The Hollow men and the hypocrisy of the right

Brash review will vindicate police – Hager
'The Hollow Men' author Nicky Hager believes a review of the investigation into how he got his hands on Don Brash's private emails will prove police did their best to find out. Hager's book, published in 2006, was based on hundreds of the former National Party leader's emails. It revealed the secret inner workings of the party and caused an uproar. Police launched an investigation and concluded it was unlikely anyone would be identified and charged unless there was an admission. Dr Brash yesterday called for a commission of inquiry into the integrity of the investigation. He believes the police did not make a serious attempt to find out who stole his emails. Within hours Police Commissioner Howard Broad announced the investigation would be reviewed by Auckland Assistant Commissioner Steve Shortland with an independent adviser working alongisde him, appointed after consultation with Dr Brash. Mr Broad said continued questioning of the police role could undermine public trust and confidence in the force. Hager said the review was good news. "There's been a campaign of casting doubt on the police investigation and it's worth everyone's while for someone independent to confirm that they did their best and there's no great conspiracy," he said. "Dr Brash should have given up long ago and just understood that leaks happen, it's part of a democratic society. I wasn't going to reveal my sources and he's just going to have to live with that."

If Hager’s book had been a microscopic evaluation of Labour, then this book would have been front page reading and the attack on Labour would not end and not one word would be spoken regarding how Hager got the emails.

Funny word corruption isn’t it? National used it against Labour with the election over spending fiasco, but what do you call knowing who the donors in anonymous trusts are or false statements made to statutory officials about that knowledge or lying about when National were aware of secret funding campaigns by religious fanatics while having a plan of denial ready if that information ever saw the light of day or the fact that a small bunch of rich right wing ideologues with links to America's far right were creating secret agendas for Don Brash or the out right lies and deceit used to hide this “secret right wing agenda” (their words not mine). What about the Maaaaaori get too much racially divisive racist crap where National KNEW what they were saying was bullshit and concocted a story to throw the media off the scent when that bullshit was detected?

I suppose none of that is corruption? The response you get from our friends on the right is ‘Big deal, Politicians lie, get over it’ – I’m sorry, the dirty machinations of inner National Party workings is unearthed and the best you have is ‘Big deal, Politicians lie’. I think that line of defense is as intellectually shallow as Don Brash and as disingenuous as John Key’s ‘I didn’t read that Exclusive Brethren funding e-mail’ excuse.

The Hollow Men revealed all these lies and yet the focus is on ‘who stole the emails’ – what a joke, what about what they revealed about National, that is far more important than who stole them!

But let’s talk about who stole them, I have posted many times that during the fast pace of the election build up that Don Brash liked to read his emails at the end of each day in printed format and it was those printed emails that made up the emails in the book. The question I’ve always asked is who was the staff member responsible for shredding those emails, and most importantly who appointed that staff member, was it the spouse of a National Party front bencher?

After posting that, the Godfather of National Party spin on-line, David Farrar posted on Tumeke…

Don did not require his emails to be printed out as he liked reading them in paper format.

Don was probably the most heavy email user of any MP I have known. He was 100% comfortable with reading and responding electronically. He would send dozens of emails a day and often respond within minutes.

So Don did not get his emails printed out for him, and there was no shredding of them the next day.

I know this as I was IT Manager for the NLO when Don became Leader.permi

I repeat - I worked in the office, and have first hand knowledge of the system. While I was there Don never had emails to his private address printed off for him. E-mails to the public address went to his staff who printed them off for him, along with a draft reply. But that was not the case for emails to his direct account - which the Hager ones were.

..I responded to David…

With all due respect, why would I believe someone as closely welded to the National Party spin machine as you? And if this all happened on your watch wouldn't you have a vested interest to hide such a basic mistake? And if the leaker was a spouse of a front bench National Party MP wouldn't you be the first to spin it elsewhere?

…David still seems to be using the defense line John Key is using that the emails were hacked, yet the Police have been very clear that hacking the emails was the least likely to have occurred.

The hilarious issue here is that David and his National chums sure as fuck DON’T WANT the identity of the National Party insider coming out in the media which makes watching their delicate balancing act of faux outrage over Police inaction on the case so amusing.