View from a darkened room (iii)

I spy...

Spook balls

My first thought about the whole NSA/GCSB internet spying business it was that I would have been more surprised if they weren't spying on people. That the GCSB in both the Urewa 8 and Dotcom cases had either eavesdropped on its own citizens or received copies of material collected by another country made perfect sense. After all, what's the point in having all this luvverly technology if you don't use it. However, there's a difference in the two cases; New Zealand had no interest in the Dotcom affair apart from its role as an ally of the USA and conversely, no one without access to the fevered imagination of New Zealand's secret cops, or who weren't lawyers, could have had any purpose in paying the remotest attention to a small group of people with zero influence who were no threat to anything.

View from a darkened room (ii)

Exercises in futility

 



Alam Halfa exercise soldier

 

One of the more interesting pieces of news I came across this week was about Alam Halfa, a military exercise in the North Island, involving 1000 troops from NZ, Canada, Britain and the USA.
The exercise lasted for over a month and has been heavily publicised by the NZDF, including a video released on youtube, Ready for any terrain. The local news reports have emphasised the important help the army have received from people living in the areas where  it's taken place. As the report in the Manawatu Standard explained the main part was the '...counter-insurgency field exercise throughout Tararua and Wairarapa, which began on Monday.  
The week-long exercise sees soldiers integrated into the local community where they will work with civilian volunteers to remove insurgent forces from "Alpira", the name given to Tararua and Wairarapa.''

Whilst military exercises take place regularly, it is interesting that the key component of this one was counter insurgency, especially as the US military and Marine Forces were also involved. According to Colonel Parsons, the key focus in the training was how to separate insurgents from the communities in which they are '...interwined and co-ercing the population'.

View from a darkened room (i)

Dangerously deluded

 Old habits die hard. A couple of days ago I saw a link to a political event in Britain called 'Dangerous ideas for dangerous times'. My immediate reaction is that calling something 'dangerous' almost certainly means it isn't. I was right. 

John Rees

Lenin

 

Sponsored by a variety of organisations such as trade unions, the publisher Verso and the SWP spin-off Counterfire, the 2 day festival this weekend trots out the usual speakers including long time old frauds such as Tony Benn and Tariq Ali.

Counterfire is the bastard love child of John Rees and Lindsey German, the Ron and Nancy of the left. Apparently a growing organisation, it is populated by students, academics and cafe owners. Countrrfire has continued the SWP's tradition of popular fronts as in Respect Stop the War and countless others. Their other current product s the People's Assembly.

Culling the Lama

Culling the Lama



 

Lama



Author



 

I’ve never had any time for the Dalai Lama and not just because of his terrible dress sense. The only religious leader acceptable to the liberal middles is a former slave owner and onetime spiritual figurehead of a brutal, feudal regime, who in the past has received millions of US Dollars from the peace loving CIA. That the Lama is more a brand than anything else was shown by him receiving the Nobel peace prize for nothing in particular; a bit like that given to Barak Obama.