We've still to hear Kim Dotcom's revelations on the 15 September.
Tidal
wave of dirt that could swamp election
The
political fallout from the release of Nicky Hager’s Dirty Politics
book keeps on coming. David Fisher looks at key developments so far
23
August, 2014
It
often comes in like a wave, the release of a book from Nicky Hager,
breaking on the shores of public awareness awash with assertions that
are too much to take in at once.
Allegation,
denial, allegation, rebuttal, confusion over who is right or what the
book was really about anyway.
Then
the tide goes out and public awareness goes with it.
"This
book has struck a chord in New Zealand more than anything I've
written," says Hager, author of Dirty Politics. Other books have
been criticised and lauded, but they come and then they go, leaving
the public often puzzled about what happened.
Not
this time. It's 10 days since this wave crashed in and there's no
sign of it receding.
Dirty
Politics
is a tidal wave of a book, a best-seller. Based on years of
conversations hacked from the computer of the country's most
aggressive and angry blogger, it claimed to expose an ugly, hidden
side to our politics which was deeply rooted in John Key's National
Government.
The
book appeared to reveal networks which stretched from Whale Oil's
Cameron Slater to the Prime Minister's office, to the office of
Justice Minister Judith Collins, and into the pockets of public
relations supremos.
It
painted a picture of a Government determined to win at any cost,
using Slater as a weapon in the battle to dominate any opposition.
"It
seems to have struck a political chord," Hager says. "I
think that there has a been a long narrative of a friendly Government
riding high that has stood behind the friendly image of John Key."
Against that, he describes a public which has accepted decisions -
asset sales, for example - it hasn't entirely agreed with because of
the overall appeal of "Brand Key".
"There's
been a disconnect between people's experience and the high support
for this confident, laid-back, in-charge kind of guy who's running
the party."
The
media, which spends a lot of time interacting with those in power,
has recognised the powerful spin machines that have thwarted them
time and again, he says. "As soon as they saw this it rang true
with their own experiences."
What
chaos. One of National's strongest assets and Slater's friend,
Collins, has disappeared since Dirty
Politics
appeared. She has publicly endorsed his blog, and Hager has now
exposed the depths to which it will sink. Worse for Collins, it
emerged she gave Slater personal details of a public servant which he
then used to abuse online, inciting death threats.
Judith
Collins, John Key. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Herald
political columnist John Armstrong wrote an opinion piece comparing
the actions described in Dirty
Politics
to the Watergate scandal. In this modern day incarnation, Slater
entered the Labour Party computer system, bypassing an encrypted
database to find the back-up was open, once he recompiled its
disparate parts.
According
to the book, Slater was joined in this venture by the Prime
Minister's press secretary Jason Ede, who appears to have been using
a dynamic IP address in a bid to hide the identity of his computer
each time he accessed the system. The book claims that together they
netted membership lists, emails, donor names and credit card numbers,
which Slater would use to abuse and harass Labour.
But
it's not just the individual acts. And it's not even that Slater
would make jokes about dead babies on his site and crow "feral"
at Judd Hall, who "did the world a favour" when he died in
the back seat of a car driven by a drunk driver.
There
is an awful totality, which appears to have also motivated the hacker
who broke into the site after the "feral" comment in
January.
"I
heard a rumour about someone who had some stuff," says Hager,
whose books on spies have generated contacts in IT circles. "He
already had a plan in his mind to set up a Twitter account and splash
it all out there."
Hager
says he spent weeks talking the person into letting him see the
material and use it to build the narrative which became Dirty
Politics.
The hacker, says Hager, gave him everything. "I've seen
everything. I'm 100 per cent sure." The hacker then expressed a
desire to keep back some material for himself. "We kind of
negotiated how much," he says. "I said 'can I have all the
political stuff'." Hager got what he asked for and so, the book
was written.
When
it launched, the "cynicism and unpleasantness" was there
for all to see - but the hacker still had a role to play.
He
emerged on Monday - just as National's denials were becoming strident
- with a pledge to release source information publicly. In his only
public comment so far, he said: "This isn't politically
motivated. I'm not paid to do this. I'm not associated with [Internet
Party founder] Kim Dotcom in any way. I want to take down this
corrupt network and make sure it can't be put back together. My next
batch of leaks will prove this."
Since
then, Prime Minister John Key's campaign trail has turned into a game
of political Russian roulette. With anything he denies, there is the
threat of the hacker publishing proof through his WhaleDump Twitter
handle.
