Stop Crime End Justice should be the catchphrase enacted by the GCSB’s loyal puppy dog defenders as they seek to defend the indefensible: the extension of police state tactics.

The New Zealand Liberation Party is against the ECHELON spy network and the new SOP 85 regulations which would increase the police state powers of New Zealand’s GCSB (an organisation most New Zealanders haven’t even heard of) as well as creating a maze of bureaucracy even the great Harry Houdini would not be able to escape from.

NZ Liberation Party spokesperson and avid James Bond fan Patrick Bridgman says that “The spy business is great for the movies as seen by the recent offerings of such movies as The World Is Not Enough and Swordfish but when we’re talking about it in the real world we’re talking about voiding the privacy rights of New Zealand’s population without the transparency of even a courtroom.” These new regulations will subvert the courts the SIS, GCSB and the police will not even require a warrant. We accept that governments need to catch criminals but surely there must be a better way than to commit crimes against 100% of the population in order to catch 2% of them.

The NZ Liberation Party respects a citizens rights to privacy and the fact that this case is not about whether a citizen has anything to hide but whether government has the right to take a peek without the permission of something as basic as our court system. The Security services are trying to end justice as we know it simply due to a possibility that a massive plot to overthrow the US President will be initiated in New Zealand or that urban gang members will email one another about the details of their next crime. Both these circumstances are ridiculous and do not in any way justify these extended police powers.

We do however agree with the portion of SOP 85 that would see much needed improvements to New Zealand’s computer fraud laws (or rather lack of them) with Paul Findlay our spokesperson for Technology agreeing that computer fraud is a matter of urgent concern which must be addressed in legislation. However he maintains that this law will do more harm to the Information Technology industry than good with private knowledge economy enterprises required to bend over backwards at the whim of salivating GCSB workers eager to see what evil conspiracy plans may be afoot in such enormous spy-havens such as Huntly, Patrick Bridgman laughingly jokes “You know when you venture into Huntly and see the poverty around as well as that suspicious power station, you just know that some conspiracy against the United Nations is afoot and it’s happening right here in New Zealand.”

Stop the ridiculous arguments and save justice.

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>