GUEST BLOG: Suzie Dawson – Why You Must Attend 2017’s Moment Of Truth: #AntiSpyBill Sunday 8pm-11pm NZST 

How do egregious lies become the historical record? They are laundered through the media.

In 2014 a fantastical fairy tale was sold to the New Zealand public. The persistence with which it was told; and relentless repetition through the biggest channels and names in the New Zealand press corps made it a self-fulfilling prophecy.

But it was bullshit. And for many Kiwis who simply didn’t know otherwise, that bullshit has been accepted as “what happened”, instead of “what we were told happened, by those who didn’t want us to know the truth.”

The few who were attempting to tell that truth were suppressed, ridiculed or intimidated. Some call this oppression. Others call it “politics”.

According to the fairy tale, a bombastic German by the name of Kim Dotcom started a political party to get himself off of criminal charges. Abused the electoral system for his own gain. Rorted MMP. Threw millions of dollars at it because money was no object. Tried to buy his way into government. Then bandied about a forged email, and ultimately lost the election because his “brand” was “toxic”.

So thorough was the abuse and manipulation that even Kim eventually became convinced that his “brand” was “toxic”.

But who made his brand toxic? It was not always so.

When Kim moved to New Zealand in 2009 he was lauded by the media and accommodated by government officials. They loved him, when he was just a GQ-type millionaire, with big yachts, flash cars, beautiful women and a New Year public fireworks display. A veritable pin-up for capitalism.

They only hated him when he challenged the political status quo.

In 2010, after Kim saw the “Collateral Murder” footage of US war crimes allegedly leaked by whistleblower Chelsea Manning, Kim became not only an avid ideological supporter, but a significant financial sponsor of WikiLeaks.

At the time, the US Empire was “manhunting” Julian Assange, and major US political figures and pundits alike were deeming Assange a ‘high-tech terrorist’ and openly advocating for his extrajudicial assassination.

By exposing evidence of US war crimes to the global public, Wikileaks became Public Enemy #1. Anyone who supported them, came onto the radar of the intelligence agencies of the Five Eyes. The more capable, monied and avid the supporter, the more sizeable a target they became for neutralisation by the state.

This is why and how the worm turned against Kim Dotcom, though you’ll never hear that from your TV news screen. Instead, the media and government chose to project a giant cover story for why Kim was now to be hated, rather than admired.

So the government invented the lie that he started Internet Party to benefit himself, even though Kim wasn’t standing as a candidate, his funding of the Party was entirely altruistic and no Internet Party policy would have made diddly squat of a difference to his legal situation, even had we gotten into power. The media uncritically reported US smears and allegations as if they were factual, even though it has since been proven that the charges made on the search warrant for his mansion do not even exist under New Zealand law.

They downplayed the activities of the FBI on New Zealand soil and routinely omitted significant facts and discrepancies in the State’s case. It wasn’t until John Campbell’s investigative series during the 2013 movement against the GCSB Bill, that the clear trail all the way back to Chris Dodd of the MPAA and President Obama, was presented to the public.

And we all know what happened to John’s “Campbell Live” after that.

While the media did report that 88 New Zealand citizens were illegally targeted as well as Kim, they have ignored the two-hop rule that means the number is likely in the many thousands, rather than the dozens.

Five years later, we still do not know the names of the targets. And the media have never, ever used the “T” word – treason – even in the most benign definition of the word: “A betrayal of trust or confidence”, in relation to the obvious constitutional, sovereignty and ethical issues of our government passing information on its own citizens to a foreign power.

The much-touted Cullen-Reddy report actually acknowledged in the fine print that national sovereignty by its inherent nature means that the interests of New Zealand can never precisely align the national interests of any other country. By funnelling the private data of our own citizens to foreign powers, our government is indeed placing international interests above our national interest.

In short, our own Government has become a threat to national security.

It acts, legislates and prosecutes in the interests of foreign power. Then our media markets their talking points to our domestic public, in the interests of foreign power.

The vast majority of the country stood against the passage of the GCSB bill, yet it was shoved through Parliament under urgency regardless. Since then, another three Acts and Bills have sought to further extend the powers of the spy agencies.

Including the same agencies who it was proven this year, had received dispatch orders directly from the CIA – an agency of a foreign power – to travel to France and infiltrate the French Presidential Election.

Did you hear that on the TV news? No, you didn’t. But sure enough, the indisputable evidence of New Zealand’s complicity in election meddling exists in the public realm.

Instead you are being taught to hate Russia – one of the last remaining countries who the US Empire does not yet control. You aren’t being told the story of how a New Zealand activist (yes, me) ended up living in exile in Russia, because that can of worms would reveal to you that in fact 107 New Zealand citizens sought asylum *outside* of New Zealand due to persecution, during the term of this National government.

By extension, you are being taught to hate me, just like you were taught to hate Kim Dotcom. You are being told I am a “self-imposed exile”, which was the exact same terminology used against Julian Assange and Edward Snowden before me. (Seriously, Google the term in conjunction with each of our names. It is a recycled smear.) By focusing your attention on us, their targets, they are able to obscure and downplay the role and conduct of themselves and their agencies.

It’s an easy choice – take on the solo Mum from Beach Haven? Or take on the vast international spy apparatus of the Five Eyes? Blame the bombastic German, or blame the spies? One will cost you nothing and you can get on with your day. The other, might change your entire life.

It is time for us to make the hard choices. There is a group of us who risk everything to do so, every day, on behalf of the future of New Zealand. We are taking on the Five Eyes and we will not stop, because to do so would be to completely acquiesce to the master/slave relationship they have established over their publics and actively enforce.

Citizenship should not equate to slavery. Democracy is not an open-air prison. We should not accept to live in a world where we are filmed inside our domestic dwellings, where our children’s state surveillance record starts from their entry into the education system, and where we are tracked and monitored by foreign powers and foreign governments on our own soil.

The Internet Party certainly will not accept it and is acting to do something about it, even in the face of a complete national media blackout of our campaign.

So tonight, some of the world’s brightest citizen heroes are coming together to once again shine a spotlight on the crimes of the spy agencies against New Zealand citizens and residents.

Barrett Brown, Kim Dotcom, Lauri Love, Lee Camp and other special guests will join myself to discuss everything that our government and their collaborators do not want us to talk to you about. Everything that the media will never say.

It is we, the eye-witnesses, who write the true history of this generation.

We implore you to listen, to absorb and to share the information.

Then to participate in building the solutions.

Haere mai, Aotearoa.