Now,
every answer is a land mine. Key rubbished Hager's claims his press
secretary Ede was involved in accessing private information on the
Labour Party website, WhaleDump put online information which appeared
to be proof. He backed Collins over accusations she had helped
victimise (to the point of inciting death threats) an innocent public
servant. WhaleDump showed she sent her blogging friend the person's
name, job title and phone number.
Hager:
"I'd rather it didn't look like someone was playing politics too
much." He says he wouldn't want to see content drip-fed up to
election day. "When you act anonymously like that person is,
it's only natural people will question your motives and wonder who
you are."
So,
with WhaleDump in the background, it's a confident Rodney MP Mark
Mitchell who rejects the entire 10 pages in the book that claim his
selection in 2011 was a rort driven by Slater and his co-conspirator,
Simon Lusk.
"The
information that's in there has a completely distorted picture that
is not true."
He
says he will take action after the election - "all options are
on the table" including a defamation case. "This Nicky
Hager has done a complete hatchet job on me. My conscience is clear
[on selection]. Simon and Cameron had their own thoughts on that."
Dirty
Politics
claims Lusk and Slater manipulated the selection of Mitchell in
Rodney by abusing and deriding his opponents through the Whale Oil
blog. Hager claims Mitchell would not have won otherwise. Mitchell
says: "The delegates are not influenced by anyone other than the
candidate."
Ask
Mitchell is Slater if a mate, and he hedges. It's a big question to
ask a National MP about Slater given the last week - the blogger is
the most unwelcome, least-liked person to have ever been a National
Party member, says one source. Mitchell says they've known each other
since they were kids and come from old National Party families. He
speaks of returning to New Zealand from working abroad: "One of
the things I wanted to do was stay true to my own set of personal
values and that means not having people tell me who I can and can't
talk to. I don't want to have people say who you can and can't
associate with."
One
person Mitchell chooses not to associate with is Dotcom, who he met
at a barbecue last year. He testified at the trial of John Banks how
the tycoon threatened Key and the National Government.
"I
feel New Zealand has never been put in a position where it has had to
face an ordeal like Kim Dotcom. There is a big risk of our own House
of Representatives being captured by him."
He
speaks of the break-in to his Wellington office, the later burglary
of his Rodney electorate office and the hacking.
"I
chose to treat these things as random events. Some of the information
we've seen come out recently has made me re-evaluate that."
There have been text messages published in which Dotcom talks about
targeting Whale Oil - the tycoon says it has nothing to do with
recent events but points to an upcoming defamation action against the
blogger.
At
the Whale Oil blog, moderator Travis Poulson says he's "skimmed"
through most of the book and wonders if Hager was "given
everything or just been given what would be most negative towards
National".
"I
haven't read any of his other material," he says. "Some of
it seems a bit extreme, a bit 'conspiracy theorist'. I'm not
interested in that kind of thing."
And
when it comes to extradition - a court-governed process signed off by
the Justice Minister of the day - Poulson claims it will be rorted by
Dotcom changing the government. He says this view, which has been
denied repeatedly by Dotcom, is held among those who visit the Whale
Oil blog.
Poulson,
who volunteers hours every evening monitoring the comment section on
Whale Oil, talks of seeing the blog referred to as a "cesspit".
In his view, its a functioning community of people who enjoy each
other's online company - and one which has cleaned up its act this
year.
A
great deal more effort goes into removing some of the more offensive
comments. Death threats and swearing are now banned, although a quick
glance through the comments shows racism still seems fine -
discussion on tikanga brings comments about compensation claims from
Maori for toilet paper and soap, and a reference to welfare.
One
moderator, Pete Belt, told the community last week: "Lots of
things we do here will be considered unethical by people. Ethical
isn't something we are worried about. Only legal."
It's
a community which is now under threat. People's secrets are exposed,
he says. Emails to the blog contain "personal information".
"That's
a gross invasion of privacy. There would be quite a few dozen, if not
hundreds, of people who would be quite concerned."
Computer
security is also a concern. Poulson suspects his computer has been
under attack twice since Hager's book came out. "I can't see
what attacking me would bring to any motive. Anything political Cam
would keep to himself.
"I'm
just a volunteer for the blog."
He
looks back over the week which has gone and says, "It feels like
a long time. It's going to to be a shit-storm for days and weeks to
come."
But
it should not return to how it was, says Hager. "[Slater] will
keep going. But if he's not totally discredited, then something is
seriously wrong."
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