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"Five Eyes, No Soul" - 26 August 2025

How Trump's Intelligence Blockade Exposes the Colonial Surveillance Machine Grinding Māori Under Its Boot

Ivor Jones The Māori Green Ltn

26 Aug 2025 — 8 min read

Kia ora tatou katoa - Greetings to us all.

The recent revelation that Donald Trump's intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard ordered a halt to sharing Ukraine-Russia peace talks intelligence with Five Eyes allies has ripped the mask off this supposedly sacred intelligence alliance. When CBS News reported that Gabbard's July 20 directive classified all Ukraine negotiations as "NOFORN" - no foreign dissemination - it exposed what tangata whenua have always known: these colonial surveillance networks serve only their imperial masters, not the people they claim to protect.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/571012/spy-agencies-quiet-on-reported-us-blocking-of-five-eyes-intel-sharing

Background: The Colonial Surveillance Web

The Five Eyes alliance represents the ultimate manifestation of Anglo-colonial power projection, binding together the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand in what former NSA contractor Edward Snowden described as "a supra-national intelligence organisation that does not answer to the known laws of its own countries." This surveillance apparatus, born from World War II code-breaking cooperation and formalized through the 1946 UKUSA Agreement, has evolved into a global spying machine that treats Indigenous peoples as perpetual threats to colonial stability.

For Māori, this alliance represents the technological extension of colonization - surveillance systems designed to monitor, control, and suppress Indigenous resistance. The principle of kaitiakitanga demands we protect our people from these invasive technologies, yet our government willingly participates in this colonial surveillance state.

When Allies Become Adversaries

New Zealand's spy agencies refused to comment when asked whether they had been blocked from receiving intelligence about Ukraine-Russia peace processes. This silence speaks volumes about our nation's servile relationship to American imperial power. The directive, signed by Gabbard on July 20, 2025, restricted even sharing between US intelligence agencies, demonstrating the fractures within this supposedly unshakeable alliance.

This matters to Māori because it reveals the fundamental lie at the heart of Five Eyes - that it serves our collective security. Instead, it serves American hegemony first, colonial settler states second, and Indigenous peoples not at all. When former Prime Minister Helen Clark questioned New Zealand's continued involvement in Five Eyes, describing it as "out of control," she recognized what many tangata whenua already knew: this alliance threatens rather than protects our sovereignty.

The Colonial Surveillance Machine in Full Display

The Hypocrisy of Intelligence "Sharing"

The Trump administration's decision to withhold crucial intelligence from supposed allies reveals the true nature of Five Eyes - a hierarchical colonial structure where the United States sits at the apex, dictating terms to its settler colony vassals. This isn't intelligence sharing; it's intelligence colonization. The directive prevented sharing with the UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, countries that have "exchanged sensitive intelligence with Washington for decades."

From a Māori perspective, this exposes the whakapapa of colonial power - how the parent empire maintains control over its settler offspring. The principle of kotahitanga, unity of purpose, is perverted here into unity of surveillance, where Indigenous peoples become the primary targets of this supposed "security" apparatus.

Gabbard's Track Record of Deception

Tulsi Gabbard, Trump's Director of National Intelligence, brings a particularly toxic blend of authoritarian surveillance advocacy wrapped in populist rhetoric. Her previous controversies include echoing Putin's justification for invading Ukraine and being publicly contradicted by Trump over Iran's nuclear capabilities. When the president calls his own intelligence chief "wrong" on critical national security assessments, it reveals the complete dysfunction at the heart of this surveillance empire.

For Māori, Gabbard represents the dangerous intersection of imperial surveillance and far-right authoritarianism. Her willingness to restrict intelligence sharing even within US agencies demonstrates the paranoid, controlling mentality that drives these colonial surveillance systems.

The Broader Pattern of Indigenous Surveillance

This intelligence blockade isn't an isolated incident but part of a broader pattern of surveillance systems targeting Indigenous communities. Wellington tech activist Julian Oliver has been helping NGOs move data off US servers, citing fears about Trump administration exploitation of digital infrastructure. Oliver's work reveals how "vast swathes of civilian data are already being handed over to the Trump administration to exploit."

His observation that "we are part of Five Eyes and Five Eyes is basically about data sharing and surveillance" cuts to the heart of the matter. These systems aren't designed to protect Indigenous peoples - they're designed to monitor and control us. The principle of mana whenua, authority over land and people, is systematically undermined by surveillance technologies that treat Indigenous communities as permanent security threats.

The Neoliberal Surveillance Economy

The Five Eyes alliance serves not just imperial power but neoliberal capital accumulation through surveillance capitalism. These intelligence systems feed data to corporate surveillance networks, creating what Shoshana Zuboff calls "surveillance capitalism" - the extraction of human experience as raw material for predictive products sold in behavioral futures markets.

For tangata whenua, this represents the latest phase of colonial extraction - moving from land and resources to human behavior and social relationships. Our tikanga, our traditional knowledge systems, become data points for algorithmic manipulation. The principle of taonga tuku iho, treasures handed down from our ancestors, is perverted into extractable data commodities.

Implications: The Fracturing Colonial Alliance

Weakening the Surveillance Web

The fractures within Five Eyes revealed by this intelligence blockade suggest the beginning of a broader imperial decline. When experts warn that the move could harm US interests and undermine efforts to "coordinate positions", they're acknowledging that imperial overreach has consequences. The principle of whakawhanaungatanga, building relationships, is impossible when those relationships are based on surveillance and control rather than mutual respect.

Opportunities for Indigenous Resistance

Helen Clark's call for New Zealand to potentially leave Five Eyes if Trump "evicts Canada" represents a rare moment of colonial self-reflection. Her observation that Five Eyes has become "a basis for policy positioning on all sorts of things" rather than quiet intelligence sharing reveals how this alliance has metastasized into a tool of comprehensive imperial control.

For Māori, these fractures create opportunities to advocate for genuine digital sovereignty - systems that serve Indigenous communities rather than surveilling them. The principle of tino rangatiratanga, self-determination, demands that we resist participation in surveillance systems that treat our people as threats to be monitored rather than communities to be protected.

The Māori Green Lantern fighting misinformation and disinformation from the far right

Call to Action: Reclaiming Digital Sovereignty

The Trump administration's betrayal of its Five Eyes "allies" exposes the fundamental bankruptcy of colonial surveillance systems. These networks serve imperial power first, settler state interests second, and Indigenous peoples not at all. The directive blocking intelligence sharing reveals what tangata whenua have always known - we cannot trust surveillance systems designed by colonizers to serve colonizers.

The path forward requires rejecting participation in these colonial surveillance networks and building Indigenous-controlled alternatives based on our values of mana whenua, kaitiakitanga, and tino rangatiratanga. We must demand that Aotearoa New Zealand withdraw from Five Eyes and develop intelligence capabilities that serve our people rather than foreign imperial powers.

The colonial surveillance machine is fracturing under the weight of its own contradictions. Now is the time for Indigenous peoples to step through those cracks and reclaim our digital sovereignty.

He mihi nui ki a koutou katoa - great thanks to you all.

For readers who find value in my content exposing these colonial surveillance systems, please consider a donation/koha to support this crucial work: HTDM: 03-1546-0415173-000. I understand these are tough economic times for whānau, so please only contribute if you have capacity and wish to do so.

Noho ora mai,
Ivor Jones - The Māori Green Lantern

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/top/571012/spy-agencies-quiet-on-reported-us-blocking-of-five-eyes-intel-sharing

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