You'd be forgiven, at this point, for wondering who else is going to turn up in this year's election campaign. In a year that has already seen accusations of collusion between the Prime Minister's office and bloggers, now three of the world's most best-known whistleblowers are embroiled in New Zealand politics.
At a meeting in Auckland last night, organised by the Internet party's Kim Dotcom, former spy Edward Snowden and journalist Glenn Greenwald presented evidence that they say proves the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) was involved in the mass surveillance of New Zealand citizens.
Snowden, with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange watching on, said his former employer, the National Security Agency (NSA) is already operating in this country and has a facility in Auckland and one further north.
The meeting was dubbed “The Moment of Truth” and Snowden went on to say that New Zealand is unequivocally under mass surveillance, and re-iterated his article, published a few hours before, that the Prime Minister is misleading the country.
“I can see what book you looked at on Amazon.com. I can see who you talked to, I can see who your friends on Facebook are. I can see the text message you sent, I can see the emails you wrote.”
Snowden says not only does the GCSB use a programme called XKeyscore (which the NSA uses to search and analyse internet data), but the agency also contributed to its expansion and development.
Still confused about what metadata is? Tim McNamara explains.
Greenwald used documents from the NSA – given to him by Snowden – to unveil details of the surveillance programme “Speargun”. NSA documents appeared to confirm the GCSB had proceeded with plans to put the programme in place. The documents include a message saying “(TS//SI//NF) New Zealand: GCSB’s cable access program SPEARGUN Phase 1; awaiting new GCSB Act expected July 2013; first metadata probe mid 2013.”
Technology journalist Keith Ng writes: “The new GCSB Act – the one that supposedly wouldn’t expand GCSB powers – expanded GCSB powers to allow them operate a metadata probe on this cable which they’d tapped.”
Snowden told the meeting “citizens of New Zealand have their private communications in this database and people in the GCSB, in the NSA, in the UK, in DSD, in Australia. They all have access to these communications.”
And he said the decision about whether that’s appropriate isn’t one for politicians to make. “I think it’s wrong of any politician to take away the public’s seat at the table of government. And say ‘you’ll simply have to trust us’.”
GCSB’s cable access program SPEARGUN Phase 1; awaiting new GCSB Act expected July 2013; first metadata probe mid 2013.”
Prime Minister John Key has repeatedly refused to comment on XKeyscore, but released a statement last night saying there is not, and never has been, a cable access surveillance programme operating in New Zealand.
Regarding XKEYSCORE, we don’t discuss the specific programmes the GCSB may, or may not use, but the GCSB does not collect mass metadata on New Zealanders, therefore it is clearly not contributing such data to anything or anyone,” Mr Key says. I am setting the record straight tonight because I believe New Zealanders deserve better than getting half of a story, embellished for dramatic effect and political gain, and based on incomplete information. The GCSB undertakes cyber security operations to protect individual public and private sector entities from the increasing threat of cyber-attack and this is very important work.
Last night’s events were nearly overshadowed by the lack of information around an email which Kim Dot Com claimed showed John Key was involved in a plot with Hollywood company Warner Brothers to have him extradited to the US. Dot Com has long said Mr Key knew of his existence long before the raid on his Coatesville mansion. Warner Brothers swiftly denied that the email is real, as did the MPAA.
The event had been billed for months as showing proof of this plot, but it didn’t warrant a mention on stage last night, and Dotcom refused to answer questions on the email, saying it has been referred to Parliament’s privileges committee.
New Zealand’s election is now being seen on a world stage – the Guardian writes about Greenwald, Dotcom, Snowden and Assange taking on “adolescent” John Key. “An international all-star lineup of the White House's most-loathed shared a stage … Retracing the evidence in the Intercept report and an accompanying article by Snowden, Greenwald said: "The Key government has radically misled and deceived the New Zealand citizenry. I don't make that accusation lightly … unless I have the evidence to back it up. And in this case I can categorically and with great confidence say that it is.”
People will say that “if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear” from this kind of surveillance. And that’s true, in part. But ask yourself how comfortable you would be having a webcam in every room of your house – even if it’s not turned on.
“Maybe the people of New Zealand think that's appropriate,” Snowden said. “Maybe they think that they want to sacrifice a certain measure of their liberty … That's what democracy is about; that's what self-government is about. But that decision doesn't belong to John Key or officials in the GCSB making these decisions behind closed doors.”
In the five days before the election, there will be many questions, and some answers. Whether it will affect the result is a different question entirely, and remains to be seen.