The following opinion piece from me was published in the New Zealand Herald on 10 June 2013.
It has now been established that the United States National Security Agency (NSA)...
My recent Daily Blog posts have covered the furore around the illegal spying by the GCSB on New Zealanders, as well as following up the Snowden revelations on mass...
We know from the Snowden papers that the US NSA and the UK GCHQ use “selectors” – which could be key words – to filter millions of phone calls and emails – including those of New Zealanders. This is mostly done without warrants relating to specific individuals.
This week on Citizen A host Martyn Bradbury, Julie Fairey & Keith Locke debate whether this latest poll scare Labour’s caucus into reconsidering Shearer as leader? Would a NZ First backed GCSB bill be the worst outcome for New Zealand? What did Auckland mayor Len Brown give away to get the support of this National-led Government?
On 3 July I travelled to Parliament to speak to the Intelligence and Security Committee to explain my written submission on the GCSB Bill (see below for the text)....
Being absorbed into the Five Eyes also restricts New Zealand’s ability to conduct an independent foreign policy. No less stupid is John Key’s promotion of the GCSB Bill and the Telecommunications Interception Capability Bill requiring all telecom and internet firms to be “intercept capable”.
In some ways, Dzokhar’s apparent rationalisation for letting off explosives mirrors Barack Obama’s, when he orders drone strikes in Pakistan, knowing that most of those killed or wounded will be innocent civilians. For both men, civilian casualties are seen as an unfortunate overhead of the “war”.
I was interviewed on Television New Zealand's Breakfast programme on 26 July on why I was opposed to the Government Communications Security Bureau Bill. You can watch it as:
http://tvnz.co.nz/breakfast-news/gcsb-protests-growing-video-5519462