Brendon O'Connell Describes His NZ Ordeal
December 23, 2017
(left, O'Connell showing effect of 2 week hunger strike)
Brendon O'Connell was encouraged to come to New Zealand Oct. 9 by well-connected people. He was in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia but wanted to continue his career in nursing in New Zealand. O'Connell was encouraged by NZ's anti-Zionist stand.
But NZ doesn't have facilities for asylum seekers and he was put into a maximum security facility. This is designed to discourage migrants. He was held in solitary naked and on camera for two weeks. He was awakened every 15 min 24/7. They threatened to medicate him but it didn't happen. Finally, they decided to let him return to KL. Malaysia Airlines paid for his flight back to KL Wednesday and he received a warm welcome from Malaysian officials.
Brendon's sophisticated take on the reality behind the charade of current events can be found on his website. Listen to an amazing interview with him by Kevin Barrett. Details below.
Exclusive
by Brendon O'Connell
(henrymakow.com)
Kuala Lampur- I could have walked right through border control - just scanned my passport with the deal NZ and Australia have. But I decided to declare my criminal conviction to keep within the rules. I had detailed documentation and audio visual material for immigration showing the garbage, politically motivated charges.
Immigration were very nice originally, but after 12 hours, as I had interviews, the tone changed. They stated it was decided I would not be allowed into the country and I could do a "turn around" there and then and go back to Malaysia at my own cost. I said I was moving forward with political asylum. They said I would be placed in prison where all asylum applicants go. I stated that was ridiculous, asylum seekers are only detained in separate detention centres where they are allowed to call anyone they want, have computer and email access. Internet access. Own clothes. Access to all papers and effects, clothes. BUT NOT IN NEW ZEALAND! They place refugees at the border in the maximum security Mt Eden correctional facility where you have access to...nothing.
NZ was criticizing Australia on their treatment of asylum seekers. I know for a fact ALL asylum seekers in Australia, whether on the mainland or offshore processing center, have full access to the internet, phone calls, property, papers and effects. They are kept locked down to a bare minimum.
At Mt Eden we were locked in our cells for a MINIMUM 19 hours per day - more like 22 hours up to three times per weeks as they have no staff as no one wants to work in the prison. At Australia's controversial Christmas Island and Manus Island processing centers, detainees could go fishing, swimming, and access to everything including their own mobile phones, cooking facilities etc. We would have all gladly gone to their locations and swapped circumstances. The NZ government claimed they wanted to take 150 of the 400 Manus Island refugees - how could they? They cant even manage 13 in the Mt Eden crap hole over crowded prison.
I arrived right in the middle of that major Australian, New Zealand controversy. I think NZ thought it was a set up.
Immigration New Zealand said in the early morning hours of Saturday that this was my last chance to leave. I spoke with Chris, my well connected friend. He said lawyers were on the way and to stay. There were no lawyers coming. Chris had badly underestimated the NZ government response. Immigration then formally detained me on Saturday, 14th of October, and a Manakau police station officer hand cuffed me and dragged me off the main police lock up where ALL immigration people go. I was there for 5 days before being transferred to Mt Eden remand centre.
A this time, NZ and Australian relations were at their lowest ever. Foreign Minister of Oz, Julie Bishop, is a conservative and HATES new NZ prime minister Jacinta Adern with a passion. In fact, in an unheard of public statement, Julie Bishop (equivalent of Hillary Clinton when she was Secretary of State) stated the Australian government would not be able to work with the new NZ government.
Jacinta Adern, left, was making statements and inferring Australia were a bunch of fascists in their treatment of asylum seekers to Oz. Well, imagine the NZ government embarrassment when I let them know what was going on in NZ and the way NZ treated asylum seekers which was making Australia look like Sweden.
JAIL
Not only that, the prison system was a JOKE in New Zealand. I was in total shock. I had no shoes. No underwear except the lone pair I came in on. No bed sheet - just a blanket. One pair of tracksuit pants, a t-shirt, singlet and one jumper. NO CUP! Even a Soviet gulag gave you a cup! In NZ, you use an old milk carton. They claim you can wear your own clothes in a NZ prison while on remand. Garbage, in practice it rarely happens. It takes months to get your property. You can't have shoes with red or blue on them because of gang wars. Family can bring in clothes for you and a "cup"...most prisoners don't have that support.
It costs a fortune for phone calls and prisoners are bribed to inform on each other with phone cards.
I was lucky. I came into the country with $3000 in cash which was put into my prison trust account giving me some power. I bought a cup with two packets of noodles off another prisoner.
Food is kept to a minimum and it is TERRIBLE! People dive into bins to get the disgusting sandwiches they are so hungry. Western Australia was PARADISE compared to NZ.
The "canteen" is the usual garbage - sweets, fat and noodles.
Food is the currency in jail. Most prisoners are hungry all the time.
