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“Te Urewera Egg-On-Face Day” creeps steadily nearer

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Author Topic: “Te Urewera Egg-On-Face Day” creeps steadily nearer  (Read 2378 times)
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Crusader
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« Reply #25 on: September 09, 2011, 07:49:51 am »


One of my workmates was on the west coast of the USA recently.

He and his family caught the train from Seattle, Washington across the border to Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada.

The train went straight across the border at speed without stopping and when my workmate enquired of the conductor about entry formalities into Canada, he was told to simply present himself and his family at the Customs office at Vancouver Railway Station after they arrived. They could have easily simply walked out of the station, but did the right thing and presented themselves to Customs and were formally allowed into Canada, even though they were already there.

A few days later, they travelled back to the USA by train, heading for Portland, Oregon. US Customs stopped the train at the border and held it there for two hours while they harrassed everyone on the train, with the result that the train ended up two hours late and many passengers missed their ownward connections.

My workmate couldn't get over the difference in paranoia levels between Canada and the USA, or the way the USA Border Gestapo really behaved like Nazis, unlike their Canadian counterparts who were really welcoming.

No wonder the bottom has been dropping out of the USA's tourist market!


Relevance to Urewera?
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« Reply #26 on: September 09, 2011, 07:59:32 am »


Take a look at what that was posted in reply to (what it followed in the thread).

Then you'll see WHY it was posted.

Then you can spit the dummy at the person who dragged things AWAY from the topic of Tohoe and the Urewera.

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« Reply #27 on: September 09, 2011, 09:11:44 am »

I just found out recently that it was Tuhoe who handed Kereopa of my wife's iwi to the authorities....
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Stupid people are not an endangered species so why are we protecting them
R. S. OhAllmurain
dragontamer
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« Reply #28 on: September 09, 2011, 09:26:59 am »

A pox on any lawyer who gets a guilty person freed.

TJ - Tohoe ?  I expect better.

...........There was some evidence that plans were being made to explode bombs in public places - coming to a supermarket near you!

If people can live with that and make excuses for the people who were planning it, well...... I guess they march to a different drum.

Just thought that amongst the 'noise' that this was worth repeating.


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Oh - I asked my Tuhoe lot if they needed or wanted an apology from the Police or Government over the raids.   Resounding NO from them.  The defense lawyers and defendants on the other hand.....
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« Reply #29 on: September 12, 2011, 12:23:20 am »


Ureweras case ‘destroyed relationships’

By JARED SAVAGE and EDWARD GAY - The New Zealand Herald | 3:37PM - Tuesday, September 06, 2011

Police conducting a search as part of the raids in 2007. — Photo: Alan Gibson.
Police conducting a search as part of the raids in 2007. — Photo: Alan Gibson.

ONE OF the men caught up in police raids on alleged military-style training camps in the Ureweras says the stress of a trial has cost relationships and jobs.

Omar Hamed and 12 others had been facing firearms charges, before the Crown decided not to pursue the case to trial after a Supreme Court decision.

The Supreme Court has ruled certain evidence inadmissible at the so-called "terror raid" trial which had been set to begin next February and last for three months.

The ground-breaking decision overruled previous judgments from the High Court and Court of Appeal over whether the Crown could use evidence gathered in the covert police operation before the arrests in October 2007.

The Crown has now dropped the Operation Eight prosecution against 13 of the 17 accused, according to a statement released by the Auckland Crown Solicitor, Simon Moore SC.


TE UREWERA

But four of the accused, including Tame Iti, will still stand trial on charges of participating in an organised crime group and firearms charges.

Mr Hamed said he has spent the last four years waiting for the trial to begin.

"The stress of it... the stress on your family, friends, relationships and on your work means you cannot plan."

"The police used that to try to break us down but none of that worked and we held out," Mr Hamed said.

He said others who faced charges as a result of the raids had lost their homes and jobs.

Mr Hamed said he received today's news at a protest for West Papua.

"I got the phone call from the lawyer. He said: Oh, you're walking, congratulations."

"Apparently, I owe him lunch."

Mr Hamed said he always knew that the charges would be dropped.

"It's a real victory for common sense and New Zealand sticking up for human rights."

His former co-accused, Valerie Morse described the case as a "disaster from start to finish."

"They arrested us and put us in prison while they tried to charge us with terrorism. That failed. Now after four years, millions and millions of dollars, and systematic denial of rights to accused, the case has totally failed," said Ms Morse.

She said the Supreme Court's decision was an indictment on the police.

The Supreme Court's reasons behind the judgement remain under tight suppression orders and cannot be reported.

Mr Moore said as a result of the Supreme Court decision, the Crown no longer believes there is sufficient evidence to justify the Arms Act charges against 13 of the 17 accused. One of the original 18 charged, Tuhoe Francis Lambert, died earlier this year.

He said separate trials would now be needed for those charged under the Arms Act and the four accused of the organised crime offences.

"The effect of the delay would be that those accused facing Arms Act charges alone would not be tried for a period of four and a half years from the date of their arrest," said Mr Moore.

