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.
NEW Edward Snowden Op-Ed: New Zealand’s Prime Minister Isn’t Telling the Truth About Mass Surveillance https://t.co/uYd6goXnzQ
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) September 15, 2014
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.”
READ MORE: Glenn Greenwald rattles New Zealand
with ‘spying’ claims
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.