Green MP to speak at spy base protest this Saturday

Green Party MP Keith Locke will be speaking at this weekend's protest outside the Waihopai spy base, near Blenheim.

Mr Locke, who is the party's intelligence services spokesperson, said the protest “would help break down the wall of secrecy that surrounds the operation of the spy base”.

“Clearly, the Government doesn't want too much public attention on the base, because the main customer for the electronic information intercepted is the US National Security Agency. It is not too popular to be spying for George Bush, particularly when his domestic and foreign policy agenda is quite different from ours.”

Waihopai is part of the US-run Echelon network that intercepts millions of phone calls and emails every day. The two dishes at Waihopai draw down all the electronic communications passing through two communications satellites geo-stationary over the Pacific Equator, and passes them on to partners (mainly the United States) according to pre-determined key word combinations, phone numbers and email addresses.

What: Waihopai spy base protest
When: 11am, Saturday, 26 January 2008
Where: Seymour Place, Blenheim
And
When: 2pm, Saturday, 26 January 2008
Where: Waihopai spy bas