15-09-2014, 11:22 AM
Another one of the "five eyes" found to have soiled underwear:
Quote:Kim Dotcom accuses New Zealand government of mass spying - live updates
Internet entrepreneur holds panel with Glenn Greenwald and Julian Assange to expand on revelations that New Zealand government sought to implement top-secret mass surveillance program.
- Michael Safi and Hannah Jane Parkinson
- theguardian.com, Monday 15 September 2014 10.26 BST
Moment of Truth: live stream of Kim Dotcom's panel on surveillance accusations against New Zealand's government.
[B]4.54pm AEST[/B]
Welcome to our live coverage of Kim Dotcom's "Moment of Truth", a panel event in Auckland where the German internet entrepreneur promises to expand on today's revelations that the New Zealand government worked to implement a mass surveillance system against its citizens.
It's been an extraordinary day in New Zealand politics, six days out from the country's general election. About two hours ago, the Interceptpublished documents that appear to show that the NZ government began to roll out a top-secret surveillance program code-named "Speargun" in 2012 and 2013.
The program appeared to involve installing "cable access" equipment to surveil the Southern Cross cable, which carries internet traffic between New Zealand and the world.
The NSA documents published today attest that only phase 1 of the rollout of Speargun was completed, with phase 2 in which "metadata probes" would be inserted into the cables carrying Kiwis' internet traffic scheduled for "mid-2013".
But the mass-surveillance program was halted before then, says the NZ prime minister, John Key.
Appearing to anticipate that Speargun would be made public, Key went out on the front foot on Sunday, admitting to NZ media that a "mass cyber protection" system had been considered after a series of cyber attacks in 2011. But Key said that he raised doubts about the program in September 2012, telling NZ's spy agency he was "a little uncomfortable with where you're seeking to go" and that it was "arguing this far too broadly".
"So March of 2013, we said stop'," Key said.
News of the existence of Speargun is based on documents released by Edward Snowden. The NSA whistleblower also published a piece on the Intercept today, warning Kiwis that, contrary to Key's denials, their internet communication is being "comprehensively intercepted and monitored".
"If you live in New Zealand, you are being watched," he wrote.
Among the speakers at tonight's event will be journalist Glenn Greenwald, and the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, and Snowden himself, beaming in from Moscow.
Stream the event live here and stay with us for detailed coverage and analysis.
Updated at 5.40pm AEST
[B]5.03pm AEST[/B]
As we wait for Moment of Truth to kick off, here's the background to the event from my colleague Toby Manhire.
Here's the key info:An already tumultuous New Zealand election campaign took another dramatic turn less than a week before polling day when the prime minister, John Key, responded angrily to claims by the American journalist Glenn Greenwald that he had been "deceiving the public" over assurances on spying.Read the full report here
Greenwald, who is visiting New Zealand at the invitation of the German internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom, says he will produce documents provided by the the NSA whistleblower, Edward Snowden, that prove the New Zealand government approved mass surveillance of its residents by the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB), New Zealand's equivalent of the NSA.
[B]Dotcom, who is sought for extradition from New Zealand by the US on copyright charges relating to his now defunct Megaupload file-storage site, is hosting an event in Auckland on Monday called The Moment of Truth, which doubles as a rally for the Dotcom-founded Internet party.[/B]
Greenwald has promised to produce his evidence at the event, while Dotcom is pledging to show further links between Key and Hollywood relating to his own case.[B]Adding to the spectacle, Julian Assange is expected to beam in via video link from the Ecuadorian embassy in London, and Dotcom has hinted that Snowden may also appear on the big screen from Moscow.
[/B]
Updated at 5.42pm AEST
[B]5.05pm AEST[/B]
[B]Moment of Truth kicks off[/B]
We're under way, with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange watching on via satellite from the Ecuadorian embassy in London. The hint has also been dropped that there's [B]"another special overseas visitor to welcome in a moment" likely to be Edward Snowden beaming in from Moscow.[/B]
Watch it live here
Updated at 5.42pm AEST
[B]5.15pm AEST[/B]
[B]John Key responds by declassifying documents[/B]
About an hour ago, the New Zealand prime minister, John Key, declassified a series of documents "setting the record straight" on Monday's spying revelations.
The documents can be viewed here.
Meanwhile, on the live stream, Glenn Greenwald has just begun speaking, watched on by Assange.
Julian Assange appears at Kim Dotcom's campaign event at Auckland Town Hall promoting his Internet party Photograph: Guardian
Updated at 7.26pm AEST
[B]5.22pm AEST[/B]
Greenwald is questioning why the New Zealand prime minister, John Key, has chosen to release documents today that the PM claims prove no mass surveillance of Kiwis ever occurred.
