Public Address | Cafe | OnPoint: The Whaledump Saga: Scooby-Doo Edition

Paul Campbell

Mon, 12 Dec 2016 16:23:38 +1300

The Standard article explains how Slater's case almost got swept under the carpet

Ian Dalziel

Mon, 12 Dec 2016 13:15:56 +1300

upcoming court case
sorted!
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/87454966/former-whale-oil-associate-ben-rachinger-admits-deception-charge

Paul Campbell

Mon, 12 Dec 2016 11:20:47 +1300

The Standard brings us up to date prior to the upcoming court case

Sacha

Thu, 03 Dec 2015 12:44:30 +1300

Ah, and Rachinger has apologised over the photos, at last. (warning: link contains beige)

John Farrell

Thu, 03 Dec 2015 11:54:26 +1300

Ben Rachinger is writing a book, according to his posts on Pete George's blog.

Sacha

Fri, 20 Nov 2015 18:54:56 +1300

Kia ora. Thank you for posting here.

Te Rangikaiwhiria Kemara

Fri, 20 Nov 2015 18:20:31 +1300

I noticed the police surveillance began prior to the raid on Hagers whare. My guess is they saw my name, the word Whaledump and had a presumptuous moment of glee.
See: https://twitter.com/Te_Taipo/status/633598018097442816

Sacha

Fri, 20 Nov 2015 17:32:00 +1300

despite the involvement of the cybersecurity team in planning the raid? #amateurs

Juha Saarinen

Fri, 20 Nov 2015 15:49:46 +1300

This, exactly.

Alfie

Fri, 20 Nov 2015 09:29:55 +1300

I really don’t understand what’s being stated here.

Cloning is pretty much always done in the lab so who knows what the cops were up to when they photographed the screen. One of the first rules of computer forensics is that you don't switch on the suspect device in the…

Sacha

Fri, 20 Nov 2015 07:06:48 +1300

But still the Police insisted on viewing Hager's temporary Windows files, just in case. In case what?

He is apparently writing a book about Police corruption. Sounds like plausible motivation for a thorough raid, eh.

izogi

Thu, 19 Nov 2015 23:25:55 +1300

isn’t using someone’s internet connection without permission theft of service …. wont it effect evidence gathered that way, fruit of the poisoned tree and all that

Re-reading Juha Saarinen's column, I suppose another interpretation is that Police couldn't clone the laptop without internet, so they (huh?) ... took a photo…

nzlemming

Thu, 19 Nov 2015 23:06:53 +1300

Good to have that on the record, given recent conversations about how certain photos made their way online.

Indeed.

Paul Campbell

Thu, 19 Nov 2015 19:52:56 +1300

isn’t using someone’s internet connection without permission theft of service …. wont it effect evidence gathered that way, fruit of the poisoned tree and all that

I can’t believe cops don’t have cell phones

Sacha

Thu, 19 Nov 2015 18:57:53 +1300

Dermot Nottingham, an "associate" of Slater

Good to have that on the record, given recent conversations about how certain photos made their way online.

william blake

Thu, 19 Nov 2015 18:21:37 +1300

Court rules Slater is not a journalist:

Court rules; if you poke a pig it will grunt.

william blake

Thu, 19 Nov 2015 18:19:50 +1300

Mandy is a woman of many talents, but you are a true friend for running interference.

nzlemming

Thu, 19 Nov 2015 17:56:04 +1300

Court rules Slater is not a journalist:

The judgment revealed the phone conversation had been made by Blomfield's former business colleague to Blomfield, and recorded without his knowledge by self-styled justice campaigner Dermot Nottingham, an "associate" of Slater.

If Nottingham was not the "former business colleague to Blomfield" surely he…

nzlemming

Thu, 19 Nov 2015 17:52:04 +1300

Careful scrutiny of the first image may give a partial clue as to the true identity of raw shark.

Much as I love Mandy, I don't think anyone would seriously suggest she had the technical nous to hack Slater, least of all her.

John Farrell

Thu, 19 Nov 2015 17:40:47 +1300

Court rules Slater is not a journalist:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11548070

izogi

Thu, 19 Nov 2015 16:17:13 +1300

From that link by Juha Saarinen:

As part of cloning of one of Hager's laptops, the police took a photo of it to record the information on the screen. This was apparently because the police needed internet access because they didn't have a 3G/4G mobile data connection with them. You'd…

Alfie

Thu, 19 Nov 2015 15:28:00 +1300

Juha Saarinen looks at the ballsup of the police raid on Hager and points out the inadequacy of the expert they employed to search Hager's devices.