"Further, they were remanded in custody for a period of time following their arrest, and they have been on restrictive bail conditions through much of the time since their release."

"Taking these matters into account together with findings made by the Supreme Court about the seriousness of their offending, it is the Crown decision that the continuation of proceedings would not be in the public interest."

The Supreme Court ruling does not affect the trial of Tame Iti, Emily Bailey, Te Rangikaiwhiria Kemara and Urs Signer on firearms and organised crime charges.

Mr Moore said the Crown will apply to the High Court for orders to permit publication of various judgments, currently suppressed, in the interests of open justice for matters of significant public interest.

"It is anticipated that a special hearing will be convened so that all accused other than the four charged with the organised criminal group charge can be discharged as soon as possible."

The early-morning raids in October 2007 involved more than 300 officers in property searches in Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Wellington and Christchurch using warrants alleging crimes under the Terrorism Suppression Act.

The Solicitor-General subsequently ruled out charges under the Terrorism Suppression Act — saying the law was "almost impossible to apply in a coherent manner" — but firearms charges still remain.

The case has dragged out for nearly four years and cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.


http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10749743



An earlier related news story....

Urewera raid costs tipped to be millions

By JAMIE MORTON - Weekend Herald | 5:30AM - Saturday, August 20, 2011

Armed police check vehicles at a roadblock in the Ruatoki Valley during the 2007 Operation eight raids. — Photo: Alan Gibson.
Armed police check vehicles at a roadblock in the Ruatoki Valley during
the 2007 Operation eight raids. — Photo: Alan Gibson.


THE Government has declared spending at least $750,000 on the controversial Urewera raids and their long-running sequel — with some saying the final bill could be for millions.

A Weekend Herald request under the Official Information Act asked police, the Crown Law Office and the Legal Services Agency, which provides legal aid, for a running cost covering investigations in the lead-up to the early morning "anti-terror raids" on October 15, 2007, and the court cases against the 18 people charged.

The main trial of 15 defendants — who face firearms charges, with five also facing charges of participating in an organised criminal group — is now expected to begin in February.

The timing is subject to appeals against a decision to have the case heard by a judge alone and on the admissibility of some of the evidence, which is suppressed.

Police have refused to provide a detailed break-down of costs, but have provided an "aggregate figure" of $500,462.

This covers "certain direct operational costs" but excluding staff costs and a "significant amount of expenditure" which had not specially been coded to the case.

Figures released by the Crown Law Office showing costs to June 24 revealed $244,175 had been paid for two counsel to work on the case.

The Legal Services Agency has refused to disclose its costings, saying that the case is still before the courts.

Law Society president Jonathan Temm believes the combined police, Crown and legal aid bill will be "considerably higher" than the amount declared.

"By the time this trial is finished, it is likely to be the most expensive trial in our criminal history, because if this matter goes on to a full, three-month trial ... then the costs are going to be significant," he said.

Human rights lawyer Michael Bott, who represented one of the accused before withdrawing this year to focus on standing for the Labour Party, said he would not be surprised if the cost of the case ran to millions of dollars.

"It's going to be a hugely expensive case and the Crown wants to do their best to win — you don't throw a $10,000 saddle on a $500 horse."

"The Crown would be somewhat embarrassed if they were to walk away with nothing."

Wellington film-maker Errol Wright, whose feature-length documentary Operation 8: Deep In The Forest has been screening around the country, estimates the legal-aid cost at between $40,000 to $70,000 per defendant.

He believed the amount declared would "barely cover the cost of photocopying".

"I'd think the problem is that the case is still before the court and [the Crown] would argue that they're not in a position to disclose the information."


http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10746218
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« Reply #30 on: September 12, 2011, 12:30:25 am »


The oddball revolutionaries

By CATHERINE MASTERS and GEOFF CUMMING - Weekend Herald | 5:30AM - Saturday, September 10, 2011

Tuhoe artist and alleged revolutionary, Tame Iti. — Photo: Kenny Rodgers.
Tuhoe artist and alleged revolutionary, Tame Iti. — Photo: Kenny Rodgers.

DEEP in the forest two Auckland hunters run into some scary men in camouflage gear who seem to them to be training in military-style manoeuvres. The men are not friendly so the hunters retreat and back in Auckland they go to the police.

The authorities, though, are already secretly watching and listening in the remote Ureweras, home to Tuhoe, one of the last tribes to be reached by the English and a tribe with a host of grievances against their treatment by the Crown, including the deliberate starvation of their ancestors and the confiscation of most of their forest.

Phones are being tapped, too, and hours and hours of odd, and sometimes bonkers, conversation are recorded, linking a nationwide web of disparate people, including Pakeha greenies, peace activists and Maori radicals to the goings-on in the bush.

Police are using extra powers granted to them and intelligence services after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington to spy on New Zealanders. By late 2007, they are so alarmed they decide action under the new anti-terrorist legislation is required. They believe quasi-military training camps are being run in the bush: in the post-September 11 climate, terrorists are plotting and practising among the rimu trees, wild pigs and kereru.

