GCSB hearing: Dotcom faces off against PM
German internet tycoon Kim Dotcom says Prime Minister John Key is lying about what he knew about him before police raided his Coatesville home in January 2011.
Kim Dotcom has done more to highlight the Orwellian illegal spying of our rapidly expanding Intelligence Industrial Complex than any other permanent resident or citizen.
This soft spoken German online entrepreneur with the playboy branding has proven to be the undoing of Key’s carefully crafted facade of center right moderation. The new laws being rammed through for the GCSB so that NZ is a fully fledged narc for the NSA are so appalling, so over the top that they amount to the largest erosion of civil liberties since National retrospectively passed legislation allowing the Police to expand their surveillance powers.
Dotcom has done more than any other to shake us from our sleepy hobbit status, sadly for Kim, many NZers are just not listening.
For a country that went mental over the Government closing the legal loophole to stop abusive parents from using discipline as a defense from assault charges because that was apparently ‘Nanny State’, we have been virtually silent over Key enabling our spy agency to drift net whatever metadata they want from us.
Apparently the sanctity of a parent being able to physically strike their child is more precious to us as New Zealanders than the Government being able to spy on everything we do.
We do everything casual in NZ, including our fascism. This Bill represents casual fascism justified by nothing more than John Key shrugging his shoulders and saying, “I’m comfortable with that’.
Well, we shouldn’t be comfortable with this, we should be deeply skeptical. As this leaked 2004 cable shows, the NSA and the GCSB have been working closely together for at least a decade…
the GCSB will provide the new NSA officer with office space; office furniture; computer, telephone and other equipment and supplies. NSA will fully fund the position and will pay for housing and purchase all residential furnishings directly. NSA will contract with the Embassy for the following ICASS services: Basic Package; Community Liaison Office services; Financial Management Services (medium level support); General Services (low level support); and Short-Term Residential Lease Building Operations. As a result of these arrangements, the resource impact of the new position on this Special Embassy Program post will be minimized, and can be fully absorbed within post’s current ICASS system.
These powers will not be used to protect NZ from terrorism. They will be used to spy on Unions, environmental groups, poverty protest groups, online activists. Having the PM appoint his childhood school chum to preside over an agency that can now spy on all his political opponents is a dangerous situation that would be concerning no matter what shade of Government was in power. This isn’t a left wing or right wing issue, no Government should have this level of corrosive power over their citizens.
We deserve the democracy we squander.
PS – Reviewing the Key/Dotcom select committee footage – isn’t it embarrassing watching our PM act like a sniggering schoolboy? I hope Kim wipes that smirk off his face in Court.
Totally agree. I am very grateful to Dotcom and his legal team for uncovering illegal spying and disappointed at some of my fellow citizens lack of concern with new GCSB legislation.
of course keys knew about dotcom before he authorised the search and raid… as the minister in charge, he wouldn’t be doing his job if he didn’t… either way, he’s lieing.
Doesn’t matter how you say it – he’s lying! (again)
Lying like a pig in his own muck!
“Reviewing the Key/Dotcom select committee footage – isn’t it embarrassing watching our PM act like a sniggering schoolboy?”
Extremely embarrassing. Key is everything but professional, proclaiming after the hearing that it is all merely a “PR circus”. I guess he sees himself as the Ringmaster, except we all know he’s actually the (evil) clown.
“I hope Kim wipes that smirk off his face in Court.”
Can’t agree more.
Dotcom could have chosen quite a few other small countries of the like to shelter himself and his business dealings and he might well have came up against a similar egotistical PM with sights on the kickbacks that can be gained by ass kissing the US corporate run government to which he most probably would have reacted and acted the same way so we should feel really bloody lucky it was NZ that he chose because this GSCB business (read complete undermining of every NZ citizens privacy) would have happened covertly with or without his involvement and none of us would even have known about it untill it was to late
Sniggering schoolboy is right – it is so embarrassing – he hasn’t evolved any further as a human being since being a young stockbroker as he seems to be trying to recreate and experience the rush of his first stock exchange ‘win’ where he came to believe ‘The guy with the most money when he dies wins’ – the worst thing about that is that he as obviously convinced some of our population that this is what we also should believe and how we should live – broken down to its simplest form it is economic well-being over human well-being or ‘money before people’
There appears to be a language interpretation problem in NZ that needs ugent attention. It is not actually the fears some have of the loss of Te Reo. That to my mind is in safe hands now.