The Police asked both Twitter and Google for information but they both said, 'come back with a warrant.' So the cops didn't bother. Likewise Vodafone…

Rich Lock

Wed, 18 Nov 2015 23:52:45 +1300

I hope someone could point to another (less concerning reason) complainant Slater got better service from the police than complainant Brash?

They lost a tug-of-war contest with him (from 0:17)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8jphxpi1ro

poffa

Wed, 18 Nov 2015 22:39:26 +1300

Call me paranoid but for some reason I'm having a hard time accessing this site since the story appeared. I'm not in NZ.

Paul Campbell

Wed, 18 Nov 2015 22:16:36 +1300

Yeah they must have sold 1000 of those shirts as a fundraiser for Nicky, I still find I have to explain mine

william blake

Wed, 18 Nov 2015 21:41:32 +1300

http://thespinoff.co.nz/03-11-2015/politics-a-kick-back-against-government-intolerance-an-interview-with-nicky-hager/

Careful scrutiny of the first image may give a partial clue as to the true identity of raw shark.

william blake

Wed, 18 Nov 2015 21:16:28 +1300

The different responses from the police are probably down to having different cops running the investigation. In the Brash leak a reasonable cop thought yep that was probably a leak, in the case of Dirty Politics, the top cop probably hates Hagers' guts and may well have put his career…

lprent

Wed, 18 Nov 2015 20:25:05 +1300

Nice article Keith.

Cameron Slater is one of the stupid and trusting malicious douchebags I have ever run across. He seems to believe anything that someone tells him if it fits his pre-existing delusions about him at the centre of his paranoid wee universe. Rachinger was quite clearly scamming him…

FletcherB

Wed, 18 Nov 2015 17:18:53 +1300

I hope someone could point to another (less concerning reason) complainant Slater got better service from the police than complainant Brash?

Perhaps the Police, (similar to myself, and other people or organisations), change their response after receiving negative feedback from earlier actions/inactions?

Rich of Observationz

Wed, 18 Nov 2015 15:29:34 +1300

Classic Mr Ng!

Kumara Republic

Wed, 18 Nov 2015 15:27:45 +1300

Note Herald site is still giving assorted error messages – The APN-branded one, 503 (internal server error) and just plain not responding to requests. No doubt the Herald IT people are on to it and it will settle down in due course. (It’s probably a cluster of web servers of…

Walter Nicholls

Wed, 18 Nov 2015 14:39:07 +1300

Sacha

Wed, 18 Nov 2015 14:37:16 +1300

I hope someone could point to another (less concerning reason) complainant Slater got better service from the police

Because somehow he had more personal influence over senior cops? I do not find that reassuring.

Sacha

Wed, 18 Nov 2015 14:34:56 +1300

Hager's always said it was a leak.

and Police found no evidence of anything else. Nats still hate admitting they had internal factions leaking.

Rich of Observationz

Wed, 18 Nov 2015 14:31:50 +1300

On the subject of Right Wing Nutters, I see the cops have finally charged a Stratford man for George Taiaroa's murder – one might guess this was the suspect noted some years ago.

Sacha

Wed, 18 Nov 2015 14:31:38 +1300

tis here: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11546041

Paul Brislen

Wed, 18 Nov 2015 14:11:25 +1300

David Fisher has a good piece on the police's response: "Handling of Slater grip stunned cop" however the Herald site is refusing to serve the story up at the moment.

Amusingly it gives me an error message with an APN logo.

B Jones

Wed, 18 Nov 2015 13:24:40 +1300

I recall there was some debate with the Hollow Men etc over whether Brash's mail was acquired via a leak or a hack. Hager's always said it was a leak. The outcome was broadly the same, but the law treats hacking and leaking differently.

chris

Wed, 18 Nov 2015 13:19:35 +1300

http://www.police.govt.nz/contact-us/praise-and-complain

Matthew Hooton

Wed, 18 Nov 2015 13:05:04 +1300

Just to make sure I fully understand this.

When a widely respected former governor of the Reserve Bank and more narrowly respected leader of the opposition, Don Brash, made a complaint to the police over the potential burglary or hacking of his office and girlfriend's home following The Hollow Men,…

BenWilson

Wed, 18 Nov 2015 11:42:35 +1300

Bad couple of years for Slater...fucks The New Zealand Truth newspaper to death, is hacked by Rawshark, takes out Judith Collins, gets busted for contempt of court, is cold shouldered by Key, knocked out by Jessie Ryder, and punked by an internet con-man. How far down can this losing streak…

Raymond A Francis

Wed, 18 Nov 2015 10:03:03 +1300

Interesting but as always when dealing with these clowns (and doesn't this prove what clowns they are) we are not getting the full story
Missing log entries, cover ups of journalists and on it goes
Interestingly the possible name of Slaters funder has been mentioned on another blog
I don't…

Russell Brown

Tue, 17 Nov 2015 23:54:33 +1300

Yeah, a lot of what he said at that time takes on a different light now.

Paul Campbell

Tue, 17 Nov 2015 23:43:04 +1300

There was a weird thing about that time when Slater claimed that there was an insidious evil left wing plot that he'd uncovered to drive him insane .... is all this made up stuff what he was rabbiting on about? seems what was reallly happening was that he was being…

Russell Brown

Tue, 17 Nov 2015 23:21:05 +1300

What? No! Nobody’s been hacked here (except Slater, by Rawshark). Those pictures were *sent* by Rachinger to Slater, and by Slater (directly or indirectly) to the other blog.

How Rachinger got them is another matter, but no, it wasn't via spooks.

nzlemming

Tue, 17 Nov 2015 23:18:08 +1300

I don't give Pete George credit for much, but this line is a pearler:
Whale Oil seems to have well and truly jumped the Rawshark

nzlemming

Tue, 17 Nov 2015 23:10:07 +1300

Ahahahahahahahahahaha!

Steve Withers

Tue, 17 Nov 2015 22:36:03 +1300

Who is the "funder" Slater refers to as the person requesting the hack on The Standard?

Sacha

Tue, 17 Nov 2015 21:33:27 +1300

Those pictures were *sent* by Rachinger to Slater

And we have never seen any accountability for that.

Sacha

Tue, 17 Nov 2015 20:50:32 +1300

therefore no prosecution

ahaha

Sacha

Tue, 17 Nov 2015 20:46:31 +1300

Some wide-ranging discussion on the Beige Badger's blog, featuring Ben himself and a range of refugees from slaterland

Keith Ng

Tue, 17 Nov 2015 20:33:24 +1300

What? No! Nobody's been hacked here (except Slater, by Rawshark). Those pictures were *sent* by Rachinger to Slater, and by Slater (directly or indirectly) to the other blog.

tussock

Tue, 17 Nov 2015 20:09:26 +1300

So, is the real story here that politicians have been blackmailing senior NZ journalists by having the spooks hack their private communications and search for nude photos.

Because, well, isn't exactly that why we got that new law to make sure all our ISPs and Telcos had to install pre-hacked…

stephen clover

Tue, 17 Nov 2015 19:16:42 +1300

That log from December 19 looks like it has many holes in it

Indeed it does – it’s missing at the very least these lines (marked w/ *) and who knows what else:

19 Dec 14 12:24:50 – CS: Yes…john key lost my respect
...
*19 Dec 14 12:25:nn –…

Mark Sibly

Tue, 17 Nov 2015 16:48:20 +1300

Really? I was under the impression there was no real evidence of what went on, therefore no prosecution (but I haven't been following all that closely...). Perhaps this changes that? Or perhaps it was only "pretty illegal"!

Keith Ng

Tue, 17 Nov 2015 16:36:27 +1300

TBF, *Ben* actually proved this from the get-go.

Keith Ng

Tue, 17 Nov 2015 16:35:18 +1300

Well, the hacking of The Standard is pretty illegal. But beyond that it's a little hazy. Ben claims to have hacked my email, for example, and Slater didn't explicitly ask for it... so, I dunno. Ask a lawyer.

Gary Elshaw

Tue, 17 Nov 2015 16:28:01 +1300

That log from December 19 looks like it has many holes in it Keith. And thank you for this article, it vindicates a lot of suspicions.

Mark Sibly

Tue, 17 Nov 2015 16:12:20 +1300

A lot to take in...but doesn't this basically prove that CS was commissioning a hack on the Standard? Isn't that illegal?!?

HORansome

Tue, 17 Nov 2015 16:08:37 +1300

Well, it's nice to know my work on the Ben Rachinger material has been basically vindicated; I pointed out that the timeline Ben has presented has never actually made sense, and showed he was still working for/scamming Slater well after he claimed he wasn't.

Johnny Canuck

Tue, 17 Nov 2015 15:51:29 +1300

make sense of this whole fucking mess

One thing's for sure, PC Plod will never make sense of it. Seeking and serving search warrants against journalists at the behest of aggrieved National party politicians is one thing. But making sense of techno-blather between bloggers and hackers is well beyond the…

Don Christie

Tue, 17 Nov 2015 15:34:43 +1300

Is what CS was asking / paying for is not illegal?

DPF

Tue, 17 Nov 2015 15:06:39 +1300

A fascinating article. You should write it up as a book :-)

Public Address

Tue, 17 Nov 2015 15:06:39 +1300

Discussion from blog post.