I complained in letters about the food and at least the presentation was improved - they put in a "sweet corn" sandwich with vegemite and peanut butter and it drips through. Who in the hell thought sweet corn disgusting sandwiches was a necessary addition to the NZ diet? I bet the prison director has a brother in the sweet corn industry.
Gangs run the prison mainstream area. Prison officers (many of them) live in fear and they cannot retain staff. I saw prisoners from mainstream being disgusting to the female prison officers and nursing staff. If that had happened in Western Australia, a team of prison officers would have mobbed the prisoner, hurled them to the ground, hand cuffed, beat them black and blue and shoved them into isolation for three months to cool their heels. Not in NZ though - though when I told other senior prison officers what happened, they said they would have dealt with it.
I lasted two days in mainstream and had to get to segregation. If you are not a member of a gang or have family in mainstream you will not survive. I met a couple of good people there though.
Prison officers and police were very nice. Very polite. They told me to make complaints or nothing would change. I told them there was a huge Occupation, Health & Safety problem - "hanging points" throughout many cells, a big no no.
I could not get phone numbers out of my phones held in property. They said it was not possible. I was FLABBERGASTED! How the hell was I supposed to contact anyone? Of course THAT was the point. They did not want me speaking to anyone - they knew my calls would be recorded and I would spill the beans on what was going on.
After 4 weeks and bitter complaints and threats, a prison officer went to property area and got my numbers. All letters except those sent with "tracking numbers" never got to me.
Technically, the prison should not confirm me as I was an "asylum seeker" and this is a standard protocol via the UNHCR rules for refugees due to where many refugee applicants come from. However, the real reason was to keep me silent and isolated because of what I was see'ing - including the theft of 400grams of high quality cocaine by New Zealand border control.
BORDER CONTROL
I was right there when the Brazilian man was being searched and it was filmed by the famous TV show, "Border Control". I shared a cell with the man. A nice guy. He was laughing and showed me the paper work where the cocaine was %90 pure but instead of 3kg, it was 2.6kg. So, NZ border control stole 400grams. This was on the early morning of 13th of October, Friday. Approximately 4am.
When I got my complaint as to what was happening to the new Minister for Immigration, an investigation into NZ border control was instigated and the news reports were torn down and altered ones put up, apparently making the bust 5 days later. I assure you, this is a scandal - and it was filmed! They say there is no God? I was in NZ a few hours and already I was privvy to major corruption.
TREATMENT OF REFUGEES
Refugees are beaten in prison. Stood over for their food and phone cards. They are too scared to complain. One Indian guy, held for 14 months was assaulted in his cell. His spine fractured. He called the emergency button for help - they told him to shut up. He had major back pain and told them he had been assaulted - they told him he was a liar and had fallen out of bed. After a month of complaining he was x rayed and found to have a major fracture in his spine and a permanent injury that would worsen in time. The prison gave him a single cell. I got him to apply for criminal compensation and seek a lawyer to sue NZ prison system.
There is no sunlight at Mt Eden - it is 4 stories high, like the 28 story L.A Metropolitan Detention Center. A few Units have limited access to the sun as it comes through a hole in the roof at certain times. It is all concrete and steel. No grass, no tree's, no movement outside. Some prisoners have been there for up to two years. It is an outrage. They hand out vitamin D.
As a former Registered Nurse with ICU and ER experience I can tell you - the medical care is an UTTER disgrace. Staff are highly inexperienced and appear straight out of university. Only older RN at the jail told me something needed to be done.
On November the 15th I was pissed and ready to go to war. I had teamed up with the wealthy African man being shafted by INZ and I decided to blast them in the Manakau District Court using the UN Conventions on the rights and treatment of refugees and the UN rights of prisoners - The Nelson Mandala Rules.
I saw two INZ officers who handed me the warrant before I went into the court. I said, "Andrew! This is bullshit! You are with holding my paper work from my lawyer and LYING to her I gave you nothing! You are violating every UN convention! My case is not a joke!" Andrew replied, "I know! I know! Make a complaint!"
One lawyer was representing my new African friend. He saw him after my tirade and his lawyer had said, "Who was that guy! amazing! About time! Someone had to finally say it!". He then told Robert to get a letter signed by as many refugee claimants in the prison and he would take it directly to the new Minister. It is six pages and 5 managed to sign.
I wrote it. It was scanned by prison staff and emailed to the lawyer. He took it to the Minister the next day. A report was compiled. They will have to transfer out ALL refugee cases to a new facility or set aside an entire wing of the jail for immigration and allow them access to resources. NZ should however have a specific built detention centre.
They have the money - they just could not be bothered changing BUT, there is another reason and I can understand NZ attitude to this. To be fair, most claims are bogus. Maybe %80. Most are economic refugees. Many get in trouble in their home countries with organized crime, corrupt police. True, they have a claim according to the UN definition of a refugee. But asylum seeking is a big industry. People smuggling rivals the drug trade in profits.
