Wait, what? There hasn’t been any oversight of our mass surveillance Intelligence apparatus since 2016?

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You can never trust the spooks can you?

It was so weird that the Intelligence apparatus announced last week such a great panel to provide feedback that included amazing critics like David Fisher, Paul Buchanan, Thomas Beagle, Jon Stephenson, Deborah Manning and Nicky Hager.

It seemed too good to be true.

Now we find out it was.

The panel of critics was released as a softener up for the real news, which has come out today that since 2016 there hasn’t actually been any legal oversight of the mass surveillance state…

NZ intelligence and security agencies without layer of oversight since 2016

Intelligence and security agencies have been lacking a layer of oversight for almost two years.

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

The Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security’s advisory panel was set up in 2014, to aid the inspector-general in her role as independent watchdog of the country’s intelligence and security agencies: the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS) and The Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB).

The idea was to provide another layer of oversight, and give the inspector-general “a sounding board” to help her determine whether the agencies were acting lawfully and “properly”. But no-one has been appointed to the panel since October 2016.

…and what is the excuse as to why there was no oversight of these most powerful of spy agencies?

The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (DMPC) has blamed the lack of appointments on the interruption of the 2017 general election.

DPMC security and intelligence deputy chief executive Howard Broad said the appointment process had been “ongoing”.

…the entirely predictable 2017 election that occurred at the end of 2017 was the reason the oversight lapsed in 2016?

Is that what we are supposed to believe?

How convenient for our spy agencies to not have oversight during an election. We know that prior to the 2011 election, the PMs Office and the SIS colluded to falsely smear Phil Goff in the run up to that election, it is completely conceivable that the Intelligence agencies were monitoring the 2017 election and feeding information, but we won’t know because there wasn’t any oversight.

The ‘oversight’ was always bullshit and now we know the bullshit was even less sincere than originally sold us.

These are spy agencies now with enormous power, the likes of which no state agency has ever had. We know that the state has spied on Euthanasia activists, anti-1080 activists, TPPA activists, earthquake survivors, Greenpeace and other environmental groups why would we trust them not get directly involved in politics?

National built a mass surveillance deep state, the supposed checks and balances to that deep state are a joke and mere window dressing.

 

4 COMMENTS

  1. O M F’ing G

    This is how fascist states are allowed to happen.

    Now do people who STUPIDLY voted for TraitorKey.
    Those Natz MP’s still in Parliament from that traitorous Govt, should be shamed out of their electorates for being part of this travesty of supposed Democracy.
    RIP NZ democracy

  2. Shocking, they are probably so busy spying on Sue Bradford, yourself and save the chooks types, as well as working out how to grab more budget without having anybody worth spying on and having pretty much given over the intelligence to the NSA, there’s not a lot for them to do these days. Maybe get their jollies on stalking old boyfriends and girlfriends, who knows, and a few cash jobs for mates like the oil industry and PI’s, because they have been allowed to spy with zero oversight. Disgusting!

  3. Always worth another watch, one of their better documentaries:
    ‘Digital Dissidents’

    https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/specialseries/2016/03/digital-dissidents-160323141254755.html

    Oversight or no oversight, I would hardly take this whole BS talk all that serious, as the horse has bolted long ago, and most are living in total ignorance and feed business and the state with endless info, just using the web.

    Who needs GCSB and SIS, Fakebook and Co do the same, quite legally, and they know more about you than what you will imagine in your wildest dreams, or rather worst nightmares.

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