New Zealand 'should not have' given aid to Clinton-linked project

11 Jan, 2017 11:10am

New Zealand should not have given aid money to an agriculture initiative in Africa because of an association with Hillary Clinton, the Taxpayers' Union says.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Mfat), through the NZ Aid Programme, has given $7.7 million to a project run by the Clinton Health Access Initiative, and designed to strengthen agricultural production in Rwanda and Ethiopia and reduce childhood malnutrition.

Annual support of $2.5m and $3m is budgeted if results are favourable - and the programme is going well so far, Mfat says.

The Clinton Health Access Initiative has been a separate organisation from the Clinton Foundation since 2010.

However, Jordan Williams, executive director of the Taxpayers' Union, said recent controversy over the Clinton Foundation meant the aid money was not a good look and "risks even more damage to New Zealand's ability to wield any influence in the US".

"This money comes from the NZ Aid budget [and] should be going to programmes which are the most effective at helping the world's poor - not sidetracked into political objectives."

Former president Bill Clinton established the Clinton Foundation in 2001 and it was at the centre of controversy during the recent US presidential campaign over a potential conflict of interest between it and the state department, where Hillary Clinton was secretary from 2009 to 2013.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11780357

Clinton Global Initiative Closing Its Doors And Australian Government Shuts Down Taxpayer Gifts to Clinton Group

With news that the Clinton Foundation is laying off 22 staffers due to the discontinuation of the Clinton Global Initiative, and the Australian Government cutting all financial ties with the sister organisation – the Clinton Global Health Initiative – it’s time the New Zealand Government followed suit and cut taxpayer funding of the controversial Initiative says the Taxpayers’ Union

'Corruption is real in New Zealand, it's happening'

12:14 pm on 21 June 2017

Undeclared conflicts of interest, followed by gifts and trips, doing favours and giving excessive commissions are the most common types of corruption in New Zealand, according to the survey.

New Zealand is not as honest and free of corruption as it likes to believe, according to a new report.

This country along with Denmark were ranked equal first by Transparency International last year as the least corrupt places in which to do business.

But accounting firm Deloitte's latest bribery and corruption survey has found that about 20 percent of New Zealand companies surveyed had detected some form of corruption - about the same level as the previous survey two years ago.

"The perceptions differ from the reality. Corruption is real in New Zealand, it's happening and that's evidenced by the cases coming before the courts," said Deloitte forensic director Lorinda Kelly.

In February, Stephen Borlase and Murray Noone were each jailed for five years, and a third man was given 10 months' home detention, in a bribery case involving the awarding of contracts at Auckland Transport.

Ms Kelly said two thirds of companies feared their reputation would be shredded by corruption, but surprisingly many had done no risk assessment about their vulnerability, and more than half had no plan to take steps to bring in anti-corruption measures in the next five years.

https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/business/333491/corruption-is-real-in-new-zealand-it-s-happening

Inside the top secret CIA files on New Zealand - who they spied on and what they said

19 Jan, 2017 10:36am

Lange's penchant for quips, nuclear policy fallout and Muldoon's finance flaws laid out in history of US spying.

An extraordinary database of CIA documents has been made available, revealing the United States' intelligence agency's history of spying on New Zealand.

The database was put online this week and reveals internal Central Intelligence Agency reports which detail the inner workings of New Zealand political parties, briefings on our Prime Ministers and the times we have upset the most powerful nation in the world.

It is a trove of both treasure and trivia, including:

• The CIA's belief former Prime Minister David Lange accidentally backed himself into a corner on the nuclear-free issue, and US concerns the policy could spread throughout the Pacific.

• That Lange told US officials he believed nuclear propulsion was safe.

• The revelation that New Zealand's nuclear free stance - for which we were punished for decades - didn't make any difference to the US from a military perspective.

• A detailed biography of former Prime Minister Sir Robert Muldoon and detailed accounting of his pro-US sympathies, including that Muldoon saw himself as a world leader in financial leadership despite "limited achievements" at home.

• The suggestion former US President Ronald Reagan tell Muldoon he was his favoured candidate to win an election during a White House visit.

• A McCarthy-era report into communism in New Zealand - a concern which was present throughout the documents into the late 1980s.

The database has been put online by the CIA after campaigning and legal action by a group called Muckrock, which was set up to help people file Freedom of Information Act requests.

Among the 13 million pages of records are almost 4000 CIA documents which reference New Zealand, dating from as early as a 1948 report on US claims to islands in the Pacific.

