New Zealand spying on Brazil and Mexico

NZ 'complicit' in spying on Brazil

A former Green Party MP says the Prime Minister should apologise to the Brazilian President after New Zealand spies were told about intercepted calls, texts and emails between her and her staff.

Radio NZ,
16 May, 2013

Documents from American whistleblower Edward Snowden show details about the monitoring were shared with New Zealand, as one of the so-called Five Eyes nations.

Intelligence critic, and former Green MP, Keith Locke, says that amounts to being complicit in the spying, and Prime Minister John Key, should apologise.

Former Green Party MP, Keith Locke

"That's not going to help out relations with Brazil and Mexico and I think one of the things John Key needs to do quickly, because this will be noticed, is apologise to the presidents of Brazil and Mexico for being complicit in spying upon them."

The documents in a new book, No Place to Hide, by journalist Glenn Greenwald, about Mr Snowden reveal a slideshow on how to operate a system that trawls through massive amounts of phone numbers, email addresses and online chat.

It was for agencies in the so-called Five-Eyes network which includes this country, Australia, Britain, the US and Canada.

One document invites those countries to "sniff it all, know it all, collect it all, process it all and exploit it all."

The former head of the government's spy agency meanwhile says staff need to be trained to the highest standards available, but they always act within the law.

Former director of GCSB Sir Bruce Ferguson told Morning Report there would be no point to the agency if staff were not trained to use the best tools available.

"And let's not forget, GCSB is there to protect New Zealand's security, it's not there to spy on New Zealanders."

Sir Bruce says the GCSB did not and does not routinely collect metadata

PM keeps mum on spy agency's links to US security machine

NZ Herald,

16 May, 2014

John Key has said he is aware of "some" but not all of the tools used by the Government Communications Security Bureau amid fresh questions over an intrusive piece of spyware showcased by the United States' NSA to their Kiwi partners.

The Prime Minister stuck to his position in refusing to talk about "operational" details of the spy agency's work.

The refusal came the day after material emerged from whistleblower Edward Snowden showing New Zealand was enmeshed in some of the most controversial aspects of the United States' spy machine.

Among those was a slide shown at a conference for the Five Eyes group of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the US which illustrated the capabilities of the X-Keyscore tool, which the NSA uses to search mass-harvested phone and email records.

Asked if he knew the tools used by the GCSB, he said "some of them". "I don't go into the techniques the GCSB or SIS use."

But he repeated his oft-stated position that there was no mass surveillance of New Zealanders and that partners in the Five Eyes network were not used to get around the law.

The new slides also showed Australian spies asking for the NSA's help to monitor citizens involved in al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Mr Key, asked if the GCSB sought NSA help to watch the Kiwi killed there in a US drone strike, said: "I don't have those details."

Mr Key refused to say whether the NSA helped fund the GCSB, despite Snowden documents showing Canadian and United Kingdom agencies received funding.

"I think New Zealanders actually accept that there is a place for intelligence agencies [and] those intelligence agencies provide very important services."

The online community's voice, Internet NZ, said Mr Key needed to front up about the extent of the GCSB's involvement with the NSA.

Internet NZ chief executive Jordan Carter said the Snowden material appeared to show the GCSB involved in some of the NSA's most controversial activities.

"The latest leaks appear to show that the GCSB was shown X-Keyscore, the data harvesting software; that New Zealand was advised that there was spying on leaders of 'allies' and that the NSA was putting backdoors into company's systems. What New Zealanders deserve to know is whether New Zealanders took part in any of those activities."

X-Keyscore being used in New Zealand

See THIS ARTICLE on X-Keyscore

Green Party press release - 

Key needs to front on what NZ spies are up to

Thursday, 15 May 2014, 11:18 am

Press Release: Green Party

Prime Minister John Key has questions to answer following the latest Snowden leaks detailing New Zealand’s involvement in the Five-Eyes spying network, the Green Party said today.

Information released in a new book by journalist Glenn Greenwald on National Security Agency (NSA) whistle-blower Edward Snowden includes top secret briefings for the Five-Eyes network, of which New Zealand is a member.

“These briefing documents directly link New Zealand spies to a global mass surveillance network,” said Green Party Co-leader Dr Russel Norman.

“Prime Minister John Key has no choice but to start answering questions about what it means for New Zealand to be a member of the Five-Eyes network.

“It’s becoming increasingly implausible for Key to claim that New Zealand is not participating in the type of activity that the other Five-Eyes partners have been found to be undertaking, when over and over again we’re seeing evidence to the contrary.

“For the first time we’re clearly seeing the Five-Eyes network’s approach to data collection, and their ambition to ‘sniff it all, know it all, collect it all, process it all, exploit it all and partner it all’.

“The documents also show New Zealand’s spy agencies were instructed on how to use X-Keyscore, a type of search engine for NSA’s database that enables users to access our private information.

“It’s also been revealed that New Zealand knew about diplomatic espionage by other members of the Five-Eyes network. Any involvement by New Zealand’s spy agencies in this sort of spying would be incredibly damaging for our international relations.

“Being a member of Five-Eyes sends a clear message to other countries that we’re part of the American network. It’s a serious compromise to our independent foreign policy.

“New Zealanders have the right to know what our spy agencies are up to, and what this means for our own private information.

“Journalist Glenn Greenwald is clear that the lack of oversight of spy agencies is the problem. New Zealand is no exception to this.

“We need a wide ranging independent inquiry into New Zealand’s intelligence agencies to ensure proper oversight. In response to the Snowden leaks, other countries have taken this step; New Zealand must follow suit.”

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1405/S00233/key-needs-to-front-on-what-nz-spies-are-up-to.htm