8/27/08

Raid Me! Global Day of Action Tickets Going Fast


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Tickets to the global day of action to drop the charges against the 20 accused in the State Terror Raids are now available on Trade Me! There is a two-day auction that closes at the start of the demo on Saturday at 12 noon. The beautiful tickets are for freedom lovers, supporters of Tino Rangatiratanga, friends, and whanau. Tickets for police and other spy scumbags are $8 million – about the cost of the entire ‘Operation 8’ investigation (the name given to the State Terror Raids by the police).

Many of you will be aware that the police investigated thousands of TradeMe users as part of ‘Operation 8’. The accused received approximately 10,000 TradeMe usernames, passwords and buying histories revealing among other things, purchases of ‘my little pony’ items (undoubtedly for terrorist purposes). The Listener story, ‘Raid me’ focuses on the information given to the now 20 defendants in the case. But the issue isn’t the disclosure given to defendants as part of their legal right to access information about the investigation. The issue is about the extent of the police investigation and surveillance of people as part of ‘Operation 8’. (listener.co.nz/issue/null/features/11626/raid_me.html)

There were literally thousands of people under investigation as part of ‘Opeartion 8’. Almost everyone in this country will know someone affected by the State Terror Raids of October 15th 2007 – phones and cars were tapped, people were followed, bank accounts and internet traffic were monitored.

The powers of the police and the security intelligence service have grown exponentially since 9/11. They are the agencies who are carrying out George W Bush’s ‘war on terrorism’. They are getting millions of dollars as part of that war to find so-called ‘terrorists’ – in order to justify this money, they have targeted people seen to be supporting Tino Rangatiratanga.

Last year, that war came home – to the homes of Maori people around the country. It was a racist attack, and these are politically motivated charges. The global day of action is a call to drop the charges against the 20 accused. It is also a call to repeal the Terrorism Suppression Act, to support Tino Rangatiratanga and Te Mana Motuhake o Tuhoe, and to get justice for the people who were raided.

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