The most recent report discovered by the Herald is from 1988, when the CIA wrote of its perceived increase in "racial tension" as a result of Waitangi Tribunal findings.

The bulk of the CIA's previously top-secret reports come from the 1970s and 1980s with a strong focus on New Zealand's move towards becoming nuclear-free.

The pro-US leanings of Muldoon, Prime Minister from 1975, were detailed by the CIA but it was made clear to Washington he was no patsy.

In a 1978 report, Muldoon was described as "second to none in his high regard for the US" who believed "more than his predecessors" that NZ needed the US for security.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11784610

https://www.youtube.com/user/MRNEWSguerillamedia

Vinny Has Been Pushing back For years so thought he deserved a Post in here

"From The Vinny Eastwood Show!

The first and only New Zealander in history to be offered a talk radio show on an American Network.

For nearly 10 years I’ve worked hard to help peoples voices be heard,

Created the largest free online archive of protests, public meetings and long form interviews with activists in New Zealand history.

Revealing the hidden and uncomfortable truths of our time that no corporate media will air.

On this show you will hear directly from the activists, journalists and fringe researchers about every topic & belief structure imaginable, no tabboo topics, no fear of doom, and only one rule, have fun!

After all,

Just because we’re being exterminated,

Doesn’t mean we can’t make it fun! "

>>4684954

It also exposes the disconnect between local telecommunications providers and the Five Eyes signals intelligence network, as well as that between career intelligence professionals and the politicians who oversee them.

The GCSB decision was expected once telecommunications firms informed the GCSB months ago that they wanted to utilise Huawei equipment as part of the 5G network upgrade.

Under the Telecommunications Interception, Communications and Security Act 2013 (TICSA) telecommunications firms must request authorisation from the GCSB for upgrades to their networks regardless of provider.

The GCSB vetting process took a delicate turn in light of a US request that its Five Eyes partners refuse to allow Huawei participation in their 5G upgrades, citing the high likelihood that Huawei equipment could be used for Chinese intelligence purposes.

That is particularly true for equipment embedded in the "core" of a 5G network, as opposed to the periphery where Huawei used to operate, because it is now possible under the 5G plan for New Zealand for some previously "core" features to migrate to peripheral parts of the network for the purposes of speeding up data flows.

https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/on-the-inside/377066/huawei-vs-five-eyes-nz-diplomatic-ties-at-centre-of-dilemma

>>4685990

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11411759

Leaked Snowden files show most of GCSB's targets are not security threats to New Zealand, as Government suggests

New Zealand's electronic surveillance agency, the GCSB, has dramatically expanded its spying operations during the years of John Key's National Government and is automatically funnelling vast amounts of intelligence to the US National Security Agency, top-secret documents reveal.

Since 2009, the Government Communications Security Bureau intelligence base at Waihopai has moved to "full-take collection", indiscriminately intercepting Asia-Pacific communications and providing them en masse to the NSA through the controversial NSA intelligence system XKeyscore, which is used to monitor emails and internet browsing habits.

Kaimanawa wall - New Zealand

Near Lake Taupo in New Zealand is an enigmatic wall called the Kaimanawa wall . It faces north and consists of smooth, megalithic stone blocks with symmetrical corners. The blocks form perfectly together and are completely flat at the end. They also go upwards and backwards in blocks and levels. Many hypotheses flourish concerning the origins of its stone blocks, in particular, whether the structure is man-made or a unique natural formation.

The controversial wall became a topic for debate in the early 1990s with Barry Brailsford’s publication of an article in the New Zealand Listener called “Megalith Mystery: Are giant stones in the Kaimanawa Forest Park evidence of an ancient New Zealand culture?". According to the article, the stone wall is at least 2000 years old and was created by the first settlers of New Zealand, the Waitaha, who were subsequently nearly exterminated by the Maoris, who arrived only 800 years ago. (Or perhaps by people who were here before the Waitaha). Furthermore, Brailsford maintains that the wall could link New Zealand with Egypt, South America, and other ancient civilisations. He lists twelve pieces of evidence for its construction, for example, the fact that the visible stones in the front are a uniform 1.9 metres wide by 1.6 metres tall, and one metre wide (deep).

However, politically, the view that civilizations existed in New Zealand before the Maori culture is not very popular with the local Maori people,

the Department of Conservation archaeologists and geologists and to just about every political party in New Zealand,

and the media attention following the publication of the article led to a complete ban on the area.

https://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-oceania/kaimanawa-wall-new-zealand-00153

Good Work NZ Anons