Afghani refugees are highly favored in NZ. They are a guaranteed asylum case. It is hard for them to get to NZ So to look good, NZ accepts them. They come on fake pass ports. Costing $25,000to $45,000 in over all cost to get to the NZ border. Obviously many have a legitimate claim, but the running joke is to get into NZ say you are an Afghani cross dressing persecuted gay man or woman and the gravy train begins. Let me add, I got to know some of those guys - great people. Please understand, many are ordinary people in the hope for a better life. Their countries are dangerous. But places like NZ simply do not have the capacity to take them. NZ is only4 million people. If they allow a genuine Indian student in who is being hunted by corrupt police, then he tells his friends and all of a sudden 1000 Indian students are arriving at the airport after tearing up their fake passports on the plane - New Zealand cannot cope with such numbers..
HUNGER STRIKE & SOLITARY
I went on a two-week hunger strike in protest. I did not manage it well and was quite sick. My body was protesting. A psychiatrist Stephen HEED threatened to send me to The Mason Clinic and forcibly medicate me. He said Kevin Barrett and Tony Hall did not exist. I had never been to Iran and I had never spoken with Dr Alan Sabrosky - I was "delusional". All my notes were 30ft away in a locker with evidence of Visa's etc. He said he did not care. I will never forget him. In the end he assessed me before I was allowed on the plane and I was cleared to go - so we will call a truce on that one.
I was held in horrendous conditions during the hunger strike unlike Western Australia where guards were taking bets I could not outlast Bobby Sands, cheering me on and allowing me calls to journalists and friends. NZ did everything they could to wreck me. They put me naked in The Round Room. Covered only by a "stiff" cloak that you cannot use to hang yourself. The room is for suicidal people. It is COMPLETELY bare. Nothing in there.
The walls and floor and pasted with a shiny surface to stop feces and urine staining the floor. It can easily be washed out. I was woken every 15 minutes. I had one blanket - a stiff one. I had to request water which is COMPLETELY against every rule in the book when handling a politically legitimate hunger strike. I had to urinate in a bottle and defecate in a pan - all on camera surveillance. Every morning a mental health nurse would pop around and ask me cheerily, "How are you going Brendon?"
After a week of this I said, "You know, I was a Comprehensive Registered Nurse for 5 years. Psyche and General trained, acute care setting experience. Do you know how they begin the torture and interrogation process in Guantanamo Bay? They sleep deprive people to break up their ego defenses and drive them to a mental break down. You have sleep deprived me by waking me every 15 minutes. I have to ask for water. I am humiliated and punished for drawing attention to the horrendous conditions asylum seekers are held in, not to mention the disgusting state of the prison in general.
I am a wreck and if video or photos of the treatment and conditions I was experiencing were placed online, how would that look?" She agreed. I went to the medical center for the daily check up - I told them I was being tortured with sleep deprivation and degrading conditions. They said it was the standard hunger strike protocol. I said, "I know, thats what worries me. You simply do not have a clue what you are doing is so wrong do you? I warn you now, I have a big audience. The prison management are in the shit." That day, after a week, I was removed from that room and placed in an ordinary cell on 30 minute obs with water access.
Lower level police, prison officers and INZ personnel as well as lawyers were, on the whole, good people. But I have no doubt a certain powerful little country was digging their claws in and applying pressure in a million and one ways. Russia offered NZ a free trade deal - deal with Russia, you are dealing with Netanyahu.
But NZ lawyers must accept their WOEFUL performance. When they build that detention center be sure to call it the "O'Connell S****u Immigration Detention Center".
I am positive the new Labor government will mount proper investigations and change the entire system. I do not want to humiliate people - I want to see a better system and New Zealand pull themselves out of their ignorent self imposed isolated condition and fulfill the UNHCR contract. They are a wealthy first world country.
I want $20,000 compensation for what I was put through. All refugees put through that system must be compensated. I am willing to see lawyers handle matters and I will remain respectful.
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Related- Great O'Connell Interview Friday with Kevin Barrett Posted at: https://www.patreon.com/posts/16020748
It will broadcast 10 to 11 a.m. Sunday at http://NoLiesRadio.org and release to non-subscribers on Monday.
MM said (December 24, 2017):
I agree with Pete.
i was thinking the EXACT same thing. that this Brendan fellow isnt too smart. does he not realise that he is expecting fair treatment from one of those countries that are TOTALLY Rothschild owned/controlled?
i think that the people close to Brendan should make things clear to him- he seems to be on a collision course for life imprisonment or an "accident" waiting to happen.
Then he is speaking as is he is the first one to discover/realise that most of those seeking asylum in western countries are just economic refugees- those looking for greener pastures & very few of them are REAL refugees in the sense that their lives are at risk if they remain in their home countries.
if Brendan continues in this way, he will not be taken seriously & will end up a laughing stock or dead.