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Am I a threat to global peace?

New Zealand's Security Intelligence Service created something of a furore this week when they asked staff and students at many of our tertiary institutions to keep an eye on their peers for signs of "terror science".

Apparently, the SIS is concerned that there maybe malevolent parties seeking to obtain information from within the halls of our universities; information that would be useful in the design or construction of weapons of mass destruction.

Should I be worried?

Is it just coincidence that this SIS initiative comes just a week or two after I announced my intention to continue with the low-cost DIY cruise missile (LCCM) project?

No doubt the SIS are keeping a quiet eye on my activities (at least I would hope they are, wouldn't you?) so I wonder if my announcement may have produced a quick move to "do something" in this area of the War Against Terror (WAT).

Perhaps my recent email to the Minister produced the question "what are the SIS doing to ensure there isn't a proliferation of information like this going on within NZ?"

I don't know -- I'm merely speculating.

However, those who questioned why I would even bother asking for permission to test my LCCM must now surely understand the rationale behind such a move.

The very last thing I want to do is to try and keep my actions covert. It is essential (to establish proof that my motives are not nefarious) that I disclose everything I intend to do and provide plenty of advance notice.

It's also important that I maintain a degree of public profile while doing this because the previous government granted itself (and hence this government) the power to allow the PM to declare anyone a terrorist, seemingly without any evidence or proof.

Once declared "a terrorist", such an individual loses all their rights -- even the right to appeal the decision through our courts.

So, for the record -- I'm not a terrorist -- I'm a technologist.

I'm not intending to sell the plans for my LCCM to Al Qaeda or any other group of disaffected militants, insurgents or terrorists.

What I want to do is strengthen the case for vigilance by showing the world just how easily these evil little sods could build their own surprisingly hi-tech missile and then deploy it against "soft" civilian targets.

I also want to give all the relevant authorities plenty of opportunity to gather data from the test in the hope that this data would be useful in producing strategies for pre-empting the construction or deployment of an LCCM by "unfriendly forces".

What I *will* do is publish my book (which doesn't have plans) so that others can see just how easy it was to build the missile but just how hard it's been to deal with the efforts of those who'd rather use "security by obscurity" as a way of controlling this information.

I'll also auction off the media-rights for filming the testing. The money raised from that will (hopefully) go a modest way towards redressing the huge personal and financial toll the political fallout from this project has taken on myself and my family.

This morning I'll contact the SIS to keep them "up to date" with my activities -- just so they don't erroneously think I may be just the kind of person they want others to dob-in.

In the meantime, I'm running a poll in the discussion forums to get a feel for what the public thinks about this whole project. Please go and have your say.

Was the SIS's approach to tertiary institutions a little "over the top" -- or was it simply a sensible move?

Does the SIS not realise just how much information and technology is already available "off the shelf" and via the internet (which was the whole raison d'etre of the LCCM project in the first place)?

Do we need the LCCM project to be tested so as to prove that universities and polytech's are probably the last place a potential terrorist would attempt to obtain information to build weapons of mass destruction?

Am I being unreasonable or greedy by expecting to auction off the news-rights to film the testing?

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