"New Zealand denies spying on journalist with US help; Admits to order listing reporters as possible threats" by Nick Perry | Associated Press, July 30, 2013
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — New Zealand on Monday disputed a newspaper report saying its military conspired with US spy agencies to monitor a freelance journalist in Afghanistan, a report that has provoked concerns over how surveillance programs revealed by National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden might be used to spy on reporters.
Oh, now he's a leaker. When the watchers are spying on the press itself it becomes a concern.
The New Zealand government said Monday there is no evidence to support a report in the Sunday Star-Times newspaper that the military was assisted by the United States in monitoring the phone data of journalist Jon Stephenson, a New Zealander working for the US-based McClatchy news organization.
Oh, wow! McClatchy been a problem long about 10 years now, huh?
The report is the first indication that the NSA’s techniques may have been used to spy on a journalist.
And kind of the last indication in my Globe.
It challenges US claims that the NSA programs were not used to target specific individuals, but rather to compile large pools of usage data.
Who wouldn't challenge U.S. claims of anything these days? This government has shown itself to be an incorrigible liar.
Prime Minister John Key fanned the debate Monday by saying it is possible that reporters could get caught in surveillance nets when the US spies on enemy combatants.
They think the whole planet is an enemy combatant.
New Zealand and the United States are party to a five-country agreement on sharing intelligence information.
Which goes back to the 1980s ECHELEON information-gathering system, the genesis of the global surveillance grid being managed by Obama.
US surveillance programs have become the focus of a global debate since Snowden, a former defense contract worker, leaked classified information about the NSA in June.
It's become a verb now. To Snowden someone, meaning to expose wrongdoing.
The United States says the NSA programs are necessary to avert terror attacks, while critics have called it unregulated spying.
Yeah, except the latest alarms from Yemen -- we are told -- were not by NSA surveillance. I mean, c'mon, guys!
Military officials in Wellington were quick to reject the claims in the article by freelance investigative reporter and liberal activist Nicky Hager. He wrote that the military became unhappy at Stephenson’s reporting on how it treated Afghan prisoners.
Ah, a bleeding heart liberal who loves Afghan terrorists! Can't believe his reporting! Better you believe another bulls***-throwing military!
‘‘We have identified no information at this time that supports Mr. Hager’s claims,’’ Major General Tim Keating, the acting defense force chief, said in a statement.
He said the military officers responsible for operations in Afghanistan had assured him there had been no unlawful monitoring of Stephenson by New Zealand. ‘‘This includes asking foreign organizations to do this on our behalf,’’ he said.
I'm assured. How 'bout you?
Also Monday, New Zealand Defense Minister Jonathan Coleman acknowledged the existence of an embarrassing confidential order that lists investigative journalists alongside spies and terrorists as potential threats to New Zealand’s military.
Um, HELLO CORPORATE STENOGRAPHERS!! I just want to know how you ended up in this inflatable life raft with us bloggers?
That document was leaked to Hager, who provided a copy to the Associated Press.
Yeah, we are all in the same boat. Just reporting on reporting.
Coleman said the order will be modified to remove references to journalists.
That make everything all better?
He also said the New Zealand Defense Force had conducted an extensive search of its records over the weekend and had found no evidence that either it or any other agency had spied on Stephenson....
What a zhock.
Prime Minister Key told a reporter from The New Zealand Herald newspaper that ‘‘if you rang a member of the Taliban that the Americans were monitoring because they believed them to be a threat, then in theory that’s how you could show up.’’
Then all those reporters that talk to the Taliban spokesman or have to report that calls were not answered from a known number.... uh-oh. Good thing the whole operation as reported in my newspaper is a giant intelligence agency propaganda program.
‘‘I’m not saying that’s happened. I’m just saying that we don’t go and monitor journalists,’’ he added.
And you believe it or we will put you on a monitoring list!
On Monday, Hager said he stood by the story.
‘‘Direct denials are always unsettling, but I would not have published unless I had a really good source,’’ he said.
Hager, who has written several books on New Zealand military intelligence, declined to elaborate on his sourcing. He said he has faced unwarranted denials before.
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I would be careful of your mode of transportation these days, brave Mr. Hager, or you may end up like Mr. Hastings.
Now back to our show, I mean, the "newspaper":
"Passing reference in ‘Argo’ rankles New Zealand" by Nick Perry | Associated Press, March 22, 2013
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Thirteen minutes into the Oscar-winning movie ‘‘Argo,’’ CIA agent Tony Mendez asks supervisor Jack O’Donnell what happened to a group of Americans when the US Embassy was stormed in Tehran.
‘‘The six of them went out a back exit,’’ O’Donnell tells Mendez, played by Ben Affleck. ‘‘Brits turned them away. Kiwis turned them away. Canadians took them in.’’
