Friday, July 12, 2013



Accountability and spying: NZ vs Luxembourg

Luxembourg's Service de Renseignement de l'Etat has been running amok, bugging politicians, amassing files on over 300,000 people (half the population), engaging in corrupt business deals, bribing officials and allegedly even masterminding bombings to boost its own budget. So, the Prime Minister has done the decent thing, and resigned.

Isn't it nice to see someone accepting responsibility for their failure to properly oversee and keep a leash on their spies?

Meanwhile, here in New Zealand, 88 people have illegally been spied upon, the GCSB has "reinterpreted" the law to allow it to do whatever it wants, and they're up to their necks in the NSA PRISM scandal. And no-one has accepted responsibility or been punished for it. So much for accountability, and so much for democratic control of our spies.