens data away, no questions asked is morally wrong. Hiding behind semantics in legislation is unacceptable.
Either Labour agree with mass spying and giving NZ citizens data away no questions asked or they don’t.
Many NZ politicians seem to think any foreign ‘deal’ is some sort of hallajula movement no matter what the fine print says or if NZ loses from the deal.
Wake up Labour and grow a spine. Give Helen Clark a call! I’m not sure how she feels about NZ blind devotion to the ‘club’ and our involvement in mass surveillance, but someone in Labour should find out.
” We owe a huge debt to people like Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning, Julian Assange, Katharine Gunn and Nicky Hagar ”
… and to yourself of course @ John Minto . A sage campaigner .
The Media , for the want of a better word, are directly to blame for jonkys rise and rise . They maintain his persona as ants do with their fat , egg bloated queen . God only knows , jonky keeps popping out poison eggs that hatch into terrible things .
So , who is the Media anyway ?
As a citizen I’d love to act but where , how and to whom must I act ?
Amy Adams is the Minister of Broadcasting so that’s where we must start I guess .
Or is it some other organisation or individual that’s steering the Media into jonky worship and amy adams is just a passenger while on our six figure salary ?
Who’s gutted National Radio for example ? I heard Kim Hill slaughter john kerr of the business round table , then she lost her job , went to television , that tanked , then she came slinking back to Saturday mornings , her brilliant tail between her legs to review books and talk recipes .
I wonder … ? Could it be the cadre of big business , fancy fellows who tangled themselves into the Cook Islands ? Could it be the previous owners of the BNZ ? fay / richwhite group ? Could it be alan gibb ? Lets ask him ? He’s on National Radio this Sunday to no doubt talk about how wonderful and amazing he thinks he is . Collects (F)art don’t ya know ? Could it be ronny brierly ? Destroyer of peoples lives and rampaging sociopath who lobbied for booze in supermarkets . Keep em pissed then fuck them on the deal ? I really enjoyed seeing the iconic Edmonds Sure to Rise building pulled down in a Brierly redevelopment or act of blatant vandalism only to build a gas station which failed dismally . The site is now a car park .
The thing is ; we know who the bent politicians are . We can watch and listen then debate and dissect their bullshit . But who are those crafty bastards just out of sight ? In the shadows ? Tinkering and manipulating for fun and profit ? Who’s the head of the rotting fish ?
Countryboy ,…reckon you just named a whole bunch of em. And while they lobby their selected neo liberal politicians to pass and enact laws to screw the union , they have their own union in the form of the Business Roundtable , Employers and Manufacturers etc…
These political Joes are just the henchmen executioners carrying out the edicts passed down to them.
Yes John,
Good call Key is a traitor, liar, carpetbagger, and a Judas Priest.
He puts on that thin confident veil as he does his dirty work for the US and His Global power control Bilderberg Group clan he is now signed up to and has attended their highly secretive meetings.
Question is how can Key carry on presenting as a honest transparent leader when all we have seen is cover ups, secretive TPPA deals, and now collussion with Bilderberg?
He is a danger to us all and now must be edited for charges against the state as acting in secrecy behind NZ citizens back.
http://twochurchesonly.com/supmat/03/most_influential/bilderberg_group/list_of_bilderberg_attendees.pdf
List of Bilderberg participants 4
New Zealand
• John Key (2011-2012), Prime Minister of New Zealand
I love reading John Minto’s work and thanks for your honest journalism ! We also owe a debt to Glenn Greenwald and a huge apology for the disgraceful and rude way that our blah blah red herring prime minister spoke about him.
Assange, Greenwald, Snowden and Laila Harre etc. dwell in a land of honesty and integrity that our National led leaders can only dream of.
You can smell the greedy ” bankster-type ” corporate led folks a mile away.
The lies over the GCSB may bury John Key. Book your ticket back to Hawaii.
‘Book your ticket back to Hawaii.’
Make that Alaska. With the funny lady who can see Russia from her kitchen and disremembers things. You know the one. Dud politician with a thing for guns and truthiness.
Or Texas. Our template for the removal of as many services and lifelines and glimmers of hope before the terms of office end.
But not Hawai’i. Don’t give them the Key. They have enough to cope with: hordes of tourists and creeping lava.
“We owe a huge debt to people like Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning, Julian Assange, Katharine Gunn and Nicky Hagar who have exposed global mass surveillance an in whose interests it operates. It is over to us as citizens to act on it.”
And the Green Party for being the only party in Parliament to take a principled position on this issue.
My understanding, from reading Nicky hager’s book ‘Secret Power’ is that David Lange was never told what the true purpose of Waihopai was – I think he only learnt about it from Nicky hager!
The GCSB is pretty much a law unto itself, or at least working under the direction of the NSA, which is a law unto itself …
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