· WAIHOPAI SPYBASE PROTEST SATURDAY JANUARY 30th

• WAIHOPAI DOES NOT PROTECT NZ FROM THREATS TO NATIONAL SECURITY, SUCH AS VIRUSES & TERRORISTS

People from all around New Zealand will be converging on the super-secret Waihopai satellite interception spybase, in Marlborough, on Saturday January 30th.

We will be at the Waihopai spy base main gate at Waihopai Valley Road from 10.30 a.m. There will be speakers; information will be provided on the function of the base; and there will be a peaceful protest, calling for its closure.

The main guest speaker at the base gate will be Green MP, Teanau Tuinono. Following that, there will be an afternoon-long meeting in Blenheim (Nativity Church, 76 Alfred St). Speakers will be investigative journalists Nicky Hager (What Is Five Eyes Today? An Update) & Ollie Neas (Rocket Lab).

Now that the Donald Trump three-ring circus has finally left town, it is a good time to reassess New Zealand’s intelligence and military relationship with the US. Only the emperor has changed, the empire remains unchanged. All the more reason to be shot of it.

This “transformative” Goverment has continued NZ’s membership of the Five Eyes spy alliance, which is the reason for Waihopai’s existence. This despite Jacinda having said: "New Zealand has, and always has had, an independent foreign policy". The evidence shows 100% the opposite and nowhere more glaringly than at Waihopai. The fact is that NZ is the most loyal, albeit junior, satellite of the US Empire.

Anti-Bases Campaign invited Andrew Little, the Minister in charge of the NZ Government Communications Security Burea (GCSB, which operates Waihopai) to speak to us at the spy base gate on Saturday 30th and explain the Government’s position. We received no reply beyond a formal acknowledgement. Attempts to invite a speaker from the Labour Party led to us being told we had to ask the Minister to speak on this topic. So, neither Little nor the Government are prepared to front up.

New Zealanders are told that Waihopai/the GCSB/Five Eyes are vital to protect our national security. 2020/21 has seen the biggest threat to NZ’s national security since WW2, namely the virus. What have Waihopai/the GCSB/Five Eyes done to prevent or protect us from it? A big fat zero. The hundreds of millions of dollars and State resources squandered on Waihopai and the GCSB every year would be better spent on public health, on protecting New Zealanders from real threats, not imaginary ones dictated by our Big Brothers in Five Eyes.

In fact, not only is Waihopai doing nothing to protect us from coronavirus, it is itself literally part of the computer virus of electronic spying. New Zealanders need to be sanitised against it.

New Zealanders are told that Waihopai defends NZ from terrorists. No, it doesn’t. The Royal Commission report into the March 15th, 2019 Christchurch mosques’ massacre was damning in its conclusions about NZ’s intelligence agencies The GCSB electronic spy agency totally missed the worst act of terrorism on NZ soil, one committed by a foreign terrorist with an extensive electronic presence. That is because Waihopai and the GCSB define “terrorists” as per the instructions of their Five Eyes Big Brother, the US National Security Agency (NSA). They turned a blind eye to the real terrorists already here. Just as US intelligence missed the threat posed by their own domestic terrorists who stormed the Capitol this month.

Which begs the question – if this spy base can’t even protect us from viruses and terrorists, what useful purpose does it serve? Certainly nothing for the NZ people. For more than 30 years Waihopai has been NZ’s most significant contribution to Washington’s global effort to manipulate world business and diplomacy. And for more than 30 years the Anti-Bases Campaign has protested at Waihopai, calling for its closure.

Waihopai does not operate in the national interest of New Zealand. In all but name it is a foreign spy base on NZ soil, paid for with hundreds of millions of our tax dollars; it spies on Kiwis and foreigners; it is NZ’s key contribution to America’s global spying & war machine. It does not protect us from threats to our national security, such as viruses and terrorists. Waihopai must be closed.

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