There was talk of assassinating the Prime Minister, and taking action against US President George W Bush, a contempt of court hearing was told in 2008.

Prime Minister Helen Clark was told camp participants had been training to use napalm and had made molotov cocktails. John Key is briefed as well. An explosion had been heard in the bush and some participants allegedly had military-style assault rifles.

Police connected the camps to Tame Iti, long-known for his headline-grabbing acts to further the case for a Tuhoe nation within New Zealand and the return of their land. Iti grew up in the Ureweras and, though he moves around, his home base is tiny Ruatoki.

At dawn on October 15, simultaneous commando raids were launched around the country and people ordered from their beds with guns to their heads. The Tuhoe stronghold of Ruatoki took the brunt of the police action. The raids that morning still echo for the people who say the whole community was treated like criminals.

Ruatoki is the kind of place where horses graze in backyards; the houses are basic and poor, and it's not without its troubles.

People flout the council laws and refuse to register their dogs, and gang stand-offs are not unknown — once the police station up the road at Taneatua was torched.

But the valley was peaceful that morning, people said in the aftermath — it was the police who brought violence. The airspace over the Bay of Plenty was closed as hundreds of armed officers, dressed top to toe in black "ninja" outfits, descended on the town (and on sleeping families in Whakatane, Hamilton, Rotorua, Wellington, Auckland and Christchurch) and set up a roadblock at the old land confiscation line.

People on their way to work were ordered out of their cars, grandmothers were photographed holding numbers in front of their chests mugshot-style and little kids were terrified. Helicopters circled and people talked of a sniper leaning out as the police searched for their targets.

Further into the valley, doors were kicked in and people were ushered outside in their nighties and pyjamas. Some were made to kneel and had guns pointed at them while their homes were turned upside down.

To the people of Ruatoki, the raids repeated wrongs of the past.

This week, police decided not to prosecute 13 of the 17 remaining accused who faced charges under the Arms Act, after a Supreme Court ruling made some of the covertly gathered evidence inadmissable. In a statement, Crown solicitor Simon Moore SC said the decision to withdraw proceedings against the 13 who faced only firearms charges took into account the length of time since their arrest, the requirement for them to be tried separately and the court's "findings about the seriousness of their offending".

Iti, Maori sovereigntist Te Rangikaiwhiria Kemara, Taranaki-based environmentalist and clarinet player Urs Signer and his partner Emily Bailey still face charges of being in an organised criminal group and firearms charges, to be heard in February. The reasons for the Supreme Court ruling remain suppressed.

In a further legal move, the Crown is poised to allow the organised crime charges to be heard before a jury. It will apply next week to have earlier court rulings, that the case be heard by judge alone, set aside.

The case continues to twist and turn and baffle. Every time charges are dropped or reduced, sympathisers claim vindication and clamour for the remaining charges to be thrown out. Not helping is the suppression of evidence such as the recorded conversations - though there have been breaches.

During a Herald visit after the raids a rag-tag group of Mongrel Mob youths cracked up when asked about camouflaged men in training camps and rumours of napalm and explosions.

"That's where they train our young fullas to use the taiaha [a traditional wooden weapon], up there," one said.

Iti was known for running courses like this, they said, and sure, he and others could look scary to outsiders who did not understand Tuhoe life. The youth then giggled "you're lucky they weren't running around with no pants on".

If there was an explosion, he reckoned it was probably someone's gas fire exploding. Everyone had guns — wild pigs are not only dangerous but a staple food. The forest was the people's freezer, the youth said: "If you can't afford to go to Pak'N Save, you go up there."

Locals explained allegations of molotov cocktails by saying the petrol station had closed down so people often stored petrol in containers.

Police originally wanted to lay charges under the new Terrorism Suppression Act, which made planning a terrorist act or making a "credible threat" illegal, even if the act was not carried out. There are thresholds for using the legislation — including that an act has to be intended to cause a particular outcome, and pose a serious risk to health or safety, destruction, environmental damage or major economic loss. There must be an intention to induce terror.

But three weeks after the raids, Solicitor General David Collins found the allegations — mostly relating to firearms — did not fall within the guidelines of terror-related crimes. He criticised the new law as "unnecessarily complex, incoherent and almost impossible to apply" to alleged instances of domestic terrorism in New Zealand.

Some legal experts warned at the time that the decision meant some of the covertly gathered evidence would be inadmissable for firearms offences under the Arms Act.

But Auckland University associate law professor Scott Optican says neither Collins' decision on the terrorism act charges nor the latest Supreme Court ruling necessarily reflect on the police thinking which led to the raids.

"In disallowing some of the evidence because of the method by which it was gathered, the Supreme Court is not expressing any opinion on the merits of the case or the sufficiency of the evidence," Optican told the Weekend Herald. He says assessment of the quality of the case must wait for the trial, beginning in February.

