Under fire in the press? Look! Behind you! What's that over there? A threat to national security? Time for (distr)action!

Under fire in the press? Look! Behind you! What’s that over there? A threat to national security? Time for (distr)action!

The NZ prime minister has evoked ‘Reds under the bed’ style threats to national security to justify extending the already broad powers of the nation’s spy agencies, and aiding co-operation between them.

Read the paragraph below and tell me it’s not redolent of the vacuous and deceitful ‘sexed-up dossier’ that Tony Blair used to justify the UK’s involvement in the US invasion of Iraq.

Prime Minister John Key defended the function of the Government Communications Security Bureau today saying cyber attacks relating to weapons of mass destruction were intercepted by the agency.

“There has been a disturbing escalation of cyber activities beyond simply exfiltrating data to actually altering data and systems – there have been covert attempts to acquire New Zealand science and technology for programmes relating to weapons of mass destruction or weapons delivery systems,” Mr Key said.

While defending the agency’s functions, Mr Key announced sweeping changes to GCSB’s powers, saying failure to do so would leave New Zealand’s national security open to threat.
— NZ Herald: Sweeping changes to GCSB’s powers – PM

“Weapons of mass destruction” no less!

Convenient how a ‘cyber attacks’ bogeyman has emerged to distract from the illegal actions of the GCSB. From the looks of it, our snoops and spies are lining up to get ‘sweeping’ powers … as a reward for their non-compliance with the few restrictions that apply from existing legislation.

Like the police and their use of illegal covert surveillance prior to the Urewera so-called ‘terror raids’, the GCSB has repeatedly broken the law, so … let’s change the law. Say, what?

– P