“the evidence that the SIS and GCSB are failing to detect criminality reinforces the view that their operations against New Zealanders are more about spying on dissenters than criminals.”
Paul Neazor’s assessment also seems to be at odds with what the GCSB has admitted in the Kim Dotcom case: that it did illegal spy on him, a New Zealand resident, when it assisted with preparations for a Police raid on his property.
The National government claims to uphold the rule of law, but maintains a deafening silence about its complete abrogation at the US military base at Guantanamo.
“New support for the West Papuan movement becoming member of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG). Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and the New Caledonian Kanak nationalist coalition FLNKS (already an MSG member) are the strongest backers. There is also more openness to such a move in Papua New Guinea and Fiji.”
It was not clear from the two SIS reports whether the SIS (and perhaps the GCSB) gained their information from spying on my communications, or those of NZ Tamils assisting me with the trip, or whether it was spying on both parties. Maybe the SIS interception warrants targeted the local Tamils helping me, and in the process they happened to intercept communications between us.
However, it is hard to accept that the GCSB unknowingly violated the Government Communications Security Bureau Act 2003 when it simply and explicitly says the GCSB is only allowed to spy on foreigners. Kitteridge says the agency spied on 85 New Zealanders between April 2003 and September 2012.