Looks like everyone's been reading up on their 4GW theory.
On the morning a large protest was to occur outside Parliament, excerpts from the police evidence presented to secure the initial search warrants (gathered during extensive surveillance, including intercepted phone calls, audio bugs in cars, and even video recorded from hidden cameras at various sites) was published by media outlets owned by Fairfax (disclaimer: I do some writing for PC World NZ, also owned by a division of Fairfax).
Threats of legal action by the Solicitor-General followed, as well as renewed public support for the police actions.
Links to the excerpts:
Thoughts:
- Definite indications that systems disruption was to be a key tactic (a strategy that "will divide Aotearoa", specifically mentioning Telecom, the telco that lost power at a single datacentre and broke a significant portion of New Zealand's communications infrastructure).
- Training in small-unit combat manoeuvres (evidence they expected to encounter SAS or police special units, similar to the forces that conducted the raid in Ruatoki).
- References to IRA and AQ training manuals (Robb's Open-Source War).
- A sophisticated and comprehensive surveillance operation conducted by the police.
The "leak" very effectively sucked the wind out of any media coverage of the planned protest at Parliament (it still went ahead, but coverage was sparse considering the potential race-relations angle).
4GW isn't about winning hearts and minds, it's about manipulating them. The information space should be a key battleground in any moral warfighter's mind.
Score one for the State.