Sunday, December 14, 2008

Nowhere to run to baby. Nowhere to hide... pt .47

I've already posted a link to the following story via a comment in a previous post. I think it's worth linking to because it illustrates a couple of things...

- The assault on personal freedoms being made in the name of the bullshit 'War on Terror' is truly global

- If there aren't any Muslims on hand to justify the establishment of a police state framework virtually anyone else will do. And if they're not scary enough they're encouraged to be a bit scarier


Anti-terror squad spies on protest groups
By NICKY HAGER and ANTHONY HUBBARD
Sunday Star Times | Sunday, 14 December 2008


Police teams set up to identify terrorism threats and risks to national security are spying on protest and community groups, including Greenpeace, animal rights and climate change campaigners, and Iraq war protesters.

Police officers from the Special Investigation Group (SIG) have carried out surveillance and used a paid informer to gather information not just about planned protests but the personal lives and sexual relationships of group members.

The police informer, Christchurch man Rob Gilchrist, whose activities are revealed in today's Sunday Star-Times, was a key member of various community groups during the past decade.

He helped arrange protests and was close friends with leading campaigners, and advocated radical and illegal activities by the groups.

Last week he said he was embarrassed and sorry for what he did. The people he spied on were not security threats. "I know they are good people trying to make a better world."

Wellington human rights lawyer Michael Bott said the surveillance of peaceful groups was repugnant and "has shades of Big Brother and Soviet Russia". Surveillance of the personal lives of members of peaceful groups meant the basic right to privacy was being eroded. "It just appears fundamentally abusive and wrong."

Gilchrist was unmasked recently when his animal rights and Labour Party activist girlfriend Rochelle Rees was helping him fix his computer. She stumbled across signs of him passing information about protest groups to an anonymous email address.

This address has since been traced to two SIG officers based at the Christchurch central police station, Detective Peter Gilroy and Detective Sergeant John Sjoberg. Gilchrist privately referred to them as "Uncle Pete" and "Uncle John".

Melbourne newspaper The Age reported a similar case three months ago, where an undercover police officer had infiltrated community groups. He worked in Animal Liberation Victoria, taking part in a midnight raid on a battery hen farm, and helped organise anti-Iraq war demonstrations.

He worked for Australia's similarly named Security Intelligence Group, which is also officially focused on terrorism...


There is, of course, just a little bit of irony about state operatives monitoring NZ Greenpeace for terrorist tendencies when you recall that Greenpeace itself was the victim of state sponsored terrorism when French government agents blew up the Rainbow Warrior twenty years ago




Not that states, especially western democracies, ever actually sponsor terrorism and even if they did we'd know all about every single terrorist act they ever sponsored because we'd read about it in the newspapers. Definitely

.

8 comments:

Merkin said...

I lived for a long time in Poland and saw very few remnants of the old Sov Bloc.
Came back here and was astounded.
Now, my colleagues in Poland are seeing the same shit.
It's Universal.

Anonymous said...

Here is my tuppence worth.
I lived in Sudan 2 years,near Kassala.Loved it.Had fuck all.Paid at local rates.Never hassled once.Highlight of the trip was my trip to Jebel Mara.Fuckin Indiana Jones stuff!Met a Janjaweed on the way to the Mountain who led us to the path(we´d got lost me and ma gal.In retrospect we could have done in,she could have been raped(pretty thing she was)Noone would ever have found us,,but nah the Janjaweed guy was a real gentleman.We followed him on his hoss for a couple kms and we parted our ways.

Also lived in LA for 5 months.Police were wankers.Seen them harassing Mexicans at the weekend football tournament.I got harassed by some cop on a fuckin Mountain bike for crossing the road when the light was red!even managed to get a court appearance for a minor traffic appearance(didn´t go as I´d fucked off back to the UK by that time.Lucky they didn´t check my passport on the way out as my 3 month visa had expired by 2 months.I binned by "Green Card " that I´d paid 50 bucks for.I regret that.I wanted to keep it as a reminder of how easy it was to screw the US system.

I´m a bit of a wanderer.Now settled in Deutschland.
Ok here, streets are clean.People are civil.Violence and crime are at reasonable levels.CCTV cameras are few and far between.No complaints really.Porn is legal.Red light districts are great to take the mates round!

I´ve came to the conclusion freedom is in your head.These fucker politicians and plods can´t get you if you are aware of the situation and are non compliant in spirit and deed.

Anyway listen.Here is a guy from Brixton who is pretty good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-Om62Jb08Q

Anonymous said...

2 shoes thrown at President Bush during press conference in Iraq

fuckin classic.Pity they never smacked him in the face..Good reflexes from Dubya

Duck Bush you Cunt!

Anonymous said...

privately referred to them as "Uncle Pete" and "Uncle John".

Fucking Paedophiles the lot of 'em!

Why else the Pampers ads on TV?

Why?

Eh??

Anonymous said...

"2 shoes thrown at President Bush during press conference in Iraq"

I've always maintained that the Iraqi Information minister was a prophetic genius...

"The midget Bush and that Rumsfield deserve only to be beaten with shoes by freedom loving people everywhere."

"We will welcome them with bullets and shoes."

"The shock has backfired on them. They are shocked because of what they have seen. No one received them with roses. They were received with bombs, shoes and bullets. Now, the game has been exposed. Awe will backfire on them. This is the boa snake. We will extend it further and cut it the appropriate way."

Anonymous said...

this is a better incident of the shoe throwing incident.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=bf6_1229286947

size 10 says Dubya

Anonymous said...

to describe GW as a colossal knob doesn't even start to do him justice

Anonymous said...

On Sunday, Bush ducked a pair of shoes hurled at his head in the middle of a news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

The assailant, a television correspondent for Al-Baghdadia television, an Iraqi-owned station based in Cairo, Egypt, also shouted: "This is a farewell kiss, you dog. This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq."