Public Address | Cafe | Hard News: The Sutch Files

rodgerd

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 14:54:11 +1200

(Not, I hasten to add, that I would characterise Walker or Morgan as being lefties, but rather than Walker as a Maori activist and Morgan as a political/economic commentator are both on their respective fringes of mainstream political thinking these days)

rodgerd

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 14:52:43 +1200

think the modern day equivalent of the Sutch affair are incidents like this one where a researcher was held in jail for six days for downloading an "Al Quaeda Manual".

Bad comparison. Sutch was a well-established intellectual, albeit one who was arguably at the far end of mainstream left politics.…

Jan Farr

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 12:46:49 +1200

Sorry – first sentence should read 'As I remember from the Helen Sutch interview the other day.'

Jan Farr

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 12:45:36 +1200

As I remember from the Helen Sutch interview that other day, she seemed to say that her father was mystified by the meetings with Rosgovorov who was very obviously nervous and that Bill Sutch was on the verge of refusing to meet with him again. I thought she implied that…

Paul Campbell

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 15:42:08 +1200

I think it's more a matter of Dunedin having been a small enough place that if you were in the law biz you knew everyone else and the appearance of a new law firm that didn't actually interact with any of the existing ones sort of raised a red flag…

Rich of Observationz

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 13:58:41 +1200

unknown law firm

So did people keep calling them wanting them to do their divorce/house conveyancing/motoring offences on a regular basis. Maybe, in between chasing non-existent Russian spies, the SIS team maintained a lucrative second career as small-town solicitors?

Felix Marwick

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 13:42:16 +1200

I read my way through the bundle of released files this morning. From a historical perspective it was fascinating.

However my personal highlight (and it has nothing to do with espionage) is the inclusion of a paper Sutch wrote on the 1972 general election. Given some of the debate that's…

Paul Campbell

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 12:02:52 +1200

um yeah I think you do ....

Rob Hosking

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 11:22:57 +1200

...very drunken russian sailors wanking to know where the music was – definitely not interested in the whole bringing down the state thing...

I think we have a winner in 'Typo of the Month' contest.

Sofie Bribiesca

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 08:59:55 +1200

Plischke not Plishke!

Sofie Bribiesca

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 08:56:10 +1200

Apparently his design for a christchurch house (an L shape opening onto an internal courtyard and not addressing the street) caused an outrage at the time. The idea of having big windows to catch the sun would barely raise an eyebrow now. Sutch was clearly flirting with dangerous ideas for…

Eddie Clark

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 02:47:33 +1200

James, the house you're talking about is on the corner of Karori Rd and Flers St in Wellington. I grew up 3 minutes down the road from it, and due to its uninterest with the street outlook – its actually quite ugly to look at from the outside. The only…

Paul Campbell

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 23:57:17 +1200

Back in the 80s the SIS seemed to be a bunch of rank amateurs – I remember when they opened a Dunedin office – shock horror there were Russian fishing boats stopping for R&R – they had a phone number on the phone book, but no address – someone noticed an…

Raymond A Francis

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 19:49:47 +1200

While to me it has always seemed Bill Sutch was probably one of the good guys you do have to wonder just what he was doing meeting a Russion (KGB spy) in rather strange circumstances

I await the opening of the appropriate KGB file

He was a very clever man,…

George Darroch

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 16:53:23 +1200

closer to home, the student pilot thrown out of NZ (and jailed in Saudi Arabia) because he briefly shared a room with one of the September 2001 hijackers.

When the proposed immigration bill goes through, things like this will be par for the course.

James Green

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 16:45:04 +1200

I will always remember him first for his association with Ernst Plischke

I saw the great Plischke exhibition at the Wellington City Gallery a few years back. I can say I was enamoured and amazed by some of his designs, which would seem quite contemporary now.
Apparently his design for…

Rich of Observationz

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 15:32:45 +1200

I think the modern day equivalent of the Sutch affair are incidents like this one where a researcher was held in jail for six days for downloading an "Al Quaeda Manual". Or, closer to home, the student pilot thrown out of NZ (and jailed in Saudi Arabia) because he briefly…

Steve Barnes

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 14:54:12 +1200

a lot of the zeal behind the court case had to do with some Cold War spy catchers excited because they thought they'd actually caught their first spy

And that, my freinds, is about all there is to this story. Russ, can you enlighten me as to why you think…

andrew llewellyn

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 14:20:07 +1200

Possibly off topic... but was the 1975 Freeman-Jays affair related to the Sutch case at all? Or just coincidence that it happened around the same time. There's not much showing from a google.

Russell Brown

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 13:23:30 +1200

true – I was exaggerating a tad – the thought that our scary terrorists are now travelling doing plays in europe does kind of suggest that the whole thing was rather overblown, especially since much of the evidence was tossed out

Er, there hasn't been any evidence "tossed out" as…

Gabor Toth

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 12:54:33 +1200

We all have things that we haven't done ( and would never contemplate doing) but just imagine if we were defined by that?

Though I am (just) old enough to remember his arrest, because of an interest in architectural history, I will always remember him first for his association with…

Idiot Savant

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 12:40:27 +1200

Powles' report is here.

Paul Campbell

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 12:20:25 +1200

true – I was exaggerating a tad – the thought that our scary terrorists are now travelling doing plays in europe does kind of suggest that the whole thing was rather overblown, especially since much of the evidence was tossed out

Does kind of smell a bit like the Sutch…

mark taslov

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 12:13:24 +1200

hold on there paul, i was aware tama got the showbiz bug, but are you suggesting that the whole 15-strong group were the group arrested last october?

Paul Campbell

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 12:08:56 +1200

um – but I was serious

mark taslov

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 12:06:08 +1200

nice one paul, but seriously, i'm looking forward to the circus, when's the homecoming parade?

Steve Barnes

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 12:02:43 +1200

Damn it Russell. I just lost a wager. I bet that you were going to lead with the obvious beatup on the "Power Crisis" that TV3 ran with last night. I thought Transpower Chief Executive Patrick Strange was more than patient with John Campbell. Was Campbell trying to get him…

Paul Campbell

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 12:02:25 +1200

they're on tour in Europe

mark taslov

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 12:00:53 +1200

whatever happened to those kiwi terrorists the authorities arrested and held for a while without bail? When's the trial?

Paul Campbell

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 11:49:49 +1200

One thing I found interesting about the interview was her assertion that a lot of the zeal behind the court case had to do with some Cold War spy catchers excited because they thought they'd actually caught their first spy – just imagine what would have happened if it wasn't…

Idiot Savant

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 11:48:35 +1200

Do you have a copy of the Ombudsman's annex? It sounds like it would be interesting reading.

James Francis

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 11:45:23 +1200

I heard the news on National Radio and then the interview with Kathryn Ryan. This is a slight tangent but there's one thing I found interesting. In all of the lead-ins it was "Bill Sutch, who was acquitted of dah de dah..."

It occurred to me that, in that label,…

Geoff Lealand

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 11:10:25 +1200

An interesting interview with Helen Sutch on Nine to Noon this morning (I am home marking essays, with the radio wittering in the background!). She rightly pointed that her mother Shirley Smith was a key support for Sutch at the time. She was also a damn good and socially-committed lawyer.…

Public Address

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 11:10:25 +1200

Discussion from blog post.