Tuesday 16 September 2014

New Zealand's Moment of Truth

I quite unapologetically take RT as my source for reporting last night's "Moment of Truth" as an unspun and accurate report of the events which I watched livestream.

An early indication of the conventional media trying to bury the story is from this commentary from Brent Edward on Radio New Zealand





If anything is standard in the media (with the noble exception of John Campbell) is the mob attack on Kim Dotcom and the attempt to try and destroy his reputation.

The media will sing in chorus that none of this matters to the public of New Zealand and we can continue to argue whether we are going to have tax cuts at the same time as the country's national debt goes through the roof (no one in media so much as mentions that! It's all about Key's touted 'surplus'

Well, thanks to media spin, it might be true that none of these revelations of the destruction of democracy in this country may take second fiddle to tax cuts for many.

That, my friends, is how fascism takes root.  It always has the  uninformed consent of the rule.

I fear that we are entering very ugly times

--SMR


Snowden: If you live in New Zealand, you’re being watched



RT,
15 September, 2014

Edward Snowden has dismissed as “false” the New Zealand PM’s claims of no mass surveillance in the country. The whistleblower says he regularly “came across communications of New Zealanders,” when he worked as an NSA analyst.

New Zealand’s Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) has performed mass spying, despite denials by the nation’s prime minister, John Key, the former NSA contractor says in his article, issued on Monday by the Intercept.

Let me be clear: any statement that mass surveillance is not performed in New Zealand, or that the internet communications are not comprehensively intercepted and monitored, or that this is not intentionally and actively abetted by the GCSB, is categorically false. If you live in New Zealand, you are being watched,” Snowden wrote.

The revelation comes shortly after US journalist Glenn Greenwald claimed there was proof of mass snooping being carried out in New Zealand among the NSA files, Snowden leaked.



That was met with a harsh response from Key, who vigorously denied claims by Greenwald and described the journalist as “just another guy who wants to create a conspiracy theory.”


Key argues New Zealand looked into the possibility of what he described as "mass protection," but has never eventually chosen that option.

Refuting the PM’s assertion, Snowden recalls his own experience as an analyst for US intelligence.

At the NSA I routinely came across the communications of New Zealanders in my work with a mass surveillance tool we share with GCSB, called ‘XKeyscore’,” he wrote.

Classified documentation of XKeyscore was made available online in July, 2013.


Snowden now draws attention to a ‘Five Eyes Defeat’ filter in the system, which is a checkbox allowing analysts to exclude from their search results coming from the Five Eyes nations - the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

Ask yourself: why do analysts have a checkbox on a top secret system that hides the results of mass surveillance in New Zealand if there is no mass surveillance in New Zealand?” Snowden says.

The whistleblower claims New Zealand’s intelligence operatives are not passive consumers of the information they get through XKeystore, “but also actively and directly develop mass surveillance algorithms for it.”

The claim that it never went ahead, and that New Zealand merely ‘looked at’, but never participated in, the Five Eyes’ system of mass surveillance is false, and the GCSB’s past and continuing involvement with XKeyscore is irrefutable,” Snowden says.

Key earlier said that all of the files Snowden leaked had been stolen before New Zealand made its final decision on surveillance. He also promised to declassify some documents proving his point.


New Zealand's own intelligent analysit Paul Buchanan from 36th Parallel Assessments says it's clear data is collected from New Zealanders but it's not clear just how much is looked at. He still gives a reasonably objective assessment although I strongly dislike his political assessement.




The masks are well and truly coming off,revealing the true faces of some of the players.

Key, plainly unhinged by the whole thing refers to Glenn Greenwald as  "Kim Dotcom's little henchman" and "loser" - something Glenn refers to as " adolescent " but also making him look like a common thug like his friend Cameron "the Slug" Slater.

Meanwhile the ex-spook Bruce Ferguson rants on to John Cameron about "traitors".  I would love to know what he would like to do with them.



John Campbell, who has done some of the very best reporting on the Kim Dotcom case, revisits it and reports on last night's meeting.

He also carries out a very revealing interview with ex-spook Bruce Ferguson which is worth watching

Former GCSB boss denies Snowden's claims

To watch the interview GO HERE


Tonight at Kim Dotcom's Moment of Truth event at the Auckland Town Hall, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald spoke on alleged evidence he says proves the GCSB has been engaged in widespread domestic spying – something the Prime Minister denies.

