16 January 2015
Chief Reporter
Waihopai Spybase Protest Saturday January 24th
WAIHOPAI & THE GCSB SPY ON NEW ZEALANDERS
NSA SPIES ON EVERYONE
BACK TO WAR IN IRAQ

People from all around New Zealand will be converging on the super-secret Waihopai satellite interception spybase, in Marlborough, onSaturday January 24th.

The Anti-Bases Campaign’s activities will start in Blenheim. At 10.30 a.m. we will assemble in the vicinity of big roundabout on Main Street(which is also Highway 1). We will display our banners, placards, etc, where a large number of Saturday morning motorists and other passersby will see them. After 15 minutes we will march along Symons, High and Market Streets (through the Forum), across Main Street, proceeding to the office of local National MP, Stuart Smith, at 22 Scott Street.

At 11 a.m. we will assemble at the office of local National MP, Stuart Smith, at 22 Scott Street. There will be speakers, namely local Green MP Steffan Browning; John Minto from Mana and Murray Horton from ABC; we will picket the office, and deliver a letter to the MP (the letter is below). Special features will include our visual suggestion for John Key’s new flag; and guest appearances by Uncle Sam and “John Key”, that well known double act

We will be at the Waihopai spy base’s main gate on Waihopai Valley Road at 1.30 p.m. There will be speakers; information will be provided on the function of the base and there will be a peaceful protest, involving a range of activities, calling for its closure.

2014 was the year which brought further revelations from Edward Snowden and Glenn Greenwald that the GCSB & Waihopai have been conducting mass surveillance on New Zealanders for years (as ABC has said since the spy base was first announced in 1987). Other revelations included details of the GCSB spying on a number of other countries, both hostile and allies, on behalf of the US National Security Agency (NSA). The Government tried, unconvincingly, to fudge or minimise these damning revelations. Since being re-elected the Government has whipped up hysteria about “Kiwi jihadis” to pass even more repressive spying agency laws (the Countering Terrorist Fighters Act); and has expressed eagerness to be a part of America’s new war in Iraq. Waihopai will be NZ’s key contribution to this new war, as it has been to all American wars in the recent past.

So these are ABC’s themes this time – in addition to our longstanding assertion that Waihopai is NZ’s key contribution to America’s global spying machine. Waihopai is a US spybase in all but name, operating on NZ soil, a vital outpost of the American Empire.

Waihopai does not operate in the national interest of New Zealand. In all but name it is a foreign spy base on NZ soil, paid for with hundreds of millions of our tax dollars; it spies on New Zealanders; and involves us in America’s global spying & war machine. Waihopai must be closed.

GCSB Director Ian Fletcher has led by example and is getting out. We suggest that the rest of the GCSB staff also decide that now is right “to spend more time with their families”. It shouldn’t be too onerous for them – they should be eligible for American pensions for services rendered.

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24 January 2015

Mr Stuart Smith
MP for Kaikoura

Dear Mr Smith,

As the Waihopai spy base is within your electorate, would you please respond to the following questions:

1. Do you support the use of Waihopai to collect economic and financial information related to business and trade?

2. Do you support the use of Waihopai facilities to spy on officials of the United Nations or other international agencies?

3. Given that a former Director of the NZ Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) has said that its’ officers are trained in the XKeyscore surveillance system, do you support the use of the Waihopai spy base to collect meta-data on NZ citizens?

4. In late 2013 an NZ citizen in Yemen was executed by US drones targeted by the Five Eyes system. Do you support GCSB contributing to such extra-judicial killing?

We look forward to your response.

Yours sincerely

Murray Horton
Secretary/Organiser

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