My concern is most here whether citizen or resident do not understand the term
Make a SUBMISSION.. (I did)
or
Acts of SUBMISSION.. ( not doing so)..WTF?
In this case so very simple and not subversive in the least.
.
As a laywoman just reading the Government Communications Security Bureau Act 2003, Section S14 – IN plain english..
Interceptions are not to target domestic communications –
They did by their own admission.( Hansard records). That is a guilty plea.
Key, Kitteridge, Neazor, Fletcher Veitch and various other apologists & supporters for retrospective legislation to absolve themselves from unlawfully actions already admitted!
Don’t any of these people understand their own rules, procedures or existing legislation?
Apparently not.
Ignorance of the law is not a defence is it?
Yet what does Key wish to do to circumvent the rule of law?
Amend it?
His behaviour throughout during this Committee has been one of barely disguised boredom, disinterested arrogance and a balatant disregard for both due process and willingness to even listen properly to any who put in or gave public submissions..
Key’s mind made up. That is clear..
Let’s hope Winston Peter Dunne and others’ minds whose votes count so much on this one are not.
Regardless of who wins the 2014 election what is being perpetrated in NZ has ramifications for all of us way beyond these shores now, as Nicky Hager warned a long time ago & others lately. Those who make these laws in ‘their interests not ours’ and break the laws with impugnity, are those for whom the stakes here are the highest. This is not a game though! Assange and Dotcom are examples of that
New Zealanders need to wake up to the language being imported from the US administration & NSA !
As an aside..
Defendent Banks’ case back in court today.. Another example of ‘utterly wrong!’ & an interesting ‘no oversight’ necessary by Mr Key..
My definitions of those too not his..
In future, what constitutes a crime, not what’s just thought a crime? What could actually be prosecuted as a thought crime, could be blurrier still if some want to shut people up…
These kind of terror tactics are more of a worry than the ‘events’ this type of spying have never prevented. Here in the case of the Rainbow Warrior/ Passport scandal or elsewhere, 9/11.. 7/7. Madrid.. Boston..
Yet activists,bloggers, dissidents, investigative journos ( a dying breed (sic) and whistleblowers, are in graves, in docks,in embassies, airports or prisons everywhere.. Funny that eh?
[…] Kim Dotcom: New Zealander of the Year – why aren’t Kiwis furious at GCSB law? – See more at: https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2013/07/04/kim-dotcom-new-zealander-of-the-year-why-arent-kiwis-furious-at… […]
In my years upon this Earth, I have often noticed that the business types who are core NAct supporters have the mentality of sniggering schoolboys. What absolutely revolts us will go down well with them – as Key showing the common touch and relating to Waitakere man or some such rubbish.
It comes as no surprise to me that it took a foreigner to publicise the seriousness of all this. Our celebrated number 8 wire mentality had its place on the farm, but is sadly lacking when it comes to more abstract questions. It is exactly this mentality that allows the Justice portfolio to be run by a Minister of Domination and Punishment, for example. It is this mentality which accepts lines like “If you’ve got nothing to hide……” This authoritarian government has distorted our famous Kiwi pragmatism to nothing more than servile acceptance of any abuse which doesn’t leave bruises or broken bones. The fact that so many support their rubbish is just another marker of our emotional immaturity as a nation. In fact, I think we were better, and have regressed. As always, I blame Roger Douglas and the first Act government, who convinced so many of us that nothing has value unless a price can be put on it. It’s up to us to show them and their smiling fool that they are wrong. Very wrong.
Ok . Here goes .
I can’t get past the cozy , snuggly , helicopter ridy , smooch fest and donations x 2 Kim DotCom had with that pint sized lizard John Banks .
I have a large nose . And it’s been broken a number of times and until I had an operation last year could smell fuck all . Now , it’s able to inhale small villages including their people , cats , dogs and idiots .
Thusly , I smell a rat of such proportions that it now has planet status . A gargantuan rat orbiting a central sun made entirely of flaming bullshit .
Honestly , I wish I didn’t smell odie Rat . I also wish I loved rugby , worshiped an invisible deity in an ugly , drafty building while surrounded by hypocrites but I don’t . Yes , I’m damned .
