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OPINION: I do not like the Martin Niemller poem, written in the aftermath of the Holocaust, that begins: First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a Socialist and ends Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me.

It is an impactful statement written by a good man forced to confront his own failings during a shockingly dark period of European history. It retains a contemporary resonance and is frequently cited as a justification to uphold the rights of the least palatable members of a community.

However, this isnt a statement of moral principle. It is an appeal to self-interest and is driven by pity and regret.

Were a passive people. Passionless and docile. Despite our self-image, we Kiwis are driven by a need to conform. It isn't an attractive trait and is on display every time we board an aircraft. Passengers duly attach face masks and air stewards diligently enforce these pointless rules.

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Most of what we uncritically accept is benign, but there is one that is deeply corrosive and has real and fatal consequences for both the lives of our poorest and most vulnerable but also for the very liberties that are an essential feature of a free society.

There was a story last week, about the success of Operation Trojan Shield.

This is a remarkable tale. The FBI established its own network of mobile phones, complete with handsets and encryption, and tricked the criminal underworld into adopting these devices in the mistaken belief that they were secure from the states prying eyes.

US Department of Justice

An image, released by the US Department of Justice, showing messages on the compromised encrypted app.

They were deceived. The FBI and other law enforcement agencies were listening and logging every call and text message. According to the recently released US indictment, there were 9500 of these units in circulation.

This latest huge bust, in a never-ending series of huge busts, is being touted as a coup in the War on Drugs, begun by Richard Nixon in 1971 and indeed it is. This is Graham Greene level skullduggery by the boys and girls in blue. Congratulations to all involved.

But... wait.

Lets stop and consider this. As a citizen of a free country it is my expectation that the state is not going to be listening to my communications without first convincing a judge that there is probable cause to be doing so.

Stuff

Damien Grant questions the legal basis of Operation Trojan Shield.

I accept that Apple and Amazon might be logging my keystrokes and snooping in on my conversations in order to sell me petfood and car insurance. Fine, but I can disconnect their services. Apple might be very powerful but it lacks the ability to lock me in a cage. Only a government can legally do this.

With great power should come great responsibility and, in a democracy, a large degree of restraint. What we have here are Western governments collaborating to establish a network with the specific purpose of listening into private conversations.

It isnt clear if a warrant was obtained before this data was gathered; the legal underpinnings of this operation remain murky and involve some third country that has yet to be identified. Even if one was secured in advance, we can be certain that 9500 individual warrants were not secured.

The police are delighted with themselves. Australian detective superintendent Des Appleby happily gloated: I think theyll be shocked to their core that theyve been stooged this badly. All their thoughts and plans, schemes, and theyre all in the hands of the police.

Indeed. Yet, was there any basis for this action other than a vague suspicion that if the police began listening to everything, they would get something? What of the thousands of people who used these phones for nothing more illicit than corporate security and dangerous liaisons?

An incomprehensible 27 million messages were captured and read during the three years this operation was running, and it was running in this country.

This is a violation of, at least, the expectation of Section 21 of our Bill of Rights: Everyone has the right to be secure against unreasonable search or seizure, whether of the person, property, or correspondence or otherwise.

There is no caveat that dispenses with this right if there is a risk that some teenager might be getting high. Despite my Libertarian objections most readers will be fine with this, because: drugs. Drugs are bad and we have Paddy Gower to help us understand how bad.

We are untroubled by the abuse of state power because we crave the illusion of security and lack the imagination to consider an alternative. And because it is the prescribed view of our cultural elites.

It also helps that no fresh-faced boys from Kings or Christs College are usually caught in these dragnets. The scions of Epsom and Fendalton and their parents will be confident that such awfulness will not touch them. So long as those whose private conversations are being bugged, assets seized and lives destroyed by decades in prison look suitably foreign, were pretty relaxed.

Even if we dont think it makes any difference, we know that drugs have won the war on drugs, we confidently assume that our rights are safe. Most readers are probably correct.

I am not going to make an argument that we should protect the civil liberties of the worst outcasts of society because one day we may lose our own liberties. There is no morality or principle in that.

Niemller was a Lutheran pastor. He should have sought inspiration from a much older tradition when considering his and his countrymens failings. I am not a Christian, but there is a profound proverb from antiquity that rings as true today as it did two millennia ago:

And the King will answer and say to them, Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.

Damien Grant is a business owner based in Auckland. He writes from a libertarian perspective and is a member of the Taxpayers Union but not of any political party.

Originally posted here:
Drug bust was a huge coup - but the surveillance should trouble free citizens - Stuff.co.nz