"We investigate anyone against the government"

[Philip Ferguson <plf13@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The following was posted on the anti-war/anti-capitalist egroup in NZ.
Things like this only come to the surface relatively rarely here in NZ, but
it indicates how Sept 11 is being used to justify increased state
surveillance down in this corner of the world:


A Petone man is outraged after being visited by a
police detective after having a letter to the editor
published in The Evening Post.

Now Tahir Ali fears information on police files may
affect his employment prospects after just completing
a BA in anthropology at Victoria University.
Mr Ali's letter, published on December 27, suggested
New Zealand's SAS force be disbanded along with the
Air Force because it wasted taxpayers' money.

His name appears to have rung alarm bells in the
police, following the September 11 attack on the
United States and the so-called war on terrorism.
But he is not Middle Eastern - he was born in Fiji to
an Indian father and a mother from the Pacific Island
of Rotuma.

Now 35, he arrived with his family
in New Zealand in 1968 - "I consider myself a Kiwi".
He has no criminal record apart from once driving
through a red light. His home was visited by two
detectives on the day the letter appeared
but he was out, leaving his sister and mother worried
about why he was being sought. Police later contacted
him by cellphone and a detective returned to his
home the next day. "He was very good-natured about it
but he said they investigated anyone who
expressed an opinion against the Government," Mr Ali
said yesterday.

He initially thought the visit was a security check
linked to his application for a job with Winz, now the
Ministry of Social Development. "Since he's written
everything down, I do know that we have a police
database and it could discriminate me if I decide to
go for a job with Winz or any other government job."
The detective quizzed Mr Ali on other letters he had
written and asked for his e-mail address "and some
very sensitive information about my family . . . where
I was from and how long I'd been in New Zealand.
"I just thought it was rather outrageous.
"We are not living in Nigeria or any of those banana
republics . . .liberties are starting to slip away."

Mr Ali regularly appears in The Post's letters pages,
but while he has opposed the war in Afghanistan, his
subject matter is varied - a letter published on
December 19 offered a staunch defence of the efforts
of The Lord Of The Rings movie director Peter Jackson.
He was an extra in the movie.

Police spokeswoman Kaye Calder would not comment
specifically on the case, but said police talked to
"many people" to see if they had information which
might "assist investigations". "This current inquiry
is no exception . . . We're working on a range of
current inquiries but it would be counterproductive
for us to say who we've spoken to and why, and what
they may have said." She would not say what the
"current inquiry" concerned was but confirmed
letters to the editor were "sometimes" followed up.
"It depends very much on if we think they may be able
to help us with something."
Nor did she rule out police monitoring calls to
talkback radio.



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