More on the Terror raids

I'm still kicking on about the NZ 'terror raids' simply because stories of the police overstepping their legal boundaries are still now coming out. Illegal car searches, where cars were systematically searched without consent (where actual searches cannot take place unless a crime of at least seven years imprisonment is suspected) on at least 100 vehicles in one day.
The most recent account being the forced entry by police of a battered women’s refuge, police claim that cannabis was being smoked at the address which was also the workplace of an active anti terror raids protestor and organiser.

It all seems very '1980s' a time when the police had an "us or them" mentality even then claims of 'native terrorists' were banded around fairly liberally. The police have made vast mistakes in the past weeks, the sad thing being that they are not even new mistakes ... how unoriginal!!!

New Zealand Terror Raids

I had thought that NZ would be the first western democracy where so called ‘anti terror laws’ would not be abused by the civil authorities, I was wrong. Claims of back blocks terror training (not far from where I was raised) and Guerrilla camps seem rather premature, no doubt a result of hysteria. Environmentalists, political activists and pacifist groups were also caught up in the raids which at best made the police look like they were fishing at worst they were settling old debts.

The poor execution of the raids really led me to question the professional training of the police, you only get one chance to do the job right and they’ve lost both credibility and trust of a community they would have relied on for future intel, boarding school buses and rattling off broken Maori to pre-schoolers seems more like the antics of keystone cops.

My concern is were will the situation evolve from here

à cœur vaillant rien d’impossible

If you see a New Zealander today feel free to give them a hug, they'll understand what its for. We just got bundled out of the Rugby World Cup by France less than 20 minutes ago and I'll have to admit as a confirmed sometimes fan I'm somewhat shocked. I'm actually on the way out the door to run away my blues ... 20km should do it (10km if I don't burst into tears), then I'm gonna eat ice cream all day as a protest.

W.H Auden put it best ...

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

Seems like everything gets outsourced these days even violence. I guess this will be remembered as a golden era for PMCs especially in Iraq. Unrestrained bloodletting,
an Army too busy with the big picture stuff and a client who has very deep pockets.
It didn't surprise me that Eric Prince finally got hauled before a Congressional committee for a "please explain" and "you've been such a naughty little billionaire military contractor haven't you" dressing down. After all Blackwater was involved in at least 200 reported 'escalation of force' incidents since the start of 2005 leaving many civilians dead or injured and yet nobody was held accountable.

A broader view of the Blackwater drama can be found at The Spy Who Billed Me (A blog frequented by members of the intelligence community, Blackwater staffers and honchos as well as myself of course)

My brain is still frazzled

I'll catch up with everyones blogs in about a week, keep safe out there.

Its higher than it looks, no really

Still burning up my spare time training, even to the point that I'm sleeping in
my running shorts and socks ready to roll out the next morning. Catch up with everyone soon.

Officially brain dead

I'm not going to be highly active in the blogsphere over the next month or so, I've got a fitness test comming up that i want to ace. Although i will try to post as often as I can, most of my spare time so far has been spent either doing press ups, pull ups or running and its only going to get harder from here on in.