That’s the only mention of New Zealand in ‘‘Argo,’’ but it is rankling Kiwis five months after the film was released in the South Pacific nation. Even Parliament has expressed its dismay, passing a motion stating that Affleck, who also directed the movie, ‘‘saw fit to mislead the world about what actually happened.’’
Ah, after a while you get used it.
New Zealand joins a list of other countries, including Iran and Canada, that have felt offended by the fictionalized account of how a group of Americans was furtively sheltered and secreted out of Iran during the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Related: Former Canadian ambassador says ‘Argo’ includes a lot of fiction
Iran Calls Oscar-Winning ‘Argo’ An ‘Advertisement For The CIA’
I haven't seen it.
The strong reaction in New Zealand indicates the country remains insecure about its own culture, said Steve Matthewman, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Auckland. People are prone to bouts of unwarranted outrage when somebody from abroad says something bad about the country, he said, and simpering enjoyment when they say something good.
I didn't know you New Zealanders were a bunch of Jewish schoolchildren.
‘‘It’s touched a really raw nerve,’’ Matthewman said. ‘‘We do seem in New Zealand to be oversensitive to how the rest of the world perceives us.’’
Gee, is that ever a below the belt shot by the you-know-jhu. I suppose some people never forget, and they seem indifferent to the way the world perceives them.
The movie’s New Zealand reference may not be totally fair but has an element of truth.
Oh, in other words, it's like the regional flagship upon which I'm reporting.
Some in New Zealand have taken those words — ‘‘Kiwis turned them away’’ — as implying the country did nothing to help.
In fact, a US State Department document dated Feb. 6, 1980, says ‘‘four Embassies — Canadians, British, Swedish and New Zealand — were involved in their protection and escape.’’ The document was posted online last fall by the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum.
And published interviews indicate diplomats from Britain and New Zealand did help by briefly sheltering the Americans, visiting, and bringing them food, even driving them to the airport when they left.
Yeah, yeah, but that's all lost to the haze of history, and it's probably for the good.
Yet those interviews also indicate that both countries considered it too risky to shelter the Americans for long. That left the Canadians shouldering the biggest risk by taking them in.
Lawmaker Winston Peters, who brought last week’s uncontested motion before Parliament, said New Zealanders are unfairly portrayed as ‘‘a bunch of cowards,’’ an impression that would be given to millions who watch the movie.
‘‘It’s a diabolical misrepresentation of the acts of courage and bravery, done at significant risk to themselves, by New Zealand diplomats,’’ he said.
Affleck could not be reached for comment this week.
During Oscar media interviews last month, Affleck told reporters: ‘‘Let me just start by saying I love New Zealand, and I love New Zealanders.’’ He added that ‘‘I think that it’s tricky. You walk a fine line. You are doing a historical movie and naturally you have to make some creative choices about how you are going to condense this into a three-act structure.’’
But Affleck and his screenwriter, Chris Terrio, who won the adapted screenplay Oscar, did catch some flak from critics for taking major liberties, especially a heart-stopping airport finale that had gun-wielding Iranian Revolutionary Guards chasing the Swissair plane down the tarmac, with the plane lifting off just in the nick of time. (In reality, the airport exit went smoothly.)
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Related: Sunday Globe Special: Night at the Oscars
Honestly, it's a thumbs-down all around (except for Oliver Stone).
"Besieged Internet mogul opens new website" by Jonathan Hutchison | New York Times, January 21, 2013
AUCKLAND, New Zealand — At 6:48 a.m. local time Sunday, the Internet tycoon Kim Dotcom opened his new file-storage website to the public — one year to the minute after the police raided the mansion he rents in New Zealand.
The raid was part of a coordinated operation with the FBI that also shut down Megaupload, the file-sharing business he had founded.
Dotcom faces US charges of pirating copyrighted material and money laundering and is awaiting an extradition hearing in New Zealand.
‘‘This should not be seen as the mocking of any government or Hollywood,’’ Dotcom, 39, said Sunday. ‘‘This is us being innovators and executing our right to run a business.’’
Dotcom, a German citizen and permanent resident of New Zealand who was born Kim Schmitz, was arrested Jan. 20, 2012. The allegation that Megaupload knew its users were illegally uploading copyrighted material is a crucial part of the US Justice Department’s indictment against the site and those who operated it.
Mega, Dotcom’s new website, is a file storage and sharing system that encrypts files on the user’s computer before they are uploaded to the site’s servers. This means that files on Mega’s servers cannot be read by anyone, including by the company itself, without the user’s decryption key.
Oh, I can see why the NSA, I mean, USA has a problem with him.
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Related:
"Kim Dotcom debates New Zealand leader over spying" by NICK PERRY / Associated Press / July 3, 2013
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — In America, Kim Dotcom is a racketeering suspect. In New Zealand on Wednesday, he was the prime minister’s debate partner.
Fight the surveillance system and you are either killed or persecuted.
The flamboyant Internet entrepreneur, who has gained celebrity status here while fighting extradition, took a helicopter from his estate to the capital, tweeting photos along the way, to speak against a bill that would expand the powers of New Zealand’s foreign spy agency.
In a Parliament committee room, he used his allotted 15 minutes to rail against U.S. and New Zealand snooping, then traded jabs with Prime Minister John Key.
Dotcom is founder of the once-popular file-sharing site Megaupload, which was shut down last year by U.S. authorities who accuse him of facilitating online piracy. His testimony at the committee hearing was a highly anticipated piece of political theater, and his every word was followed on live video streams and Twitter.
Dotcom spoke against a bill that would allow the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) to spy on New Zealanders under certain circumstances, something not expressly permitted under current law. One such instance would be on behalf of another domestic agency.
Dotcom had a stake in the debate because the GCSB concluded in a review of its actions that it unlawfully spied on him before his arrest in the South Pacific nation last year. Key publicly apologized to Dotcom after that ruling, but Dotcom later questioned his sincerity given the government’s interest in expanding the agency’s powers.
When he confirmed earlier this week that Key was chairing Wednesday’s hearing, Dotcom tweeted, ‘‘It’s ON.’’
At the end of Dotcom’s prepared remarks, Key challenged him. The prime minister had Dotcom agree that people once used Megaupload to outsource their file storage. Wasn’t it the same thing, the prime minister asked, for the spy agency to accept work that other agencies outsource to it?
‘‘On Megaupload you would share a file,’’ Dotcom replied. ‘‘On the GCSB spy cloud you share private information about citizens that you don’t have any right to access. That is the big difference.’’
Opposition Labour leader David Shearer then asked Dotcom whether Key knew the GCSB had spied on the entrepreneur before he was arrested in a dramatic raid, a point that has been politically contested for months.
‘‘Oh, he knew about me before the raid. I know about that,’’ Dotcom replied.
Key said that wasn’t true.
‘‘Why are you turning red, Prime Minister?’’ Dotcom asked.
‘‘I'm not. Why are you sweating?’’ responded Key.
‘‘Ah, it’s hot,’’ Dotcom replied.
The exchange drew laughter from the crowd watching and brought the debate to a close.
‘‘See you later,’’ Key said. ‘‘It’s been fun.’’
Dotcom was joined at the hearing by his colleague Bram van der Kolk, who remained silent at his side throughout.
Proponents say the bill helps clarify a legal gray area; opponents say it amounts to an unwarranted intrusion into domestic affairs.
The agency’s spying on Dotcom was found to be illegal because Dotcom, a German citizen by birth, was a legal resident of New Zealand at the time. Although embarrassing for the agency, the misstep to date hasn’t significantly impacted the underlying case.
U.S. prosecutors are trying to extradite Dotcom, van der Kolk and two other Megaupload executives from New Zealand, claiming they facilitated massive copyright piracy through the site. Dotcom and his colleagues deny the charges, saying they can’t be held responsible for users who chose to illegally download music or movies.
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"New Zealand beach closed after shark kills man" by The Associated Press | February 28, 2013
AUCKLAND, New Zealand — A shark possibly 14 feet long killed a swimmer near a popular New Zealand beach Wednesday, then disappeared after police attempting to save the man fired gunshots at the enormous predator.
Muriwai Beach, near Auckland, was closed after the fatal attack, one of about a dozen in New Zealand in the past 180 years.
Police recovered the body of the victim, identified as Adam Strange, a 46-year-old television and film director, the New Zealand Herald said. Strange won a Crystal Bear award for best short film at the 2009 Berlin Film Festival, according to his company’s website.
The newspaper said his family issued a statement expressing their shock and requesting privacy.
A witness who was fishing at the beach told the Herald that he saw the swimmer struggling against the huge shark.
‘‘All of a sudden there was blood everywhere,’’ Pio Mose said. ‘‘I was shaking, scared, panicked.’’
Police Inspector Shawn Rutene said Strange was about 650 feet offshore when the shark attacked. He said police went out in inflatable boats and shot at the shark, which they estimated to be 12 to 14 feet long.
‘‘It rolled over and disappeared,’’ Rutene said, without saying whether police were certain that they killed the creature.
About 200 people were at the beach at the time of the attack. Police said Muriwai and other beaches nearby are closed until further notice.
Police did not say what species of shark was involved in the attack. Clinton Duffy, a shark expert with the Department of Conservation, said New Zealand is a hot spot for great white sharks and other potentially lethal species.
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Related: Mourning Moran
Also see:
Globe Notices New Zealand Oil Spill
New Zealand legalizes gay marriage
They are sure to notice that last one.
