Thursday, September 27, 2012



The Neazor report

The Neazor report into the GCSB's unlawful spying on Kim Dotcom has been released. You can read it here [PDF]. The short version? The GCSB are illiterate morons who can't read their own Act (in particular, the definition of "permanent resident"). The GCSB have apologised [PDF] and are committed to stopping it from happening again by

Establish new approval processes in the support of Police and other law enforcement agencies. This type of operation is halted meanwhile.

Agree with Police and other law enforcement agencies how to confirm immigration status before operations in support of law enforcement activity are undertaken within New Zealand.


There is no suggestion in the report of who in GCSB is responsible or whether they will face criminal charges for their unlawful interceptions. There's also no mention of when GCSB realised they had acted unlawfully or when they informed the Minister. In fact, there's nothing in there about accountability at all. As for the recommendations, they are pathetically weak - it would be "useful" for agencies to advise GCSB of immigration status. Its left for the GCSB's director to take the solid action necessary.

Overall, if this is the quality of the "watchdog" we have on GCSB, I think its time we got a new one - one with actual teeth.