If you're innocent, why should you worry?

[aimlesswanderer]

That's just wrong...

In other innocents have nothing to worry about news, New Zealand joins the authoritarian world:

New cyber-monitoring measures have been quietly introduced giving police and Security Intelligence Service officers the power to monitor all aspects of someone's online life.

The measures are the largest expansion of police and SIS surveillance capabilities for decades, and mean that all mobile calls and texts, email, internet surfing and online shopping, chatting and social networking can be monitored anywhere in New Zealand.

In preparation, technicians have been installing specialist spying devices and software inside all telephone exchanges, internet companies and even fibre-optic data networks between cities and towns, providing police and spy agencies with the capability to monitor almost all communications.

Err, so is there a massive terrorist threat to the Land of the Long White Cloud, or is there a widespread insurgency among the sheep there?

Come on, no offence to New Zealanders, by why the hell would anyone want to do anything drastic to New Zealand? It's one of the most stable, inoffensive, and peaceful countries in the world! Or are they trying to find people who don't support the All Blacks, but the Wallabies (illegal!) instead? Of all the countries in the world......

[CountArach]

Err, so is there a massive terrorist threat to the Land of the Long White Cloud, or is there a widespread insurgency among the sheep there?

Official papers obtained by the Star-Times show that, despite government claims that it was done for domestic reasons, the new New Zealand spying capabilities are part of a push by United States agencies to have standardised surveillance capabilities available for their use from governments worldwide.

While US civil liberties groups unsuccessfully fought these surveillance capabilities being used on US citizens, the FBI was lobbying other governments to adopt them. FBI Director Robert Mueller III told a senate committee in March last year that the FBI needs "global reach" to fight cyber-crime and terrorism and that co-operation with "law enforcement partners" gives it "the means to leverage the collective resources of many countries".

[aimlesswanderer]

Official papers obtained by the Star-Times show that, despite government claims that it was done for domestic reasons, the new New Zealand spying capabilities are part of a push by United States agencies to have standardised surveillance capabilities available for their use from governments worldwide.

While US civil liberties groups unsuccessfully fought these surveillance capabilities being used on US citizens, the FBI was lobbying other governments to adopt them. FBI Director Robert Mueller III told a senate committee in March last year that the FBI needs "global reach" to fight cyber-crime and terrorism and that co-operation with "law enforcement partners" gives it "the means to leverage the collective resources of many countries".

Oh dear, still, one hardly thinks there will be much useful info coming out of NZ, it is likely only so they have an example to other governments... Was there no great outcry in NZ? I didn't hear about it, so it can't have been massive. NZ of all places, how, odd.

[Beskar]

It is the American NWO Global Agenda Conspiracy and American Imperialism gone wild!

[Banquo's Ghost]

Here's an excellent article on the realities of the terrorist threat.

A terrorist set fire to his own trousers, suffering eyewateringly painful burns to what Australian cricket commentators sometimes refer to as the "groinal area", and nobody seems to be laughing. What's wrong with us?

As I've written before, the comprehensive attack on civil liberties is the best thing to happen to big government for years - modern-day terrorists need to do little more than watch our insane politicians accomplish everything they desire. Happily for al-Qa'eda, they also have over-enthusiastic eejits like the Slovak security services to really endanger lives.

[Vladimir]

But the truth of the matter is that there is no such enemy out there. Funds are occasionally available, true; the 9/11 plotters were quite well-backed, and even if a terrorist group has no access to oil or gas revenues there may be the option of dealing in heroin as the Taliban do. (Note that all of these sources of money ultimately come from us.)

But but, that isn't possible. The Taliban banned the production of opium. They would never condone such activity.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I love it when someone brings that up.

[HoreTore]

But but, that isn't possible. The Taliban banned the production of opium. They would never condone such activity.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I love it when someone brings that up.

The Taliban the state did. Taliban the resistance movement don't. Neither does anyone else in afghanistan right now for that matter....