John Key’s amazing magical ‘behind the wire’ forcefield

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Is Oceania at war with Eastasia before our war in Eurasia is over?

‘behind the wire’ is a magical forcefield from La-la land where bullets bounce away effortlessly while NZ soldiers teach Iraqi’s to march. It’s the phrase that the embedded journalists have quickly picked up and breathlessly given NZers as a means to deflect any suggestion that we are going to war.

We won’t really be going to war, we will be ‘behind the wire’. For a country enamoured with its own Number 8 wire romanticised mythology, ‘behind the wire’ conjures up nobility and doing ones bit with the little we have. It’s not selecting targets for America’s Drone War which have killed a civilian per day since it began, it’s not the SAS conducting intelligence which can allow them to shot first and ask questions latter, oh no, it’s just some behind the scenes ‘behind the wire’ role devoid of any responsibility or obligations.

Meanwhile at home, because of this ‘raining carnage’ by ISIS, the Secret Intelligence Service suddenly need the ability to spy on you in your house for 48 hours without a warrant. Seeing the utter contempt that Key admitted using towards the OIA procedures, these extraordinary powers to spy for 48 hours without a warrant will immediately become the norm not the exception.

Watch and see the things that the SIS can conclude as a national security risk now. Environmentalists will be the next on the list.

These are the darkest powers of the darkest part of the State, and we are allowing it to pass based on some simple button pushing of the terrorist bogeyman. There is no need for these extra powers, the police and the GCSB already have enormous unchecked scope given to them by the vast new powers Key has granted our security services every time they get caught illegally spying.

Giving even more unchecked powers to the SIS is 5 eyes too far.

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

I haven’t used a Star Wars reference in this blog yet, so to paraphrase Padmé Amidala, “This is how liberty dies in NZ–casually around a BBQ.”

None of us are made safer by this.

26 COMMENTS

  1. “Behind the wire”, one assumes this a Curia focus group approved phrase for Key to use.

    And right when this country needs a PM whose word can be relied upon and whose judgement is not based on dollars and cents we get supremely unreliable wheeler dealer word of John Key. Fantastic!

    • @XRAY I totally agree…New Zealand needs a PM of real substance not this guy who continually lies to public and miraculously survives to disappoint again..

  2. This is Key using the old “Boiling Frog” trick on the NZ public. One of his favourite techniques.
    How quickly people have forgotten how Vietnam started with Advisors (now called Military Planners) and gradually ramped up.
    Everyone so good at fighting wars, piss poor at stopping them.

  3. More spying powers, so who is really “behind the wire”?

    I thought the world was past the Bush years, but more than a decade later it appears an invasive home-grown one has emerged in this country. With all the rampant fear mongering, Key’s speeches share much in common with media released by the Islamic State, though one has more to fear from the local fear monger then the other doing business halfway around the world. Empty rhetoric such as protecting our way of life and values, which in reality have been drastically altered since this government has been elected to the detriment of many.

    A military contribution for what purpose? Ingratiate oneself with the US? A distraction from controversial policies on the agenda?

    See in the media fringe groups who vow to do away with democracy while our “leaders” downgrade democracy for our “safety”. Guess there’s a need for a boogeyman to make the real intentions at work appear virtuous.

  4. Oceania against Eurasia really.
    Two big power blocs.
    (The war against the IS is a sideshow with the rival big powers trying to maintain the status quo in the Middle East.)
    The Pacific is where the rivals are facing a showdown.
    The NACTs are caught between these two rival blocs.
    This tension is evident at the G20 and ASEAN meetings as the fight over the TPPA and rival China FTA breaks out.
    Key’s tokenism over IS is a compromise between its dependence on both blocs.
    The NACTs solution is to sell out to both giving the US direct control of the state to retain control over financial and intellectual assets, while encouraging deeper economic ties with China’s dynamic economy.
    China will win in the long run because its rapidly developing productive capacity creates real economic wealth, while the US strategy of legally monopolising assets, technology and IP backed by military force, is already being overtaken and challenged by China and Russia.
    The left in NZ needs to reject ties to both blocs based on the policies of economic, political and military rivalry, since this has to lead to more and more local wars and ultimately world war.
    Our interests are to unite with the working masses in both blocs to oppose their destructive wars and defend democracy and social ownership of resources to manage the economy to respect the needs of the masses and the limits of nature.

    • Democracy (in the English sense of the word) and social ownership are incompatible.