If the information was properly classified, he asks, [B]doesn't releasing it today jeopardise national security? "The only other alternative is that this information should never have been marked classified in the first place because it was being hidden not for national security reasons but to conceal from the public what this government was doing," he says.[/B]
Journalist Glenn Greenwald addresses the audience at Kim Dotcom's "Moment of Truth". Photograph: Guardian
Updated at 5.44pm AEST
[B]5.28pm AEST[/B]
An astute observation from Al Cottle.
[B]5.43pm AEST[/B]
[B]Edward Snowden beams in[/B]
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has just joined the panel from Moscow via live stream. He's reminded his audience that the NSA has facilities in Auckland, the scene of the event.
Edward Snowden joins Moment of Truth Photograph: kim.com
Updated at 5.45pm AEST
[B]5.45pm AEST[/B]
Here's the view from inside Auckland Town Hall, just before the event started.
[B]5.52pm AEST[/B]
Snowden is now expanding on the XKeyscore system, which he detailed in his Intercept piece today:It means [intelligence analysts] have the ability see every website you visit, every text message you send, every call you make, every ticket you purchase, every donation you make, and every book you order online. From "I'm headed to church" to "I hate my boss" to "She's in the hospital," the GCSB is there. Your words are intercepted, stored, and analyzed by algorithms long before they're ever read by your intended recipient.The former NSA contractor says that some Kiwis might believe the alleged surveillance is justified - but that doesn't justify the secrecy with which such surveillance is carried out.
"These decisions don't belong to John Key ... that decision belongs exclusively to the people of this country," Snowden says, to raucous applause. "I think it's wrong, I think it's wrong of any politician to take away the public's seat at the table."
Updated at 5.54pm AEST
[B]5.52pm AEST[/B]
This is the welcome Edward Snowden received from Auckland Town Hall…
[B]5.53pm AEST[/B]
[B]Here is the article Edward Snowden wrote for the Intercept, which Greenwald just encouraged everybody to read.
[/B]
[B]5.53pm AEST[/B]
Here are the first documents Greenwald has shown from the Snowden files, the first from mid-2012 and the second from the beginning of 2013.
Project SPEARGUN. Photograph: Screenshot
Photograph: Screenshot
[B]5.57pm AEST[/B]
[B]5.59pm AEST[/B]
Assange now welcomed into the discussion, and begins by explaining the "rather loud banging sound" in the background. He claims "someone" has purchased the flat below the Ecuadorian embassy and is currently tunnelling - as a drill drowns out his voice.
Julian Assange Photograph: kim.com
Updated at 6.02pm AEST
[B]6.05pm AEST[/B]
Glenn Greenwald calls John Key "shameless" for saying he would release classified documents, which Greenwald says would be his for his own political gain; and something he has never a head of state do before.
[B]6.11pm AEST[/B]
Assange says Project Speargun is evidence of "an extreme, bizarre, Orwellian future that is being constructed secretly in New Zealand".
Meanwhile, some real interest in this event among Kiwis.
Reports over Twitter than more than 22,000 people are currently watching the live stream over YouTube.
[B]6.13pm AEST[/B]
Kim Dotcom finally speaks!
The eccentric founder of MegaUpload promises that if his Internet party is granted the balance of power at this weekend's NZ general election, he'll stop any mass surveillance of Kiwis. "We'll close one of the five eyes," Dotcom says to applause.
[B]6.16pm AEST[/B]
"There are two ways to fight mass surveillance. Number one is politically, which is what we're tying to do here in New Zealand. Number two is technology - encryption," Dotcom says.
He says both Assange and Snowden are beaming in via Dotcom's new web-based "Skype on steroids", which he claims is a "fully encrypted video conference solution".
[B]6.21pm AEST[/B]
The moment Snowden took a pop at Assange. "…unless it affects my reputation; and then I'm gonna throw classified documents in the air like I'm Julian Assange."
[B]6.21pm AEST[/B]
The standing ovation Snowden received inside Auckland Town Hall.
[B]6.29pm AEST[/B]
We're hearing now from Bob Amsterdam, a Canadian international lawyer representing Kim Dotcom. He's going a little broader, questioning the way governments point to terrorism to justify mass surveillance programs.
"Who's attacking New Zealand?" he asks. "Our government are trying to alienate us from each other, and the are using terror to invade our homes, to invade our internet accounts, and to engage in mass surveillance that is violative of our most basic constitutional rights."
He says Kim Dotcom is a victim of a "war on culture", fought by large American entertainment corporations pursuing the German entrepreneur for copyright breaches in relation to his cloud-storage website, Mega.
The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge.
Carl Jung - Aion (1951). CW 9, Part II: P.14