Look at this Edward Snowden! Thousands marching in Auckland, NZ against insane spy laws.Thank you!!!
Last edited Sat Jul 27, 2013, 02:18 AM - Edit history (2)
Look at this Edward #Snowden. Thousands marching in Auckland against insane spy laws. Thank you!!!
https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/360972627541647360
[hr]
...
Protests were held in 11 towns and cities around the country today.
AUCKLAND
Traffic was at a standstill in central Auckland as protestors, many wearing masks and waving signs, spilled across the streets.
Police were diverting traffic away from the area.
Labour Party leader David Shearer said it would be an "uphill battle" to stop the passage of the GCSB bill.
"It'll be difficult to do but we'll do everything we can to oppose it.
...
"This sort of mass surveillance changes the balance of power in our society away from the people and towards the state.''
Mr Beagle said it was wrong to suggest people who had done no wrong had nothing to fear from surveillance.
"I believe in the right to privacy, I believe in the right to sit in my house and call my friends on the phone without the Government listening.
"I believe in freedom of expression and freedom of association, for people not being scared into silence because they are being watched by Government spies.''
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10904220
[hr]
= new reply since forum marked as read
“Because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn't there? Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission.
How did this happen? Who's to blame? Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again truth be told, if you're looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror.
I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn't be? War, terror, disease. There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. ” ~ Alan Moore, V for Vendetta
It's also possible the poster didn't mean it in a derogatory way either so I'm going to edit to be more clarifying to them and remove some of the heat of my instinctive reaction 
I appreciated it. Sometimes we open mouth wide and insert both feet. What would we do without friends and allies to let us know? This is such an important fight that I thank you, sincerely.
Something like that is on one of the posters being held by a marcher in that first photo.
Last edited Sat Jul 27, 2013, 04:34 AM - Edit history (1)
He's a New Zealand resident, and it's illegal for the GCSB to spy on New Zealanders. Because of what happened to him, an enquiry was launched that found that there'd been more incidents where the agency had unlawfully spied of NZ citizens.
http://www.gcsb.govt.nz/newsroom/reports-publications/Review%20of%20Compliance_%20final%2022%20March%202013.pdf
Do you even know what the changes are in the Bill? It's got nothing to do with Edward Snowden...
on edit: To save any confusion and anyone else coming along and replying asking me if I missed seeing the tweet from Kim Dotcom in the OP I was replying to, the answer is yes. I missed it because it wasn't there when I replied to the OP. It was edited into the post a few minutes after I posted this reply, and I didn't know the OP had edited their post until someone else in this thread pointed it out. Hope that clears it up 
Don't get me wrong here. I was and still am horrified at the invasion of privacy by the NSA and think of Edward Snowden as a whistle-blower, not a criminal. But these protests in New Zealand weren't inspired by him. The only thing in common is that they're protests about a country's intelligence agency...
Back in 2012 Kim Dotcom was arrested by the New Zealand police over copyright infringement stuff. The US tried to get NZ to extradite him to the US to face charges and Dotcom fought and won. But what had happened before that was that the NZ police requested that the GCSB monitor him, tap his phone etc. That was illegal, as the GCSB isn't legally allowed to do that to NZ citizens and residents. It led to questions about the New Zealand government's willingness to cooperate with the US, as well as there being an official inquiry into what the GCSB had done. The head of the agency claimed that Dotcom was the only person they'd done this to, but the official report which was released in April this year showed otherwise. The government's now introducing some changes to the GCSB bill, which I'm assuming is fall-out from the official report.
The main changes are:
1. that the country's foreign intelligence agency will be the subject of an independent review in 2015 and an automatic review every five to seven years after that. A five-year review echoes the situation in Australia. It also goes quite some way towards satisfying the call by Labour and the Greens for an independent inquiry into the country's security services, even if they wanted this to precede the passage of the legislation.
2. if a government wants to expand the domestic agencies which the GCSB will be able to help beyond the police, the Security Intelligence Service and the Defence Force, it will have to get the support of Parliament for another amendment bill, rather than Cabinet simply ticking it off via regulation. That negates the possibility of the likes of Customs, the Immigration Department or Inland Revenue using the GCSB's sophisticated cybersecurity equipment without a considered debate on the ramifications. This is important because the bill extends the bureau's objectives beyond national security to the sweeping "economic wellbeing of New Zealand".