If Kim DotCom proves that jonky-stien is the liar he is , then I win because that’s the end of jonky .
If Kim DotCom can’t prove that jonky is a liar then I’m going with my theory which will make me right therefore I win .
You can’t beat a win / win situation . Any Casino will tell you that . Is that not right David fucking Shearer ?
I think I just fell in love with you a little bit. 🙂
P.S. Sorry about all the ‘ fuck ‘ words .
Quote from that Wikileaks document:
“The Embassy already has a close working relationship with the NZ
Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) that will be enhanced by the establishment of this new position. Embassy also has an understanding with NSA that the new position will cover Congressionally mandated information security requirements that neither the Defense Attache Office nor our State officers have the technical expertise to undertake.”
Well, well, well, indeed that is where New Zealand is a playground for NSA and GCSB together, and few out there may know this.
Of course this has been going on with varying intensity over many years, and the exposure of the Echelon program (many years ago) was just showing parts of what is happening.
It is sad and a shame, that a migrant entrepreneur with a lot of wealth and connections, as one of the leading internet service providers on the globe, is the only one in this country, who has been able to expose what the government and its agencies have been and are up to.
New Zealanders get rights denied, entitlements taken off them, year by year. They are getting manipulated and divided more and more, but few realise it. It is now extremely hard to get legal aid for taking any legal actions, and the bureaucracy of the courts (High Court Rules), and of the executive (state departments and agencies) is stacked very much against the ordinary Kiwi, so few, if any ever get the chance to take the government to court on injustices.
The government even passes laws stopping people to seek legal redress like by taking matters to the courts for judicial review.
Had it not been for Dotcom, we would all still not know anything about what the GCSB has been up to. We would all continue to slumber in ignorance, while secret services spy on us 24/7. That may only be a small percentage of New Zealanders that get surveilled thoroughly and seriously, but as the recent revelations about the US agency NSA have shown, they are now gathering data on all of us en masse, storing it as mega data, and possibly even more.
One would have to be an idiot, and sadly there are too many about, to believe this is also not happening here.
Apart from that so many now use private internet services like Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft, and others, at the same time surrendering endless amounts of data to them, which gets encoded, and passed on to advertisers, to bombard us with targeted ads, designed to show up to each user as based on a profile created on him or her.
Privacy law forbids the advertiser to decode much information, but technically a lot could be decoded and analysed. The above providers do gather browser behaviour data, including our clicks on websites, emails we use and more. Naturally if they can do it, so can government spy agencies.
But does anybody stand up and seriously challenge what goes on?
Sadly New Zealanders do not like to argue too much, do not like to stand up against the state, unless it really stirs them up. And as you write, Martyn, sadly too many go and take a stand against a law prohibiting the physical punishment of kids, against the odd liquor store, against ex prisoners released on parole or after having done their time, against street prostitution, school closures and the likes, but none else.
There may be a few dozen turning up at protests against draconian welfare cuts and reforms, but hundreds or even thousands for issues as just stated above. Some deal to “disputes” by getting physical on the rugby pitch or by brawling when drunk.
Too many have the attitude that if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear.
I wonder how many would like to have the state snoop on them while having sex in their bedrooms, having their movements and contacts tracked and traced, which they keep via mobile phones, have their personal details hung out in public? Few would, really, but then again, most do not realise the potential with the new spy laws.
Even the many that are tracked and traced as internet users, would not want their whole behaviour being “transparent”. But they fall for governments telling them, it is all for a good cause, to stop pedophiles, criminals of other shades, terrorists and the likes.
But what terrorists would consider New Zealand a major target? Few if any indeed, as the media impact of a strike in the US, Europe or some Asian countries would be much greater.
Yes, the GCSB is likely to already regularly observe what unions and activists are up to, and more of this is to be expected. Democracy and privacy and freedom are under attack, more than ever in modern New Zealand history.
Take a damned stand and voice your opposition, New Zealanders!
‘this isn’t a left wing or right wing issue’. Well it shouldn’t be, but where are the right wingers speaking out about this? National supporters are chanting the ‘nothing to hide, nothing to fear’ line. There seems to be a serious lack of imagination in the blue corner, they can’t conceive a situation where they might be subject to spying. Regarding spying on protesters, I brought up the 1978 Bloody Friday protests on Homepaddock last week. Farmers ran mobs of sheep into the centre of Invercargill and slaughtered them. If the farmers had had their phones tapped and their meetings bugged then they may never have got to the centre of town, the protest action would not have been as dramatic or effective. No one over there got the point. Such blind acceptance of anything their mate John says.
‘Cos enough of us are stupid, complacent, under-educated suckers, too busy trying just to get by day-to-day to invest the time to get educated on the issues involved.
John Key is Just a Puppet to the “New World Order” who control all world governments ofcourse Key is going to lie this is his job. He wants to dumb down New Zealanders as much as possible on issues like this he is a master at it. Big Ups to Kim DotCom, people Vs the governments, you are our voice, lets use it!
Either key is lying or not doing his job either way he is in the wrong to say he didn’t know about Kim dot Com is so stupid.
To think that GCSB hasn’t already been spying on New Zealanders for years is dumb. of course they have
Having nothing to hide will not save us when the GCSB comes trawling.
indict Key for treason!
I certainly don’t condone spying on New Zealanders, but what I can’t understand is why dot com has become such a hero. He has after all become a millionaire by cheating musicians out of their rightful earnings and therefore has contributed towards a cultural desert by discouraging creativity. Musicians after all have to eat, and if they don’t get paid for their work they will stop producing. He also gave what amounts to a bribe to Banksie for his election campaign.
The police were over the top with their gung-ho Rambo style response, but they were right to arrest him. The same as they were right to arrest Tame Iti (or at least to give him a warning about his unlicenced firearms) but not to terrorise the entire neighbourhood. What is interesting is that while Dot Com is lauded as some sort of hero, Iti, lacking Dot Com’s wealth and prestige, had to spend time in prison.
95% of musicians see about 1% of the earnings of their products (which is why older bands are touring again as its the only way to increase that percentage) the rest being completely sucked up by record companies ‘costs’ – illegal downloads are made by and utilised by individuals outside of said musicians ‘market’ (individuals who don’t allocate money toward music buying wether thru lack of interest as in can take it or leave it, or lack of money) therefore do not affect either the musician or their record company’s revenue stream – but hey go ahead and take the company line as gospel if you want John Key did/does
What was that GWB said about spreading democracy and freedoms ? Forgot to add, by killing them (in their millions to date) and destroying their country – just a small inconvenience………then we will spy on them like those stasi thugs.
Democracy is the victim in all this NSA/GCSB carry-on, making way for the police state which just happens to need a good dose of tyranny to help it along.
If you haven’t done anything wrong then you have nothing to fear ! Crooked thinking it used to be called – so why do I have to prove it PM ?
It has been obvious from the time he became leader of the Natz that this guy is working for Washington, a shill, now it is official.
The PM of this country has convinced himself that he has gained access to the club of all clubs (the 1%, Illuminati, whatever you want to call it) of course he is completely delusional to think he has a snowballs chance in hell of achieving lasting membership and the truly sad thing about this situation is that he has sold-out an entire country in his efforts to achieve this
This is my inkling too… if you don’t understand this way of thinking, watch Game of Thrones. That way of thinking has ruled human society for more of our history, and it hasn’t died yet.
John Key thinks that because he’s stock market boy and earned a lot of people a lot of cash that he’s in their club. But I really don’t think he is… because that club is all about breeding and John Key doesn’t originally come from that world.
Now in one reality (regular NZ) it doesn’t matter so much where you come from, it’s who you are as a person and what you have achieved that is more important. But in the elite world it’s not the same. They still carry the old school tribal/clan way of thinking. You can’t buy your way into that club. You can’t earn it. It is different paradigm. You are born into the club or you are not. And John Key can smile all he likes, but he’ll never really be part of that world. He will never be a key player in the game of thrones they are playing because he doesn’t have the breeding.
I don’t think any of you actually realise what’s at stake by tolerating John Key et al. You are not treating the future of NZ seriously enough.
Look at where NZ is going! Is NZ just an “Economic System” (playground for economic players)? ..Or is it a country of human beings
most of whom are struggling to make ends meet? Kim Dot Com is only a small warning bell as to where this is going.
The real implications are far more serious. Can’t you see that Key et al is demolishing NZ into a playground for International Corporations? Means people are only “resources” – to serve the Corporations..
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