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| Undercover Police at a Nelson Cannabis Protest |
I am still trying to wrap my brain around the continuing GCSB illegal spy ring, as well as John Key's mind-mongingly incredible statements on reform. Local Bodies and Dim Post have covered much of the shaky ground, but I still have a few points in mind that haven't been addressed.
Sloppy paperwork at the GCSB as described in the Kitteridge Report means that there's a lot of possibly illegal activity that has been overlooked simply because no record of it exists. The intelligence services have a serious legitimacy problem.
GCSB worked in good faith with police with warrants. As the Tuhoe Terror Raids demonstrated, these warrants were issued by judges and JPs more like fishing licences that would be later tested in court for proportionality and admissability. The spooks might need some quality control there.
Were the police the only government sector getting grass from the NZSIS and/or GCSB? Was there any time, for instance, when the Serious Fraud Office used warrants to inspect Cook Islands financial transactions or gather evidence against HSBC for corrupt banking practices? I bet not. Some collars are whiter than others.
It is getting lemon difficult to tell the state defence actors from Intellectual Property trolls. Can't the IP pimps hire their own damn security?
