Yearly Archives: 2013

Separate spy agency not needed

Today (31 August) the New Zealand Herald published my opinion piece critical of the GCSB, under the heading "Separate Spy Agency Not Needed" with a subhead: "Instead of spending...

Is the GCSB using the NSA’s XKeyscore data search...

Parliament is debating a Bill extending the powers of the GCSB when its members are...

How much does the NSA subsidise the GCSB?

Is the NSA subsidizing the GCSB either in money or provision of sophisticated equipment? If it is, this might explain the refusal of Prime Ministers Clark and Key to give out any information as to the cost to the taxpayer of the Waihopai spy station.

The evolution of parliamentary security

How easily the convenience of modern computer systems is turned against us. Just because it is more economical for Parliamentary Service to have all MPs emails on one big server this doesn’t give the Service the right to pry into the activities of the elected servants of the people.

Unanswered questions about the GCSB’s relations with the NSA

There are several unanswered questions, in the wake of the Snowden revelations, about the GCSB’s contribution to the US National Security Agency’s global surveillance programme.

Don’t harbour any illusions about Egypt’s military regime

It is no longer a question of whether or not we agree with the Moslem Brotherhood. When people are being massacred by a military regime for exercising their democratic right to protest, then we must speak out. We must stand with them.

Free media deemed a threat to national security

John Key refused to answer a question from Green co-leader Russel Norman as to whether the GCSB receives “funding directly or indirectly from the Government of the United States” – a relevant question given Snowden’s information that the NSA is funding its British counterpart, the GCHQ

Don’t bomb Syria

Now it is Syria’s turn to “be taught a lesson” with American and British missiles.

Pressure on NZ politicians after UK Commons rejects air...

Respected British journalist Robert Fisk went out on a limb yesterday calling such a strike “the stupidest Western war in the history of the modern world”.