Comments on: ASIO gets its new powers — and no one will tell us why

By: Venise Alstergren

Venise Alstergren — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 04:56:29 +0000

KGB: There was a stage when you could hear them listening in to phone calls.

By: The Herculean Way

The Herculean Way — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 16:08:08 +0000

***I am warning you - they intend to bring into this peaceful country those radiation machines that the TSA is burning the US people with. It must be stopped before it gets to that stage.***

There is adequate scope for a legal challenge on this one and I know of several groups who are not going to lie down and let it happen. There is going to be SERIOUS issues if they think it’s a done deal.

By: kgb

kgb — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 10:28:15 +0000

When I was in the army, there use to be a program that scanned all of our email’s we sent home. My mates name was Sam, every email he sent home was blocked. Due to a key word, S.A.M. which stands for Surface to Air Missile, everything he tried to send was blocked.The program did evolve but I’m tipping ASIO would be using something similar to scan everything we send. I like the suggestion near the top of the discussion, try and add some key words “Wikileaks”, “Dirty Bomb”etc into your email just to stuff ASIO around.

By: botswana bob

botswana bob — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 09:13:50 +0000

When you see such disgraceful antics one can well understand why the word “Laboril” was coined to describe the two big parties. In league with each other to allow the secret police to spy on Julian Assange and his associates. They are the same mob who stalled action to protect whistleblowers, and try to bury the latest attack on civil liberties in bureaucratic gobbledygook.
The usual suspects were involved: dear old George whose memorable antics a few years back in the Truth Overboard inquiry showed his true colors and the lumbering David Feeney, a member in good standing of the ALPs Politican Assassination Bureau.

By: j-boy57

j-boy57 — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 08:49:41 +0000

bread is colliding with circuses…….. its never pretty

By: Venise Alstergren

Venise Alstergren — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 08:37:10 +0000

Any country that has an ASIO and has been ruled by the knuckle-dragging and reactionary mind-set of the conservative party-laughingly self-referred to as the Liberal Party for the majority of the time since Federation; cannot-simply cannot- claim to be a free democratic country.

We are a constitutional monarchy which is as about as far from freedom and democracy as Senator Feeny’s ‘multipolar international environment’. Certainly a lot further than logic is removed from ‘mindless negativity’.

By: David Howe

David Howe — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 08:24:58 +0000

Feeney forgot to use “asymmetrical threats” .

Clearly what we have here is that there are known “knowns.” There are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say there are things that we now know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we do not know we don’t know.

And then there are things that Wikileaks tells us about the things governments around the planet would rather they didn’t.

The massive new ASIO building here in Canberra isn’t just about employing the builders, nor is the growth in employment for internet savvy analysts a coincidence. Draw your own conclusions.

By: AR

AR — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 08:15:44 +0000

Any organisation, even the most benign like the local playgroup or health food co-op, that grows beyond a certain level begins to devote more & more of its resources to maintaining its structures to the neglect/shirking of the original purpose.
When that organisation is covert, staffed by meretricious mediocrities (who would otherwise be hard pressed to be dog turd collectors, unlike the Good Soldier Schweik) of a predetermined mindset then it becomes as perfect an example as could be imagined of Acton’s dictum, “power tends to corrupt and absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely”. And there is nothing more powerful than a secret,unaccountable organisation with a blank cheque, drawn on our civil liberties account.

By: netvegetable

netvegetable — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 08:08:22 +0000

ASIO is, and always has been, a complete embarrassment. I don’t know why they just keep giving it more and more power.

By: Peter Ormonde

Peter Ormonde — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 07:51:33 +0000

Excellentpiece Bernard.

These things - this atmosphere - is the real cost of the “war on terrorism”.

By: klewso

klewso — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 07:51:04 +0000

The trouble is, with “Topsy” behemoth’s like this, they too often start out acting on behalf of the government (under the ill-conceived cloak and dagger auspices of some issue like a “war on terror”), then as they accumulate more power and resources, they take on an autonomous, self-serving, self-justified, “answerable to no one” life of their own.