      If you had to choose between democracy and socialism, which would you choose?

      • The Scandinavians seem to have managed it quite nicely, UT.

        In fact, we had the highest democratic participation (voter turn-out) when we had high social ownership of assets.

        You’re welcome.

  5. A century ago, a White woman was able to roam freely through Iraq, Syria and Jordan, gaining the friendship and admiration of Arab Chieftains:
    http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/06/the-woman-who-made-iraq/305893/

    During WWI the British promised autonomy to Arab states then reneged on that promise.
    http://www.cliohistory.org/thomas-lawrence/paris/

    Post WWII, the Zionists ethnically cleansed Palestine of up to a million indigenous inhabitants.
    https://www.google.co.nz/search?q=Ethnic+cleansing+of+Palestine&client=ubuntu&hs=LJr&channel=fs&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=crRaVMydLNbU8gXGoYKACw&ved=0CFYQsAQ&biw=1529&bih=773

    In February 1982, a document written by Sharon adviser Oded Yinon – “A Strategy for Israel in the Nineteen Eighties” – was published in the Zionist magazine “Kivinum” recommending the breakup of, first Iraq, then all the Arab States.
    http://www.monabaker.com/pMachine/more.php?id=A2298_0_1_0_M

    In 1990, America began a series of invasions into Iraq, Libya, Syria, further inflaming the Arab World.

    “It requires a very unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious”.

    Alfred North Whitehead

  6. It’s easy to laugh about this stuff, because it seems so distant to the average life in NZ, but it has the potential to become serious business and open to serious abuse.

    For people like Nicky Hagar et al, I hope they learn a valuable lesson: Don’t leave the good stuff laying around, because the bad guys never did play by the rules.

    Far from being a “nothing to hide, nothing to fear” type person, 48hr spying on me would still turn up nothing. The funniest thing would be seeing two guys in pinstripe suits (we’ll call them Agents Brantley and Agent Ebsworth) trying to hide in full view in the street I live. The kids would be tapping on the windows and climbing over the car and shouting, “Hey mister, what you DOING?!” If they’d only knock on my door I could give them a couple of scones for morning tea. Oh right, darn it, as their reason for employment I don’t have to do that anymore… John Key says they should work through till knock-off time. Bummer. I would’ve used Jam made in Poland, to set their Cold War suspicions to High.

    The long and the short is that the most recent round of Dirty Politics is proof that our government doesn’t even need any extra ability to make up any story they like about anyone, hold them as long as they want, and change laws to suit whatever political end they need. So don’t live in too much additional fear, people, you were never protected to start with. It’s been going on since Captain Whitey landed on Maori Beach and the Labour Party have at least one well known example of their own to atone for, too. Power corrupts, there is no “good corruption”.

  7. It does seem like a focus-group researched phrase doesn’t it. I’d also like to suggest that following the National governments general behavioural pattern this is just the first step in their incrementalist response to ISIS. Send just a few people today. Nobody objects strongly to that. Then when the threat worsens (and lets assume this isn’t an actual threat but just a media beat-up) we need to send some more. Finally, heaven forbid if one of our men or women should actually be harmed, that would require a full-blow military response according to this approach!

    How many shares does John Key have in the armaments or military supply industries? If he has nothing to hide he’ll let us know exactly how much he intends to profit from this exercise.

  8. OK mods, I get it, you don’t like links so here it is again.

    A century ago, a White woman was able to roam freely through Iraq, Syria and Jordan, gaining the friendship and admiration of Arab Chieftains. Google Gertrude Bell

    During WWI the British promised autonomy to Arab states then reneged on that promise. Google T. E. Lawrence

    Post WWII, the Zionists ethnically cleansed Palestine of up to a million indigenous inhabitants. Google The ethnic cleansing of Palestine.

    In February 1982, a document written by Sharon adviser Oded Yinon – “A Strategy for Israel in the Nineteen Eighties” – was published in the Zionist magazine “Kivinum” recommending the breakup of, first Iraq, then all the Arab States. Google A strategy for Israel in the Nineteen Eighties.

    In 1990, America began a series of invasions into Iraq, Libya, Syria, further inflaming the Arab World.

    “It requires a very unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious”.

    Google Alfred North Whitehead

  9. The ” Number 8 wire romanticised mythology, ” isn’t as mythical as Auckland’s economy is .

    I’ve seen amazing things created with number eight wire . Like fences to keep sheep in until they’re shorn and have bred . To … you know ? Be sold to pay the interest on the off-shore loans that jonky and his minions , the ‘ free thinkers ‘ , broker to keep the polite Auckland latte sippers in whores and coke . And the rest of us struggling to survive in a land of more than enough .

