Bugged Ministers
November 30th, 2004 at 3:23 pm by David FarrarThe Dominion Post has an amusing story on how the alleged bug in Tariana Turia’s former Ministerial House, may have been there for some years or decades, and whether other Ministers were bugged in that house.
Prebble talks about how he used to used to use a phonebox to avoid the insecure former analogue lines. He suggests Matt Robson who was also in the House is most likely to have been bugged as a member of the Communist Party. Robson confirms he was or is a member (as was Marian Hobbs) of the Communist Party and denies talking to Osama bin Laden.
Finally former occupant Murray McCully claims his life of “blameless excellence” would have ruled him out as a target. Heh.
No tag for this post.
November 30th, 2004 at 3:56 pm
I haven’t laughed as hard in a long time as when I saw that McCully quote – fantastic!
Vote:November 30th, 2004 at 3:58 pm
The is nothing sacrosanct about Ministers. Indeed they have a better opportunity than most to undermine the security of NZ. One trusts no such Minister has ever existed but if there are doubts about someone justifying an interception warrant then it is the duty of the Prime Minister to authorise it. OF course that bug is more likely to be someone outside Government bugging a Minister’s house. I hope the authorities in counter intell keep a close eye on that.
Vote:November 30th, 2004 at 4:15 pm
These days the police and spy agencies use the Telecom’s voice mail to intercept phone calls on a designated number ( land line or cell phone).
Vote:Amusing situation in Germany in 2002 had the crims being billed in error,for the voice mail that they didnt know about.
The other method is to use a phone in an office or house to pick up conversations in the room, often they need to fiddle with the phone itself to do this, and the conversations are then piped back down the phone line to secret voice mail boxes. And yes the ability to open your phone line without a ring has been around for a while. All phone lines are checked everynight without you hearing a ring
November 30th, 2004 at 4:30 pm
You missed the funniest thing of all DF! The article refered to McCully as Former National MP!
Vote:November 30th, 2004 at 10:44 pm
For those who haven’t seen it lately (or ever) I would recommend a viewing of Yes Minister – Season 2 Episode 3: ‘The Death List’*.
Apart from being bollock-bustingly witty and erudite, it has the added advantage of having many eerie similarities to the recent SIS imbroglio…
[*available on DVD from all good bookstores and home video retailers]
Vote: