Nicky Hagar: more evidence of state institutions spying on eco-activists

Nicky Hagar has written an article in the Sunday Star Times (15 June) about the private snoops, Thompson and Clark (TCIL), hired by Solid Energy and other government departments to spy on environmental activists. Hagar has got his hands on some of the reports by TCIL, written under the heading of “National Extremism”. Solid Energy had been paying $1000 a month for the reports. They “consist of unreferenced material from the internet and rough summaries of open sources, interspersed with sarcastic comments about the community groups”, writes Hagar. Quotes from the reports show that these not very clever spies have been relying on the blog of ACT Party vice president, Trevor Louden, who is fixated on the radical left, and is probably worried about reds under his own bed. Unsurprisingly the reports contain lots of warm praise for National and ACT. To read the article go to http://www.stuff.co.nz/4584655a10.html