NZ spies want greater powers
ANDREA VANCE
Last updated 12:18, August 13 2015
Grapes grow in a vineyard around the GSCB monitoring station in the Waihopai Valley near Blenheim.
STEPHEN RUSSELL/FAIRFAX MEDIA
Grapes grow in a vineyard around the GSCB monitoring station in the Waihopai Valley near Blenheim.
The release of a "hit list" by Islamic State with a Kiwi's name on it comes as New Zealand's spy agencies demand greater surveillance powers.
Emergency anti-terror laws passed last year were promoted as measures to stop foreign fighters leaving for conflicts in Syria and Iraq.
However, they also allowed the Security Intelligence Service (SIS) to monitor any terrorist suspects for 24 hours without a warrant.
Additionally the reforms permitted the spy agency to conduct video surveillance on private property in cases of suspected terrorism.
The new laws came on the back of expanded powers handed to the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) in 2013.
Caught out illegally spying on Kiwis, the foreign agency was now sanctioned to use its technology and agents to carry out surveillance on behalf of the police, SIS and Defence Force.
Terrorism suppression legislation, passed in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, designated terrorist groups and created offences around financing and allowed for the freezing of assets.
It also incorporated international obligations, establishing offences relating to recruiting, bombing and handling explosives.
It also meant planning a terrorist act, or making a "credible" threat, was illegal even if it was not carried out.
Five years later, the law was amended and now allowed for the Prime Minister to designate which groups were considered terrorists, where previously it was the role of the high court.
A review of that legislation was abandoned by the Government in 2012.
Interception warrants - for monitoring communications - could be done under a range of laws such as the SIS and GCSB Acts and the International Terrorism (Emergency Powers) Act 1987.
But security services were pushing for more, arguing current laws were outdated and did not keep pace with technology.
Canada, Australia and the UK are in the process of pushing through tough anti-terror laws which they said were needed to counter jihadis.
British Prime Minister David Cameron last month outlined a five-year plan to counter extremism, focused on how ideology was communicated - but critics fear it would curb freedom of speech.
The GCSB legislation established a review of the security services, which was currently being carried out by former deputy prime minister Sir Michael Cullen and lawyer Dame Patsy Reddy.
On Tuesday, SIS director Rebecca Kitteridge said the legislation governing her agency needed to change.
SIS and GCSB minister Chris Finlayson refused to rule out expanded surveillance powers when questioned in Parliament this week.
NZSIS spying on students and university staff, under the pretext of protecting New Zealanders from 'weapons of mass destruction' is hilarious. Don't know whether the humour's in the Wikipedia entry, or if they really did use that insane excuse. Didn't look further than the Wikipedia entry.
If it's left to John Key and his government to designate 'terrorist' targets for surveillance by these agencies, the danger is that Teflon will chose on the basis of political considerations - like preservation of power. lol
Note also: anyone who is deemed a political or like threat (as in threat to maintenance of power, cover-ups etc), is likely labelled 'terrorist'.
For example, Julian Assange (WikiLeaks) was labelled 'terrorist' by the Americans ... for exposing US war crimes!
People, this is comedy gold.
Instead of writing that propaganda show for the BBC, mocking the serious danger Assange is in, had those entertainment writers given even a cursory look at intelligence agencies, they'd have found themselves comedy gold.
Never going to happen. Just as mainstream journalism seldom challenges those in power in any meaningful way, entertainment writers apparently also dare not challenge the powerful. Like hyenas, they despicably attack the target of the powerful.
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