Police were at fault in Dotcom spy affair
Police are blamed for causing the Government Communications Security Bureau to illegally spy on Mr Dotcom and one of his co-accused before they were arrested in January.
The claim is revealed in a memorandum filed in the Auckland High Court by the Crown, and obtained by NBR ONLINE.
It shows the GCSB asked the Organised and Financial Crime Agency to confirm whether Mr Dotcom and Bram Van der Kolk were foreign nationals.
OFCANZ "gave that assurance".
However, the GCSB can only "intercept the communications of foreign organisations or persons".
"It is accepted that the advice as to immigration status in relation to K Dotcom and B Van der Kolk and their respective families was incorrect," the memo from Crown lawyer John Pike says.
"The information transferred to OFCANZ related solely to the intended movements of the persons subject to the arrest phase of the OFCANZ operation."
Prime Minister John Key has ordered an investigation by the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, Paul Neazor, into the breach.
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Comments and questions21
So funny one can be a " foreign national" and a "resident" at the same time, seems like the question was asked that way on purpose knowing they were residents but also foreign nationals.
One better, they are citizens.
Shame, that Blake Edwards has passed away. Had he been around, he could have reprised the character of Inspector Jacques Clouseau in The Pink Panther movies. There's so much inspiration to be had, for fresh comedic material with our bumbling cops.
The police chief makes Peter Sellers in the Pink Panther look like the straight guy, how could they have got it so wrong.This shower have really bought the police into disrepute.Dotcom is making the police,the government and especially Key look like fools.Even the P.M did not know what was going on,because his deputy,thought it was on a "need to know" basis?Hallo!
Track record of incompetence - blackshirted commandos deployed to protect us against Tama Iti's loaded buttocks, helicopter assault on the fearsome Dotcom house, illegal surveillance by the the peak government security agency with the Minister disclaiming responsibility.... what next? I can't wait.
#5 Wait on! you've forgotten more police cock ups listed below:-
Crewe murders
Arthur Easton murder
Hoglin-Paakkonen case
Bain family murders
Janine Law murder
Susan Burdett murder
Agnes Ali'iva'a case
David Dougherty case
Christchurch Civic case
Akatere- Vini - Fuataha (detective Trevor Franklin) case
Navtej Singh shooting
Halatau Naitoko shooting
So are we meant to believe John Key, that all the mistakes in the Dotcom case are just one offs and the public need to be reading up the above cases before making up their mind...
He's not a citizen so he's a foreign national.
They are both NZ residents which excludes them from being able to be monitored by the GCSB.
You have a great future ahead of you in the NZ Police.
...and your point is ?
Dotcom showing up in parliament to eyeball Key (and Banks who disappeared) is what all tax-payers should do when the pit-bulls off the State have been let off the leash unlawfully.
Somebody has got hold these guys to account, if it is Dotcom, who cares where he comes from. He's in the right, they are acting like a bunch of greedy, insecure bullies.
Dotcom for P.M.?I'd vote for him,he's got guts,backbone,tells it like it is,plus we'd get free downloads.The man's a diamond.Party could be Act-Dotcom,the should be a leadership position, vacant there soon.
But he is a citizen.
Are you like the spooks - didn't see his fireworks show!?
GCSB knew exactly what they are doing they are intelligent professionals, a fact like nationality would not escape them.
[NZ Police] and GCSB spies... intelligent professionals??? Now there is an oxymoron... what a hoot!
GCSB are so true professionals,so secret,they label their car parks in Wellington,near the Town Hall"Secret Service Car Park" .park here get towed away.??Why don't they just have marked cars,luminous vests with "Spy" written on it.
At the risk of sounding like I'm a member of The Flat Earth Society or a conspiracist, I genuinely believe the Police are very much in Kim Dotcom's camp.
The manner and the extravagant scale in which their operation was planned and carried out, the legal gaffes and the ongoing exposés as to ineptness -- all point to their wanting to create a folk hero out of Kim. And have the country rally behind him to, covertly, thwart the F.B.Is' efforts to have him extradited. To that end, the Police have been singularly successful. Well done, boys!
That's a very long bow to draw,police seem to be proven idiots while trying to shine the shoes of the FBI.The cops did not even do the basics,background checks,they were so in awe of the FBI(why?)I just think like past events the police have been involved in on this scale they cocked it up.Now Dotcom,resident,citizen,foreign national (to be decided) is going to give them a humiliating,good slapping and get a big payout,as well.Oh dear,how sad,never,mind,the taxpayer coughs up again.
With all the school boy errors do you think it might of been planed ??? It looks like we're co-operating with the FBI and US with the action man raids etc so all good there, pat on the backs from them, then oops we've made a few mistakes that now make the case potentially wobbly and fall over, and in doing so saving the local resident from extradition. The only issue is the fallout of the lost business of Mr Kim Dot Com ??? or do you think the NZ Gov aren't that clever ....
No fallout for Dotcom, he can rightfully sue for damages in the millions, or hundreds of millions.
How could the Police - an investigative agency - not realise he was a permanent resident? Did he have to change his name to Kim Dotco.nz?