The 155-page affidavit used to justify the police raids also remains suppressed. Though we can't reveal the details, the transcripts of hundreds of hours of bugged conversations and covert surveillance records include material ranging from the "very disturbing", as Collins said at the time, to the comical and innocuous (much of it about food).

Here's a snippet of a discussion about an intercepted communication which featured in Operation 8, the film about the raids which has screened around the country. It's between Collins, Law Commission deputy president Warren Young and High Court judge Justice Randerson during a contempt of court case which followed publication by Fairfax newspapers of some of the suppressed material.

Young: They certainly talked about the possibility of killing people, assassinating the Prime Minister, taking action against George Bush, but those were expressed in extravagant and vague language. There was no evidence of any planning at all.

Collins: There is reference made to talk of assassinating President Bush. How was that to be achieved in the minds of those whose conversations were being intercepted?

Young: As I recall, by catapulting a bus on to George Bush's head.

Justice Randerson: By catapulting a bus on to George Bush's head.

Collins: And another instance was catapulting a cow on to his ...

Randerson: Just pause.

Much of the material is open to interpretation. Lawyer Peter Williams, hired by Tuhoe to investigate suing over the raids, noted: "People say things that are not always meant to be taken seriously."

Investigative journalist Nicky Hager wrote that some of the communications amounted to "an incoherent scattering of radical big talk".

Another obstacle for the police, in PR terms, was what the raids actually netted. As Solicitor-General Collins found, the alleged firearms offences were insufficient to use the Terrorism Suppression Act.

Then there are the accused. Tame Iti is the best-known — while police were watching him in 2006 and 2007 he was getting media attention for his paintings on display at an Auckland gallery and his friendship with arts patron Jenny Gibbs. He told the Tuhoe story on stage in Lemi Ponifasio's production Tempest and — while on bail in 2008 — was allowed to tour Europe in Tempest II. The dance-performance dwelt on "native sovereignty and unlawful detention in a post-9/11 world".

Though he has a long list of theatrical stunts — such as setting up a Tuhoe embassy in a tent outside Parliament — Iti is best-known for a firearms conviction relating to when he shot the New Zealand flag in 2005 on a Ruatoki marae. This was in the context of an emotional recreation for Waitangi Tribunal members of the Crown's historic abuses against Tuhoe, which included the "scorched earth policy" where homes and crops were burned and people starved and murdered.

Others arrested included members of a Wellington anarchist group, environmental activists, peace activists and others who were "known to police".

Unionist Matt McCarten knew some and found it incredible they were deemed terrorists, he wrote in his Herald on Sunday column. "They are a mixture of Maori sovereigntists, environmental campaigners, anarchist political activists and, admittedly, a few oddballs."

One was Jamie Lockett, a 46-year-old who boasted of being "the most trespassed man in New Zealand". He had goaded police for years and was regularly before the courts, but mostly he got off. There had been encounters at the 2006 Waitangi Day celebrations and one involving Helen Clark at an Auckland Cup race meeting.

Lockett likened what went on at the camps to "basic boy scout stuff" where people learned bush survival, orienteering skills and teamwork. He said participants were aware police were monitoring their activities.

Te Rangikaiwhiria "Whiri" Kemara — who still faces firearms and organised crime charges along with Iti, Signer and Bailey — had blogged on websites in support of Iti's shooting of the flag. He wrote that "talk is cheap" in relation to issues of sovereignty and that "sovereignties have only ever changed hands or [been] reinforced at the edge of a sword, bayonet or bombs". He was known to be handy with a computer.

Another arrested was anti-war protester Valerie Morse, convicted of offensive behaviour for burning the flag at the 2007 Anzac Day dawn service in Wellington, though the conviction was overturned earlier this year.

Then there was Rongomai Pero Bailey, a 28-year-old who had attended camps in the Ureweras and who told friends who posted bail he had never held a gun in his life. Charges against him were thrown out in 2008 for insufficient evidence.

Two others were Taranaki environmental activist couple Signer and Bailey.

Iti, Kemara, Signer and Bailey are jointly charged with participation in an organised criminal group. They also jointly face seven charges under the Arms Act of unlawful possession of firearms and two of possessing molotov cocktails.

Bailey and Signer are charged with unlawful possession of a firearm on October 15 in Wellington.

Iti is charged with unlawful possession of three firearms in Ruatoki on the same day.

Kemara faces one charge of possession of six firearms on October 15.

Come February, a jury will finally be able to weigh up the seriousness of the charges.

Strange bedfellows

Are the recorded conversations the equivalent of pub talk or a serious threat? The verdicts of media commentators have created strange bedfellows and broken old alliances: Ross Meurant, who headed the police Red Squad during the 1981 Springbok tour, said police self-assessment was vulnerable to "self hype" and self-justification.

"I suspect that other than a few illegal firearms charges, nothing more than remote charges of conspiracy will emerge."

1981 protest leader John Minto said police were "trying to get the public to ignore the million-mile gap between a bullshit conversation in a car and a credible threat to life."

