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Nicky Hager seems like he is more against broad spying powers, so to me it would be a little strange for him to side witht he NSA to leak specific information in order to remove Don Brash - although it wouldn't entirely surprise me either way.

The Dunne issue is very interesting, why should anyone be prosecuted for leaking information about the innapropriate use of spying? If the government has nothing to hide, they have nothing to fear right?

GCHQ is a British organization. How would Snowden get copies of their plans, if there are in fact legitimate? He seems to be making some mighty big claims for having been employed as an employee of an NSA contractor for three months.

You're really asking this?

It's been well known in public for many years -- certainly since 1996 when it was revealed in Nicky Hager's Secret Power ( the book which made ECHELON a household word, and is available here as a free ebook) that the NSA and its partner agencies in the UK, Canada, Australia and NZ work together as UKUSA or the 'Five Eyes' network, even to the point of agreeing to spy on each others' citizens to get around their respective domestic policy limitations.

Furthermore, it's also well known that a major GCHQ installation, Menwith Hill, is actually staffed by NSA officers. Similar American involvement is true for Australia's Pine Gap. To an unknown but probably lesser extent, New Zealand's GCSB listening stations at Tangimoana and Waihopai are also either staffed by, or run in close consultation with, the GCHQ and NSA.

National sovereignty? What's that? For those of us in non-USA English-speaking countries, the situation is strange. We're not American citizens, we have no vote for the US president or Joint Chief of Staffs, yet our leaders take their orders from your leaders. This means that we've all become very interested in American politics, even though we'd rather not. Because you guys in the State may think you're only electing your own local town mayor and dogcatchers, but you're actually choosing who will run the military and spy infrastructures of the whole Western world. And increasingly, the real power players in your system (the NSA, CIA and DoD) don't seem to even care much about the civilian 'oversight'. They just change the logos on the Powerpoints and keep on doing their thing.

For instance, there's a bill in the NZ Parliament at the moment to give our GCSB increased powers in order to synchronise them with the NSA. Did the New Zealand people really want this? No. But we're getting it anyway. Because the US military industrial complex calls the shots even in countries they have no official democratic authority over. But those who make and sell the guns, and control the wires, have a habit of getting what they want.

tldr: There is no independent 'GCHQ'. It's a subcontracted division of the NSA.

In May 2007 two spies, Somali Young and Ryan Paterson-Rouse, were exposed in their roles working for a private security company, Thompson and Clark Investigations Limited, to infiltrate and supply information on activist groups here in New Zealand. The story was broken by Nicky Hager, the man that brought Echelon and Unit 8200 into the glare of daylight. He also holds copies of those Wikileaks cables relating to New Zealand.

This was small beans.

In October 2007, on the eve of the passage of another round of repressive anti-terrorism legislation in New Zealand, Police raids resulted in the arrests of activists up and down the country on terrorism and firearms charges.

The police took their case to the Solicitor General who told them that the terrorism charges were unsupportable and they were withdrawn.

Then, in April 2008, Nicky was approached by Rob Gilchrist who said he had been approached by Thompson and Clark and been asked to spy on activists.

However, Gilchrist was not all he seemed, and a short while later another story emerged after he asked his girlfriend, Rochelle Rees, to fix his computer. Rochelle discovered emails from his handlers, and being no slouch, copied everything and backdoored his machine and phone. Nicky once again broke the story in which sex again raises it's head (?!).

It turned out that Rob is a significant informant, and provocateur, in the "terrorism" operation.

Now, Thompson and Clark aint all that bright because late last year they were caught *again* but then Clark is rumoured to be head of an Armed Offenders Squad (SWAT team in US-ese) so we probably shouldn't expect too much.

What is with all this stuff about dragon tattoos anyway?

In May 2007 two spies, Somali Young and Ryan Paterson-Rouse, were exposed in their roles working for a private security company, Thompson and Clark Investigations Limited, to infiltrate and supply information on activist groups here in New Zealand. The story was broken by Nicky Hager, the man that brought Echelon and Unit 8200 into the glare of daylight. He also holds copies of those Wikileaks cables relating to New Zealand.

This was small beans.

In October 2007, on the eve of the passage of another round of repressive anti-terrorism legislation in New Zealand, Police raids resulted in the arrests of activists up and down the country on terrorism and firearms charges.

The police took their case to the Solicitor General who told them that the terrorism charges were unsupportable and they were withdrawn.

Then, in April 2008, Nicky was approached by Rob Gilchrist who said he had been approached by Thompson and Clark and been asked to spy on activists.

However, Gilchrist was not all he seemed, and a short while later another story emerged after he asked his girlfriend, Rochelle Rees, to fix his computer. Rochelle discovered emails from his handlers, and being no slouch, copied everything and backdoored his machine and phone. Nicky once again broke the story in which sex again raises it's head (?!).