Campbell Live invited John Key, Attorney-General Chris Finlayson and the GCSB director Ian Fletcher onto the programme tonight – they all declined.
But the email in question, between a Warner Brothers executive and an anti-piracy campaigner on the MPAA, claims Mr Key knew about Kim Dotcom 15 months before the 2012 raids on his Coatesville mansion. It also suggests Mr Key was privately helping them corner Dotcom by granting him New Zealand residency so he could be extradited to the United States.

Mr Key has also been accused of another lie – that his spy agency, the GCSB, doesn't engage in mass surveillance of New Zealanders.

Edward Snowden, who was the original source from the NSA for all this material, has stated that "any statement that mass surveillance is not performed in New Zealand or that internet communication are not comprehensively intercepted and monitored or that this is not intentionally and actively abetted by the GCSB is categorically false".

Former GCSB director Sir Bruce Ferguson confidently told Campbell Live the claims are false.

"This is an occasion where I have to say quite forcefully and categorically to support the Prime Minister's utterances of the last few days – mass surveillance, particularly by the GCSB most certainly didn't happen in my time or in any time before that," says Sir Ferguson.

For a lighter moment watch this

New Zealand: Watch Snowden take a pop at Julian Assange


SOT, Edward Snowden, NSA whistleblower (English): "I think it's wrong of him (John Key, New Zealand Prime Minister) I think its wrong of any politician to take away the public seat at the table of government and say you'll simply have to trust us and you know what, its not in the public interest to know about these programmes, unless it threatens my reputation, in which case I'm going to throw documents in the air like I'm Julian Assange. No offence there Julian"
W/S Crowd



SCRIPT

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden quipped about Wikileaks founder Julian Assange’s taste for ‘throw(ing) documents in the air’ during a video interview hosted by Kim Dotcom in Auckland, Monday.

Criticising New Zealand’s Prime Minister John Key for effectively removing public opinion from government decisions on surveillance programmes, Snowden stated it only suited John Key to reveal the information when it affected his public image, saying ‘unless it threatens my reputation, in which case I'm going to throw documents in the air like I’m Julian Assange.”



As the comments roused the audience to laughter, Snowden quickly apologised to Assange for the comparison.


Both Key and Ferguson when asked about XKeyscore say they can't comment on that because it is all very top-secret and hush-hush

But that's bullshit as this article reveals.

XKeyscore has been blown and its source code leaked. There's nothing secret about it any more!


NSA's XKeyscore Source Code Leaked! Shows Tor Users Classified As 'Extremists'



3 July, 2014

We learnt about the NSA's XKeyscore program a year ago, and about its incredibly wide reach. But now the German TV stations NDR and WDR claim to have excerpts from its source code. We already knew that the NSA and GCHQ have been targeting Tor and its users, but the latest leak reveals some details about which Tor exit nodes were selected for surveillance -- including at least one in Germany, which is likely to increase public anger there. It also shows that Tor users are explicitly regarded as "extremists" (original in German, pointed out to us by @liese_mueller):
The source code contains both technical instructions and comments from the developers that provide an insight into the mind of the NSA. Thus, all users of such programs are equated with "extremists".
Such is the concern about Tor that even visitors to Tor sites -- whether or not they use the program -- have their details recorded:
not only long-term users of this encryption software become targets for the [US] secret service. Anyone who wants to visit the official Tor Web site simply for information is highlighted.
The source code also gives the lie to the oft-repeated claim that only metadata, not content, is gathered:
With the source code can be proven beyond reasonable doubt for the first time that the NSA is reading not only so-called metadata, that is, connection data. If emails are sent using the Tor network, then programming code shows that the contents -- the so-called email-body -- are evaluated and stored.
As well as all this interesting information, what's important here is that it suggests the source of this leak -- presumably Edward Snowden, although the German news report does not name him -- copied not just NSA documents, but source code too. As in the present case, that is likely to provide a level of detail that goes well beyond descriptive texts.



In fact I came across this.  If you run on Windows you can download software to avoid XKeyscore



If you want to be labelled as a 'terrorist', but be (realtively) safe from surveillance DOWNLOAD TOR SOFTWARE HERE

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