But another veteran activist, Chris Trotter, found the notion of Tuhoe separatists and eco-anarchists joining forces to plan insurrection "all too plausible" and supported the actions of police commissioner Howard Broad. Trotter was pilloried for this but had support from columnist and former Act MP Deborah Coddington, who found the "hard evidence" in the police affidavit "terrifying".


http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10750645
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« Reply #31 on: September 12, 2011, 12:30:39 am »


Our only terror plot was a work of fiction

Matt McCarten on politics

HERALD on SUNDAY | 5:30AM - Sunday, September 11, 2011

Rotorua locals put their own spin on an advertising sign after the Urewera raids. — Photo: APN.
Rotorua locals put their own spin on an advertising sign
after the Urewera raids. — Photo: APN.


A DECADE AGO TODAY, 19 fanatical followers of the evil Osama bin Laden flew hijacked planes into New York's Twin Towers and the Pentagon. Only the bravery of passengers prevented a fourth plane reaching the White House.

Most of us don't give terrorism much thought now because it doesn't affect our daily lives, except having to queue to have our bags and pockets checked before we get on any plane. I presume it's to make us feel safer, but frankly it just annoys me and I'd rather we stopped this silliness.

Does anyone believe al Qaeda operatives would be thwarted by our pretend security? Would they bother? Of course there is some obligation to have this security for our international plane departures, but on our domestic routes? The only emergency we have ever had was when a mentally ill woman invaded the cockpit of a small regional plane several years ago, threatening the pilot.

However, my main concern is that under the terrorism threat, our politicians (with the exemption of the Greens) have pushed through laws strengthening state control which allow them to do basically anything the State likes to New Zealand citizens — as long as they label it terrorism.

Our only so-called terrorism case was on October 15, 2007, when 300 police swarmed over 60 homes in New Zealand, breathlessly claiming they had exposed a widespread plot by a terrorist cell planning to carry out a bombing campaign through the country.

Who could forget the cops, in silly ninja commando gear, terrifying the local inhabitants while sealing off an entire town in the Ureweras? The Tuhoe people were maligned by the media and their people were traumatised by the raids.

I said at the time the whole thing was bogus and that our spies, police and politicians — including then-Prime Minister Helen Clark — got into "group think" head space and believed their own fiction.

The 18 suspects were imprisoned for nearly a month. Some were told they had no rights and that they may never get out of prison. Despite efforts by interrogators, none of the defendants owned up to anything. That was because there wasn't anything to own up to — except they were up in the Ureweras talking politics and some of them were shooting guns off.

Within days of the raids, it became clear to the Solicitor-General and senior legal minds there was no terrorism and the main charges were dropped and defendants released. Even so, they were bailed on strict conditions of no contact with each other and were denied jury trials on the remaining charges.

Few of the arrestees were able to find work and the financial cost to them over the years has been huge.

This week the game was up and the State had to come clean. Of the remaining 15 defendants, all but for four have had their charges dropped. These four have now been granted jury trials and, even if convicted, at most they will be fined.

I suspect this decision is for face-saving purposes for the police bureaucracy.

The freed suspects will all be claiming substantial compensation for their imprisonment and legal costs for those who didn't have legal aid. The final bill to the country will reach millions of dollars.

I said in a previous column that I believed the charges would be dropped once the main players such as Clark and Police Commissioner Howard Broad left office. And so it has come about. At the time of the arrests, Broad went on television confidently stating: "I stake my reputation on this". No knighthood for you in your retirement, Mr Plod.

Broad's confidence reminds me of then-US Secretary of State Colin Powell when he claimed a similar thing about weapons of mass destruction being in Iraq. And look where that got us.

We do need to be protected from terror crime. But we must always be sceptical when nonsense is dished up by our bureaucrats when exercising their power over us.


http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10750871



Editorial: Secret justice no justice at all

HERALD on SUNDAY | 5:30AM - Sunday, September 11, 2011

Photo: APN.

THIS NEWSPAPER took a circumspect view of the "anti-terror" raids by armed police in October 2007.

We considered it proper to give police a heavily qualified benefit of the doubt and remarked that "it would be idle and indeed unwise to speculate on what cards the police hold".

But we added that "when the time comes to lay [the cards] on the table, they had better add up to a winning hand".

Now, just shy of four years after the event, the police appear to be folding and walking away from the game. The Crown has dropped charges against 13 of the 17 accused. The other four will stand trial in Feburary on charges of participating in an organised criminal group and firearms charges.

The change of heart follows a Supreme Court decision ruling inadmissible certain evidence gathered in the covert police operation before the arrests. But no New Zealander should feel happy with the outcome.

The Supreme Court's decision and reasoning are suppressed until the case against the remaining four is disposed of, though an appeal is being lodged against that suppression.

The events alleged to have preceded the 2007 arrests may have been terrorist activity, legitimate dissent or individuals playing silly buggers. (This last possibility was raised by a conversation, reported in proceedings brought against The Dominion Post for contempt of court, about a plan to lob a bus on to President George W. Bush with a large catapult). But precisely what they were will not be established unless the accused are brought before a court of law to have the charges tested before a jury. That right was enshrined in the legal system by which we operate almost 800 years ago with the signing of Magna Carta.