It turned out that Rob is a significant informant, and provocateur, in the "terrorism" operation.

Now, Thompson and Clark aint all that bright because late last year they were caught *again* but then Clark is rumoured to be head of an Armed Offenders Squad (SWAT team in US-ese) so we probably shouldn't expect too much.

What is with all this stuff about dragon tattoos anyway?

In May 2007 two spies, Somali Young and Ryan Paterson-Rouse, were exposed in their roles working for a private security company, Thompson and Clark Investigations Limited, to infiltrate and supply information on activist groups here in New Zealand. The story was broken by Nicky Hager, the man that brought Echelon and Unit 8200 into the glare of daylight. He also holds copies of those Wikileaks cables relating to New Zealand.

This was small beans.

In October 2007, on the eve of the passage of another round of repressive anti-terrorism legislation in New Zealand, Police raids resulted in the arrests of activists up and down the country on terrorism and firearms charges.

The police took their case to the Solicitor General who told them that the terrorism charges were unsupportable and they were withdrawn.

Then, in April 2008, Nicky was approached by Rob Gilchrist who said he had been approached by Thompson and Clark and been asked to spy on activists.

However, Gilchrist was not all he seemed, and a short while later another story emerged after he asked his girlfriend, Rochelle Rees, to fix his computer. Rochelle discovered emails from his handlers, and being no slouch, copied everything and backdoored his machine and phone. Nicky once again broke the story in which sex again raises it's head (?!).

It turned out that Rob is a significant informant, and provocateur, in the "terrorism" operation.

Now, Thompson and Clark aint all that bright because late last year they were caught *again* but then Clark is rumoured to be head of an Armed Offenders Squad (SWAT team in US-ese) so we probably shouldn't expect too much.

What is with all this stuff about dragon tattoos anyway?

In May 2007 two spies, Somali Young and Ryan Paterson-Rouse, were exposed in their roles working for a private security company, Thompson and Clark Investigations Limited, to infiltrate and supply information on activist groups here in New Zealand. The story was broken by Nicky Hager, the man that brought Echelon and Unit 8200 into the glare of daylight. He also holds copies of those Wikileaks cables relating to New Zealand.

This was small beans.

In October 2007, on the eve of the passage of another round of repressive anti-terrorism legislation in New Zealand, Police raids resulted in the arrests of activists up and down the country on terrorism and firearms charges.

The police took their case to the Solicitor General who told them that the terrorism charges were unsupportable and they were withdrawn.

Then, in April 2008, Nicky was approached by Rob Gilchrist who said he had been approached by Thompson and Clark and been asked to spy on activists.

However, Gilchrist was not all he seemed, and a short while later another story emerged after he asked his girlfriend, Rochelle Rees, to fix his computer. Rochelle discovered emails from his handlers, and being no slouch, copied everything and backdoored his machine and phone. Nicky once again broke the story in which sex again raises it's head (?!).

It turned out that Rob is a significant informant, and provocateur, in the "terrorism" operation.

Now, Thompson and Clark aint all that bright because late last year they were caught *again* but then Clark is rumoured to be head of an Armed Offenders Squad (SWAT team in US-ese) so we probably shouldn't expect too much.

What is with all this stuff about dragon tattoos anyway?

In May 2007 two spies, Somali Young and Ryan Paterson-Rouse, were exposed in their roles working for a private security company, Thompson and Clark Investigations Limited, to infiltrate and supply information on activist groups here in New Zealand. The story was broken by Nicky Hager, the man that brought Echelon and Unit 8200 into the glare of daylight. He also holds copies of those Wikileaks cables relating to New Zealand.

This was small beans.

In October 2007, on the eve of the passage of another round of repressive anti-terrorism legislation in New Zealand, Police raids resulted in the arrests of activists up and down the country on terrorism and firearms charges.

The police took their case to the Solicitor General who told them that the terrorism charges were unsupportable and they were withdrawn.

Then, in April 2008, Nicky was approached by Rob Gilchrist who said he had been approached by Thompson and Clark and been asked to spy on activists.

However, Gilchrist was not all he seemed, and a short while later another story emerged after he asked his girlfriend, Rochelle Rees, to fix his computer. Rochelle discovered emails from his handlers, and being no slouch, copied everything and backdoored his machine and phone. Nicky once again broke the story in which sex again raises it's head (?!).

It turned out that Rob is a significant informant, and provocateur, in the "terrorism" operation.

Now, Thompson and Clark aint all that bright because late last year they were caught *again* but then Clark is rumoured to be head of an Armed Offenders Squad (SWAT team in US-ese) so we probably shouldn't expect too much.

What is with all this stuff about dragon tattoos anyway?