    The only danger we face in New Zealand is from ourselves and frankly , we’re in deep shit .

    Any ISIS threat is a whitewash . A snow job . Bull shit , if you prefer .

    This entire debacle of spy versus spy is to keep us from speaking out against the Great New Zealand Institutionalised Lie .

    The Fletchers , the Todds , the Watties and sundry other swindlers are our real enemy and jonky’s excuse of ISIS is a great opportunity to intimidate and quell dissent .

  10. John Key hides behind the “wires” himself, I suppose, in his hideout in St Stephens Ave in Parnell. He can pull the strings and direct others to do the dirty work, so he is well experienced in this.

    His extension of power will be the “behind the wire” soldiers sent to Iraq, to “train” the army there, kind of “hands off” management, really.

    Hide behind the wires, and let others get ready and do the dirty work, what a great approach. Key is a genius with this kind of things, he used Bennett to sit “behind the wire” and direct the MSD and WINZ “operatives” to do the “dirty work” on those nasty beneficiaries, and “cull” them off the roll.

    Whenever something goes wrong, the guys “behind the wire” can wash their hands, as did Paula Benefit, when she went to Ashburton, to weep crocodile tears about some sad consequences of the slash and burn approach by WINZ, that she encouraged and authorised.

    How nice it is to have some wires to sit behind, I suppose it is electrified barb wire, safe and sound, and enjoy your life while the rest of the “riff raff” out there fight it out and die.

  11. Key should send used car salesmen and Dick Quax to train the Iraqi Army. Then they’d be able to negotiate with ISIL to get a better price for their weapons before they run away, faster than ever.

  12. “IF” John Key lied to parliament regarding troops already deployed to the Middle East, why aren’t the MSM yelling from the rooftops? Why aren’t Labour or The Greens or Winston jumping on this point of order??

    You can’t let liars get away with it……………… they’ll just keep doing it!

  13. Geez Wayne- Key should be the first one ‘ surveilled’ – doesn’t it strike you as strange that the bastard with the most to hide is the one makin ‘ all the rules in this country about snooping on the rest of us?

    If we got 1/10th of the shit that this guys done during the last six years he’s been in power he’d have his arse booted clear to Mt Eden for treason and wrecklessness and have all his assets frozen before morning smoko .

    If hes going to do this sort of shit – then he should lead by example and have his ‘office’ to be the first one under surveillance…that and all his electronic /hard copy communications data – and all his dodgy mates.

  14. When are pubic going to awake to the fact Kiwi Rail’s interisland ferries are
    once again in the hands of a very disruptive and politically motivated union. It
    is obvious, when one realises the problems have arisen, and got really bad,
    since taxpayers started funding these leeches once again. It is ironic the same
    problems are not occurring with competitors . . . they have dedicated and
    competent staff, not unionised rabble, such as Kiwi Rail have on their ships.
    Come on National, get rid of the bloody things, like rail, they have been taken
    over by unions.

    • When are pubic going to awake to the fact Kiwi Rail’s interisland ferries are
      once again in the hands of a very disruptive and politically motivated union.

      WTF?

      IGM – have you noticed what year it is?

      You really seem to be stuck in a Time Warp, don’t you? Give my regards to the 1950s…

    • By the way, IGM, probably the reason that Bluebridge isn’t experiencing the same problems is that their ships are new. Interislander ferries are older and more prone to break-downs.

      Would you care to look at a list of privately-run ferries that’ve suffered breakdowns in the last few decades?

    • Oh , thank God for you IGM . For a moment there I thought we’d run out of bigoted idiots .

      And you’re so far off-topic you’re at grave risk of falling off the edge of the flat earth you think you inhabit .

    • IGM seems you haven’t caught up with the 21 century! Because that’s where we are at present.

      The majority of unionised labour was killed off during the late ’80s early/mid ’90s, through economic reforms, thanks to the likes of Douglas, Prebble, Richardson, Shipley et al!

      Stay focused. Please try to catch up.

    • That’s insulting. If a worse word would come to mind, I’d use it.

      To imply that unionised people would risk passengers, crew, cargo and ship to make some sort of ‘political point’ – be relieved that words fail me.

      A hateful, despicable thing to say and imply.

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