Now most of the original defendants will not get their day in court. Bit by bit, the police case has been pared back, along with the rights of the defendants. The already uneasy relationship between Tuhoe and the Crown has been further battered and dozens — perhaps hundreds — of people have been put through years of stress and expense.

It is reasonable that the state should remain tight-lipped about what went on in Te Urewera until after the rest of the criminal charges have been disposed of — or abandoned. But the secrecy that has shrouded this affair from the beginning does not encourage optimism we will ever be told.

Yet official openness is what is needed. The prosecution of this matter, the first serious case brought under the Terrorism Suppression Act, has been a conspicuous mess. The charges' validity under "incoherent" legislation has failed to satisfy the Solicitor General and now evidence without which the Crown felt unable to proceed has been ruled inadmissible, a finding which is at least suggestive of flaws in investigation, procedure or interpretation of the law.

It is left to the Auckland Crown Solicitor saying that the delays in the case "together with findings made by the Supreme Court about the seriousness of their offending" makes it "not in the public interest" to proceed.

His turn of phrase is instructive. If these people posed a genuine threat, no delay would be too long in bringing them to justice. But he implies that the highest court in the land has grave doubts that what they did was as bad as the state alleges.

Sooner or later, and far better sooner than later, we are owed an explanation. Democracy and justice require no less when individuals are accused.


http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10750877
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« Reply #32 on: September 12, 2011, 04:33:18 pm »


Protest as Urewera charges dropped

APNZ | 9:55AM - Monday, September 12, 2011

Protesters gathered outside the High Court at Auckland, calling for the remaining charges to be dropped in the Urewera raid case. — Photo: APNZ.
Protesters gathered outside the High Court at Auckland, calling for the
remaining charges to be dropped in the Urewera raid case. — Photo: APNZ.


CHARGES AGAINST those facing firearms allegations resulting from the Urewera raids have been formally dropped.

The reasons behind the Supreme Court judgement which led the the Crown's dropping the charges today remain subject to a suppression order.

That suppression order will be revisited later this morning.

This morning's hearing in the High Court at Auckland got under way with a karakia and waiata before the Crown formally applied for the charges to be dropped.

There was loud clapping from the packed public gallery.

The Supreme Court last week that ruled certain evidence was inadmissible in the case of the so-called "Urewera 18", who were arrested after police raids on alleged military training camps in the Ureweras in October 2007.

The Crown last week revealed 13 of the 17 defendants in Operation Eight would be discharged.

Four of the accused — Maori activist Tame Iti, Te Rangikaiwhira Kemara, Emily Bailey and Urs Signer — will still stand trial on charges of participating in an organised crime group.

A protest is being held outside court today demanding those charges be discharged immediately.


http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10751187



Urewera raid details remain suppressed

By EDWARD GAY - APNZ | 1:57PM - Monday, September 12, 2011

THE FIREARMS CHARGES against 13 people arrested in the Urewera raids have been formally dropped by the Crown but the reasons remain suppressed.

This morning's hearing at the High Court in Auckland got under way with a karakia and waiata.

Crown prosecutor Ross Burns gave a brief outline of the Crown's reasons for offering no evidence against the 13.

Firearms charges were dropped against Ira Mangaimimi Timothy Bailey, Omar Hamed, Rawiri Iti, Jamie Beattie Lockett, Marama Hannah Mayrick, Watene Paul McClutchie, Valerie Morse, Trudi Paraha, Phillip Purewa, Moana Hemi Winitana, Maraki Teepa, Tekaumarua Wharepouri and Raunatiri Hunt.

However, the reasons relate to a judgement of the Supreme Court earlier this month and remain suppressed.

Mr Burns said the trial against four others, including Tuhoe leader Tame Iti, will go ahead in February.

Emily Felicity Bailey, Tame Wairere Iti, Te Rangikaiwhiria Kemara, Urs Peter Signer all face charges of participating in an organised crime group between November 2006 and October 2007 and unlawful possession of firearms and restricted weapons including shotguns, Molotov cocktails and military-style rifles.

Defence lawyer Annette Sykes said three of the accused had been put under severe financial pressure after being forced to make payments to legal aid.

She said one of the accused had a debt of more than $20,000.

"They've been extremely impoverished because of this situation and they would ask for some assistance."

Ms Sykes said there were also three guns that the police had taken but were used by the family of one of the accused for pig hunting.

Justice Hansen said an application for costs would need to be filed.

His formal discharge of the 13 was met by clapping and cheering from the packed public gallery.

One of them was Moana Hemi Winitana who stood up in court and told the judge that he was happy to be able to "open his mouth for the first time".

He told the judge that he was a lecturer and had lost his laptop when police raided his home. He asked if he could send a bill to Mr Burns.