By: The_roth

The_roth — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 07:07:31 +0000

I don’t recall ANY party thumping this as part of their policy in the last election, where on earth do they get off doing stuff like this.

My faith, whatever is left, in this system is gradually being eroded by these control freaks!

By: klewso

klewso — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 06:36:52 +0000

I don’t know why we keep them on - we could outsource, to Limited News?
Look at their c.v. :- “News of the World”, what they couldn’t find out with their “networking and experience” wouldn’t be worth knowing - and they’d probably know enough about the actual elected representatives that form those “parliaments”?
If they could just tear themselves away from that other contract - “Public Image and Re-election Management Ltd - lobbyists to the voting public” - and that gig they’ve got going with conservative parties around the world?

By: Malcolm Street

Malcolm Street — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 05:14:16 +0000

Suzanne - “We need a strong ASIO, as long as they dont abuse powers”
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

ROFLMAO!!!

By: GeorgeCrisp

GeorgeCrisp — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 05:06:14 +0000

You have to have a very good reason to take away civil liberties or impinge on freedoms. So the major parties think is so important that it justifies doing just that while refusing to tell us why or exactly what that reason is.

In a free democratic country this would be front page news.

By: michael crook

michael crook — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 05:00:10 +0000

This is quite concerning.

By: shepherdmarilyn

shepherdmarilyn — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 04:45:26 +0000

They also passed the illegal and unconstitutional retrospective bash the reffos in illegal prison bill.

By: Modus Ponens

Modus Ponens — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 04:39:46 +0000

It doesn’t take much to have more of a grasp on an issue than Senator Feeney. He is a numbers man - straight up straight down.

By: Richard Wilson

Richard Wilson — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 04:37:48 +0000

Under cover of darkness more civil liberties are whisked away. Bipartisan support for spying on the law abiding public should tell you who the enemy really is. I am warning you - they intend to bring into thispeaceful country those radiation machines that the TSA is burning the US people with. It must be stopped before it gets to that stage.

I have been saying all along that the powers that be don’t want what is about to be released by Wikileaks released - neither side wants us to know how much we are really under the thumb of our great and powerful friends. We may get upset. . Feeble objections from the Greens - dont be fooled - when you think of the stink they can make when they want to. I wouldnt be reading too much into their position. This is in my view the most totalitarian of all the parties. They want enforced compliance to all of their ideas - whether sensible or crazy.
And first class travel and a full time driver makes even the most rebellious strangely compliant.

Remember these people think they are put there to control the public not to support their aspirations.

By: Joe Lemmings Brother

Joe Lemmings Brother — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 04:24:17 +0000

Suzanne, please go back to your playpen and stop pestering the adults with your trite commentary.

Every, that is EVERY, authoritarian organization abuses their powers eventually. Secretive ones abuse it worst of all.

By: JamesH

JamesH — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 04:23:12 +0000

I look forward to First Dog’s depiction of Julian Assange as an illegal fish.

By: SusieQ

SusieQ — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 04:14:30 +0000

Well, Clytie and GeorgeCrisp - all you have to do is mention ‘terrorism’, ‘border control’ and ‘illegal immigrants’ and you can pretty much do want you want these days. Trouble is, both major parties are as bad as each other, with Labour now trying to outdo the Libs on all this stuff - our rights and civil liberties mean little it seems.

By: SusieQ

SusieQ — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 04:14:21 +0000

By: Clytie

Clytie — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 04:08:11 +0000

We may know the reason for this expansion of powers, when ASIO picks on someone important enough to have good lawyers.

Or will we just get the non-excuse “In the interests of national security”?

By: GeorgeCrisp

GeorgeCrisp — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 03:57:47 +0000

So the Greens are the party that defends us from freedom- challenging state powers. Interesting to hear how the Libs can justify that.