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10903287
Change #1 is a good change. There does need to be regular independent reviews of the activities and processes of intelligence agencies. And I think #2 will make it far more difficult for a Kim Dotcom situation to happen again. I'm not sure if there's anything else buried in the changes, but I'm not seeing any Edward Snowden/NSA style stuff in there
New Zealand's government's spying on its citizens has absolutely NOTHING whatsoever to do with Snowden's revelations of the US government spying on its citizens. For one, unlike the US, New Zealand has yet to kill one of its teenaged citizens and then refuse to even admit it or discuss it. That we know of.
- See, what I say? Totally different.
Don't you get it!?!?!?
We are ALL in this together.
I won't be DIVIDED by you, nor anyone else who can't see because they choose blindness.
- That's how we have ended up here time and time again.
Wake. Up.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[font color=red]Edited to add:[/font]
BTW, Kim thinks Eddie's just swell:
------> [font size=5]Kim Dotcom ?@KimDotcom 2h[/font]
Look at this Edward #Snowden. Thousands marching in Auckland against insane spy laws. Thank you!!!
https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/360972627541647360
But I understand how you could miss something as obscure and yet the most salient of points..... like oh, say the ''TITLE'' of the thread. Since it appears it's got nothing to do with either Snowden or Dotcom. You seem to have ''issues'' with the US.
So do I. But as Benjamin Franklin once said of the American Revolutionists: ''We will either hang together, or we will surely hang separately.''
And what you're doing is dividing because you can't see that Dotcom -- Snowden -- et. al. -- they're all the same.
- You can either Wake. Up. Or, just go ahead and enjoy your fantasy......
Namaste.
It doesn't matter who said it. It's wrong. And anyone with any knowledge of Kim Dotcom knows he's NOTHING at all like Edward Snowden. Dotcom, being so uber-wealthy and privileged that he's well and truly part of the 1%, was part of a very different set of circumstances than Edward Snowden is. I suggest you read the post I linked to, and then go read about what happened in New Zealand. It's got nothing to do with Snowden.
Or you could just write off actual facts as being fantasy and somehow dividing. I guess that might be easier for you
on edit: I did wonder to myself just then how I could have missed that it was Mr Dotcom who tweeted that. I just looked at the OP again and realised why. The author of the OP saw my post and went and edited the OP a few minutes after I'd posted to include the tweet for the first time. The original OP that I responded to had no reference to a tweet at all.
<snip>
"Internet tycoon Kim Dotcom and several prominent New Zealanders are preparing to speak against the GCSB bill at a public meeting in Auckland tonight.
The Stop the GCSB Bill Coalition arranged the meeting in opposition to the controversial spying legislation, which would extend the powers of the Government Communications Security Bureau to allow for it to provide support for the New Zealand Police, Defence Force and the Security Intelligence Service."
<snip>
"Stop the GCSB Bill is also planning a rally and march against the bill on Saturday, starting from Aotea Square in Auckland's CBD."
http://tvnz.co.nz/politics-news/kim-dotcom-speak-anti-gcsb-bill-meeting-5518551
What does Snowden have to do w/ the GCSB bill? Has he even mentioned it?
Anyway, we've been repeatedly assured "it's not about Snowden!" 
From what I can work out, Mr Dotcom mentioned Edward Snowden, which translates into it being about Snowden, who we all must thank profusely because those New Zealanders would never get out in the streets and protest about legislation they're opposed to if it wasn't for Mr Snowden!
It took a few edits to make that clear.
Thanks Violet. 
The highlighted tweet is Kim Dotcom thanking Snowden. Are you suggesting that Dotcom should be thanking himself?
and fueled by Snowden's revelations. 
A review of the GCSB by senior public servant Rebecca Kitteridge found 88 instances where the spy agency appeared to have undertaken illegal surveillance on New Zealand citizens. Under the law changes, it would be legal for the GCSB to spy on citizens.
That prompted the bill which has mobilised the marchers today - fueled by the international revelations of extensive US spying under the PRISM network, which was leaked by Edward Snowden.
K&R
But, only "local coverage" and even here on DU the posts about activism sinks like stones after a few posts in support. Which maybe is a good thing. We know NSA is here monitoring ...as they do with Political Sites. Better they don't hear every detail of protests going on all over US. Makes their job too easy. 