"Do you have the power to take our names off the internet? Our names have been ridiculed."

Justice Hansen said he did not.

There were further legal arguments before Justice Helen Winkelmann on whether or not the Supreme Court's judgement should remain suppressed.

Mr Burns said the case had attracted a large amount of public interest but said because court judgements remain suppressed, it was impossible for the public to be informed.

"The Crown's desire is that it is dealt with as soon as possible because of the current significant public interest."

Defence lawyer Charl Hirschfeld said releasing the judgements could impact on the right to a fair trial for the four still facing charges.

He said if the court released copies of the judgements containing blanked out passages, there could be confusion and the wrong judgements could be released.

Mr Hirschfeld said the trial in any case was only five months away.

Tame Iti's lawyer Russell Fairbrother said: "the publicity has not died down but increased."

"What we do here, the media are going to want to publish and with the best intentions in the world, if they half the story, the public will get the wrong story.''

Justice Winkelmann asked if that was not the case now.

Mr Fairbrother responded: "Well, to give them more would aggravate the situation."

Justice Winkelmann has reserved her decision.

The court also earlier heard that the remaining four will have their case decided by a jury, rather than a judge alone.

Mr Burns said now that the case only involved four accused, the Crown was no longer seeking to have the trial heard by a Judge alone.

Justice Rodney Hansen adjourned the arguments around whether or not the case will be decided by a jury. The matter will next be in the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

Mr Burns also confirmed he had viewed a death certificate for Tuhoe Lambert who died in July. Matters against Mr Lambert were stayed.

Those in court today were arrested after early-morning raids in October 2007 involving more than 300 police officers in property searches in Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Wellington and Christchurch using warrants alleging crimes under the Terrorism Suppression Act.

The Solicitor-General ruled out charges under the Terrorism Suppression Act — saying the law was "almost impossible to apply in a coherent manner" — but endorsed the firearms charges being laid.


http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10751236
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« Reply #33 on: September 12, 2011, 04:41:13 pm »

You know whose done the MOST damage to race relations for Tuhoe? 

These clowns and the idiot reporters/editors who report them as THE collective Tuhoe instead of a small band of cowboy twats who just happen to be Tuhoe (and I'm pretty sure there were others involved too anyway). 

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« Reply #34 on: September 12, 2011, 07:31:44 pm »

A huge protest outside the Auckland court in support of these numpties. Trying to count numbers from the photograph, its seems that the protesters were outnumbered by the media!
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« Reply #35 on: September 14, 2011, 03:53:37 pm »


Urewera accused to get trial by jury

The Dominion Post | 12:28PM - Wednesday, 14 September 2011

THE remaining defendants in the Urewera "terror raids" case have this morning been granted a trial by jury.

The Supreme Court granted the appeal by the remaining four defendants after the Crown consented to it.

The Crown had originally sought a trial by judge alone, which was granted in the High Court in December last year and the decision was upheld in the Court of Appeal in March this year.

Crown Solicitor Simon Moore announced earlier this month that only four of the original group — Tame Iti, Emily Bailey, Te Rangikaiwhiria Kemara and Urs Signer — would face trial in February 2012.

They are charged with participation in a criminal group and firearms charges.

The other defendants had faced only firearms charges but Mr Moore said a recent appeal decision by the Supreme Court meant there was no longer enough evidence to continue against some and the others would have to be tried separately after the main trial.

That would not be "in the public interest" so the other defendants' would have their charges would be dropped.


http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/5623022/Urewera-accused-to-get-trial-by-jury
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« Reply #36 on: September 15, 2011, 08:07:32 pm »

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/5632182/More-Urewera-details-emerge

Bump
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« Reply #37 on: September 19, 2011, 08:05:45 am »

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/editorials/5646353/Editorial-Too-soon-to-decide-on-apology-for-raids

Yep, I reckon egg on face day is creeping steadily nearer. But it could well be the reverse of where Matt McFarted thinks it's going.

There seems to be a desperation to get this trial aborted.
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« Reply #38 on: September 27, 2011, 03:35:00 pm »


An earlier “Egg-On-Face” moment for the SIS....on this day in 1974....



Sutch ‘spy’ trial gripped the city

The Dominion Post | 2:00PM - Tuesday, 27 September 2011

CASE OF INTRIGUE: William Sutch (left) with his wife Shirley Smith and his counsel Mr Bungay, arriving at the Wellington Magistrate's Court after Sutch was charged under the Official Secrets Act 1951. — Photo: Alexander Turnbull Library.
CASE OF INTRIGUE: William Sutch (left) with his wife Shirley Smith and his counsel Mr Bungay,
arriving at the Wellington Magistrate's Court after Sutch was charged under the
Official Secrets Act 1951. — Photo: Alexander Turnbull Library.


ON THIS DAY IN 1974, Wellington became the centre of international intrigue when William Sutch was charged with spying.

The New Zealand Security Intelligence Service aimed to catch Dr Sutch, an economist, in the act of passing information to Dimitri Aleksandrovick Razgovorov, a Russian diplomat.

The pair had been under surveillance since April that year, after the NZSIS chanced upon what it believed was a clandestine meeting between Dr Sutch and Mr Razgovorov. Investigators believed that, if caught in the act, Dr Sutch would come clean and co-operate with them.

About 8.40pm on September 26, Dr Sutch was detained by police.

He was told that he had been seen meeting a Russian on three occasions, including that evening. Dr Sutch responded that this was preposterous but was taken to Wellington Central Police Station for further questioning.

Here he acknowledged that he might have met Mr Razgovorov socially, but not under the circumstances outlined by the police. Several hours later Dr Sutch accompanied officers to his home, which they searched.

At 3.30am he was charged with obtaining information which was calculated to be directly or indirectly useful to an enemy.

He pleaded not guilty at a court hearing later that day. The magistrate determined that a prima facie case had been made against Dr Sutch and committed him to the Supreme Court for trial.

The trial began on February 17, 1975, and lasted five days.

After seven hours' deliberation the jury found Dr Sutch not guilty.

He returned to his work at the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council, but his health had suffered during the trial.

He was admitted to hospital a few weeks before his death on September 28, 1975, just a year after his arrest.


http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/capital-life/5689469/Sutch-spy-trial-gripped-the-city
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« Reply #39 on: May 10, 2012, 11:58:16 pm »



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« Reply #40 on: May 15, 2012, 01:53:16 pm »


MATT McCARTEN

Urewera fiasco pointless and expensive shambles

Matt McCarten on politics

HERALD on SUNDAY | 5:30AM - Sunday, May 13, 2012

Tame Iti may need to have his bag packed. — Photo: Brett Phibbs.
Tame Iti may need to have his bag packed. — Photo: Brett Phibbs.

THE STATE finally threw in the towel this week on continuing with the case against the so-called Urewera Four.

After spending millions of public dollars in trying to get us to believe Tame Iti was heading the New Zealand franchise of al Qaeda, they want us to pretend it never happened.

Most of us do want to move on, but it is important in a civil society to not let the state misuse its immense power, then sweep it under the carpet when it becomes a mess.

The fact is the people we pay to keep us safe abused our trust by terrifying a small community unnecessarily. Our protectors hysterically overreacted by branding a group of people terrorists — and it could have led to them languishing in prison for the best part of the rest of their lives.

After the smoke has cleared, the best the police have got is a few minor firearms charges against Iti and three others out of the original 18 terror suspects.

In normal circumstances, the culprits would receive a fine. But if that happened, the establishment would be more humiliated than they already are.

Therefore when Iti turns up for sentencing I advise him to take a packed bag and expect a term of incarceration. That's the only way the establishment can keep a straight face when claiming victory in the War on Terror.

That these so-called terror suspects have been legally permitted to wander freely among us for more than three years — and for nothing bad to happen — tells us what the terrorist threat actually was: none. Surely in any sane world real terror suspects don't get let out to carry through on their mission?

If anyone still believes this nonsense was ever more than a group fantasy in the minds of our secret police and some senior politicians watching too many television cop shows, then you haven't been paying attention.

When the Urewera raids took place, the media were tipped off in advance. I wonder in whose interest it was for the public to have the media give us ringside seats watching a propaganda exercise of the armed state saving us from terrorism?

The fact that innocent people, including children, were deliberately terrorised by armed stormtroopers in masks was cavalierly dismissed by the establishment as collateral damage for the greater good. Even after the case fell apart they kept up the pretence.

Allowing Iti, the alleged mastermind, to leave the country to visit Europe was beyond farce. The fact that New Zealand and other countries allowed an alleged terrorist to freely travel the world insults the intelligence of even the dimmest of us.

What worries me the most is our police, legal and political establishment still can't see what they did wrong and seem to still believe Iti and his mates really were terrorists and only got away with it because their lawyers bungled the paperwork and the anti-terrorism laws were badly written.

Do they still think all the original suspects should have had their lives ruined and be locked up for lengthy terms of imprisonment? What for? Running around in the bush with a few firearms? The worst crime it seems is that some of the younger ones were caught up in bravado revolutionary talk. From what I know of the transcripts, I've heard worse in the pub. Even the cops admitted the defendants didn't have any actual plans, let alone the means, to carry out any crimes.

It's no wonder that when police raided the home of Kim Dotcom more mistakes were made. We have form.

I wonder if it even occurred to them to just send a couple of cops to Iti and Dotcom's homes to ask them to accompany them to the police station?

It's not as exciting as paramilitary raids, but it might have saved them the embarrassing climb-down this week, and avoided the expensive mayhem inflicted on hundreds of the citizens they're supposed to serve.


http://www.nzherald.co.nz/matt-mccarten/news/article.cfm?a_id=284&objectid=10805426
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« Reply #41 on: May 15, 2012, 07:07:22 pm »

In normal circumstances, the culprits would receive a fine.

One would hope that they are not allowed with in 5 miles of a firearm again instead of just a fine.
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