ready to become operational

How 'operational' can those guys be? I mean, it must be hard to be an undercover spook in a place where everyone knows everyone else. I know SIS types aren't supposed to say where they work, but that's a dead giveaway in itself. If they claim…

It's pretty understandable, considering the amount of information they probably have to go through. It's just a *really long* lead-up time to a job.

Yeah, it is, but it's only the really spooky agencies that won't let you do anything until you're cleared fully. Hell, NZSIS will still start training…

In NZ I'm told the SIS aims to get vetting for TS completed within six months, but it can take longer, especially if a person has lived oversees or has other aspects of their life that require deeper investigation. Apparently in the US 18-24 months is more normal.

It's pretty…

I could tell you more, but you know how it is. I'd have to kill you afterwards.

A navy radio operator told me once that it took two years before his security clearance came through. He reckoned those delays were a big part of the problem of getting and holding staff in the forces.

Someone I know who applied for a security-clearance-requiring job (I'm not sure what…

Pam is the Keef Richards of NZ Public Life, albeit somewhat more jaded and with a less developed sense of fun.

This story explains why some people in the same game,

Thanks RB. very interesting and led me to this

http://www.newschallenge.org/knc-2010-winners

which is very relevant to another line of work for me.

I would say our culture of secrecy
is more Python than Kafka.

I'm thinking more Pylon to CAFCA
view the great Comalco Comic here ...
(once it loads if ya don't see anything hit the
multipage view next to the scroll button...)

What's so special about Bennett that she gets vetted?

It is the HoS that said she had been vetted, apparently sourced from thin air. Their question might have been better posed as:

"Did she disclose to the Prime Minister her relationship with Halaholo?" (her daughter's ex-partner)

If Bennett handled everything…

Yes, I think the change in Wikileaks' operating practices is a good thing, but Assange has published leaks that had no genuine public interest attached — including Wesley Snipes' tax records, which contained Snipes' social security number.

And I'm fairly certain Assange would be the first to cry foul if…

Not sure he's 'all that', but he's moving towards it.

Yes, I think the change in Wikileaks' operating practices is a good thing, but Assange has published leaks that had no genuine public interest attached — including Wesley Snipes' tax records, which contained Snipes' social security number.

That was disgraceful…

The Guardian is liveblogging discoveries amongst the files and responses to the news.

Are they checking the mini-bar tabs? Need some help from our press gallery?

War, snore ... let us know when you've got a story.

There cannot be good governance without good information given to good people. It's impossible in a democracy. Physicists [Assange was trained at University of Melbourne in physics] look at extreme circumstances to understand a situation. The extreme situation of ignorance…

And the SIS don't vet candidates

That should be political candidates. Obviously they vet employment candidates.

the idea that just because you could spread information doesn't mean you need to

And most of what should be secret is already known by everyone on both sides who counts, and everything else is secret merely because it saves someone from embarassment.

Secrecy is 99.999% of the time just…

An estimated 854,000 people, nearly 1.5 times as many people as live in Washington, D.C., hold top-secret security clearances.

Goodness knows how many can access mere Secret stuff and the rest.

To clarify, holding top-secret security clearance doesn't mean you have access to ANY top-secret information, much less ALL of…

How bad is that!

VGrateful if you could cite sources for saying that MPs and Ministers are vetted.

I'd like to know this too, because I find the thought of the SIS having some sort of veto on our democratic representation deeply disturbing.

In the real world, information must be able to be shared in confidence sometimes. Innocent people who oppose their governments — or decently serve the US government — could suffer in the case of an indiscriminate leak of communications like that.

There was a very good BBC Radio 4 Analysis…

I was bearing in mind that Bradley Hanning claimed to have passed on years of US diplomatic cables to Wikileaks. In the real world, information must be able to be shared in confidence sometimes. Innocent people…

There remains the distinct possibility that lives could be lost as a result of all this, as Assange and his source have acknowledged by witholding such a large chunk of material on security grounds.

"The distinct possibility that lives could be lost" – crikey, who wants that? Except that when…

There is a strong 'need to know', so a TS network-engineer wouldn't have access to threat assessment papers; a diplomat in…

To me vetting starts with filling out the form for the SIS and then they go and interview your friends family etc. Happened for staff including me. I checked my memory with two former MPs -…

900 for defence? Really?

heroic assumptions

MPs are certainly not vetted, and I believe Ministers are not. Certainly nothing I saw in a decade at Parliament. The presumption is that the vetting is part of…

Seriously though, are MPs really vetted and "cleared"? We have a right to elect who we want – even if they're a secret Taliban.

Vetted, yes. Cleared, that's up to the PM (I assume, given that they're head of DPMC). Cabinet Ministers are all cleared, because things like deciding to…

I bet nothing like 12,000 people (310m/854k=363. 4.37m/363=12,072) in NZ have TS clearances.

I'll have a very rough stab and say 3,500 as a first cut:

Dept Prime Minister and Cabinet, 100% = 100
Ministerial offices, 100% = 200
Foreign Affairs, 100% = 900
GCSB, 100% = 350
SIS, 100%…

widening the pool of suspects for investigation to tens- if not hundreds-of-thousands of people, rather than a few thousand.

I had a security clearence level of Secret, I think. It wasn't at all necessary given that most of what I was doing was putting up press releases on a public…

in re Bradass87, I was left with the impression everyone though he probably had a tonne of stuff. I'm not sure anything Assange's said is properly…

I bet nothing like 12, 000 people
(310 m/854 k = 363 . 4 .37m/363 = 12, 072 ) in NZ
have TS clearances

Yes, but those that do include Paula Bennett, Murray McCully and Gerry Brownlee.

Seriously though, are MPs really vetted and "cleared"? We have a right to…

The Grauniad has the backstory on the leak and the leaker:

Bradley Manning, aka Bradass87, was the leaker of the video showing the AH64 shooting in Afghanistan. Given that he's been in federal custody for several months now, I can't see how he could also be the leaker of this…

For five days, Bradass87 [the leaker] opened his heart to Lamo [a hacker he approached and then IM'd for 5 days]. He described how his job gave him access to two secret networks: the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network,…

At the end of a two-year-investigation, the Washington Post reported last week (also carried by the Dom here in NZ) that

An estimated 854,000 people, nearly 1.5 times as many people as live in Washington, D.C., hold top-secret security clearances.

Goodness…

(Comparing Danyl's and my lists, looks like I missed one…

I/S has a grep of everything in the leaks mentioning NZ here. Better than anything I have seen from local press so far ....

The Herald excerpted the more interesting bits.

I/S has a grep of everything in the leaks mentioning NZ here. Better than anything I have seen from local press so far ....

Quite. I've added that to the post, thanks.