The Moment of Truth a decade later – what I learnt about NZ
I helped set up MANA.
I helped set up the Internet Party
I helped merge them (I know, I know, I know – not my best move but it did debut at 5% in the first poll)
And I was behind the scenes of the Moment of Truth.
Toby Manhire does a very good job of reviewing it ten years later at The Spinoff.
I believed that Kim Dotcom should have started the Moment of Truth like this:
“Dear New Zealand, my focus was a battle against John Key and I have argued that tonight would be about proving her knew about me before he claims to have, however in researching all of this, a far greater danger has been revealed altho is bigger than me and my fight with John Key, tonight we revel that this Government have lied to you and misled you about American Mass Surveillance. So I am putting my feud with John Key to one side while tonight we reveal what this Government has truly been lying about”.
THAT is what Kim SHOULD have said because the Moment of Truth had Assange, Greenwald and Edward Snowden prove without a shadow of a doubt that John Key had lied through his teeth about mass surveillance. It showed the NSA and CIA have staff here, it showed they planned to spike the sea cable and steal data directly from that feed and it showed that our GCSB went and met with the NSA to assure them the law Key had just pushed through allowed for mass surveillance despite Key telling the NZ public that it didn’t.
But what did NZ focus on?
Kim not proving Key knew he existed before he claimed to have known.
What was revealed was something of the nature of the anti-intellectual average Kiwi, who rather than look at the bigger picture presented, managed to find a tiny corner they could disagree with.
Looks at the mainstream media responding at the time:
Prime Minister John Key will be relieved the much talked about Moment of Truth passed by without seriously damaging his credibility.
There was no great reveal, no smoking gun, nothing to make New Zealanders believe they are being illegally spied upon.
Mr Key said neither had provided any actual evidence of their claims and said it was simply rhetoric.
“What they’re doing is making unsubstantiated claims. The Government has provided evidence that shoots down their arguments. If they want to provide evidence that supports their claims, last night was their chance and they failed to produce anything other than rhetoric.”
The initial fallout from last night’s meeting was very much, where was the bombshell? It was a question Dotcom did not answer adequately, choosing instead to attack the standard of journalism in this country.
Last night’s events were nearly overshadowed by the lack of information around an email which Kim Dot Com claimed showed John Key was involved in a plot with Hollywood company Warner Brothers to have him extradited to the US. Dot Com has long said Mr Key knew of his existence long before the raid on his Coatesville mansion. Warner Brothers swiftly denied that the email is real, as did the MPAA.
The event had been billed for months as showing proof of this plot, but it didn’t warrant a mention on stage last night, and Dotcom refused to answer questions on the email, saying it has been referred to Parliament’s privileges committee.
3 News political reporter Brook Sabin says last night’s Moment of Truth at the Auckland Town Hall was a mixed bag.
Notably absent was Kim Dotcom’s proof that Prime Minister John Key knew about him before the raid in January 2012.
Internet Party leader Laila Harre says it was left out under legal advice – but its omission made this part of the event a “bellyflop”, says Sabin.
Mark Sainsbury: Truth be told, many of us are over MoT
The Internet Party’s ‘Moment of Truth’ rally has wrapped without any bombshell being dropped on the Prime Minister.
Dotcom’s Moment of Truth ‘no king hit’
Reject foreign attempt to hijack election
“at the end of it things had not changed that much from when it began”
“there was barely any fresh substance to chew on.”
“he has not provided evidence beyond circumstantial that the GCSB is actually conducting mass surveillance on New Zealanders.”
“The mass surveillance issue was always a red herring, Glenn Greenwald and Edward Snowden presented no concrete evidence of privacy breaches, Julian Assange was a sideshow. Snowden’s revelation that the NSA had an operation in Auckland has to be followed up.”
For now, however, those questions are likely to be overshadowed by Dotcom’s spectacular failure to prove his central claim that John Key lied about his knowledge of Dotcom before a raid on the German’s Coatesville mansion.
National can take some vindication that issues like Dirty Politics and the Internet Party’s “Moment of Truth” were distractions.
What was really revealed at the Moment of Truth was how easily led we are in our critical thinking.
Here is the timetable of the behind the scenes machinations against Dotcom that led up to the involvement of the mass surveillance state…
- March 8th 2011 – Jerry Mateparae is stepped down as head of the GCSB.
- March 15th 2011 – Top NSA spook, James Clapper, flies to NZ to meet with Key to discuss ‘synchronicity’ between the NSA and GCSB.
- March 22nd 2011 – High level intelligence meetings
- May 2011 – McCully visits Washington
- June 17th 2011 – Key meets with Ian Fletcher for breakfast at Stamford Plaza.
- July 22nd 2011 – Key is invited to Washington as pay back for this new ‘synchronicity’.
- July 26th 2011 – Key side steps normal protocols and appoints his old school friend Ian Fletcher to take over at the GCSB.
- October 2011 – John Key, the head of the SIS and NZDF join Ian Fletcher, the MFAT Head, and the DPMC boss for a secret dinner at the British High Commissioner’s home
- December 8th 2011 – A letter states that Key is going to meet Ian Fletcher on 12th December
- December 12th 2011 – Key meets with Ian Fletcher.
- December 14th 2011 – The Police boss responsible for spying on Dotcom meets John Key with other intelligence agencies present.
- December 16th 2011 – Kim Dotcom starts to be illegally spied upon.
- January 2012 – Raid on Kim Dotcom. Spying supposedly ends.
The Moment of Truth revealed the true nature of the mass surveillance state but we ignored that over a far smaller issue of proving Key knew about Kim before Key said he did.
Kim Dotcom didn’t fail NZ, Kiwis and their herd like intellectual apathy did that all to themselves.
You can lead a New Zealander to slaughter, but you can’t make them think.
That’s what the Moment of Truth taught me.
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Patrick Gowers dickhead comment about Dirty Politics. Vindicated for it being “a distraction”? So the content was totally true, they really were lying arseholes but so what. This country has an over representation of complete tossers.
Well, to be fair, the so-called ‘anti-intellectual average Kiwi’ is merely a reflection of the media we consume, as ably depicted by all the media snippets here. As such – you can make a Kiwi think – beyond a shadow of a doubt, it is what our (all) mainstream media is in the business of doing after all – protecting or projecting the government line.
The Moment of Truth revealed the true nature of the mainstream media – the unthinking, anti-intellectual average Kiwi’ is the direct result courtesy of MSM’s adeptness of manipulating any given picture/story/narrative. Again, this is why we have genocide in the world today with very, very, very little push back…only a tiny corner of this picture ever sees the light of day in today’s increasingly restricted information world.
Ironically, I do believe I watched the Moment of Truth via a Stuff link, maybe NZ Herald…doubtful this would happen in today’s world.
Look at Kim Dotcom now. Spouting off anti vax crap and simping for Donald Trump and Elon Musk.
What was a hit was seeing three of my heroes on screen. That was the hit for 99% of the people who packed out the place and gave standing ovations. When I arrived there was a queue right down Queen Street.
He was advised by a lawyer not to release whatever he was going to release and he did say that on the night. Having those other speakers up there on-line was something I will never forget.
Dotcom was part of the problem with the Internet party and a large part of why in the end the Mana-Internet lot didn’t get in. If he had dropped away more and not been on show they would have had more of a chance.