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Government Privacy Security United States

New Zealand Spied On Nearly Two Dozen Pacific Countries 129

An anonymous reader writes New documents from Edward Snowden indicate New Zealand undertook "full take" interception of communications from Pacific nations and forwarded the data to the NSA. The data, collected by New Zealand's Government Communications Security Bureau, was then fed into the NSA's XKeyscore search engine to allow analysts to trawl for intelligence. The New Zealand link helped flesh out the NSA's ambitions to intercept communications globally.
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New Zealand Spied On Nearly Two Dozen Pacific Countries

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  • by DiSKiLLeR ( 17651 ) on Wednesday March 04, 2015 @04:23PM (#49182961) Homepage Journal

    Is the general attitude of the public simply not giving a shit. This is currently front page news in the New Zealand Herald but it'll quickly be gone and forgotten, and nothing will change.

    What is the deal with the general public's apathy when it comes to NSA/GCQH/GCSB/etc ?

    Are we really at the point where it's too late to do anything about this and just admit defeat?

    • by DiSKiLLeR ( 17651 ) on Wednesday March 04, 2015 @04:29PM (#49183029) Homepage Journal

      Btw, the NZ Herald Articles:

      http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/n... [nzherald.co.nz]

      http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/n... [nzherald.co.nz]

      The key point also:

      But the Snowden papers show that counter-terrorism is at most a minor part of the GCSB's operations. Most projects are assisting the US and allies to gather political and economic intelligence country-by-country around the world.

      • by grcumb ( 781340 ) on Wednesday March 04, 2015 @06:03PM (#49183919) Homepage Journal

        But the Snowden papers show that counter-terrorism is at most a minor part of the GCSB's operations. Most projects are assisting the US and allies to gather political and economic intelligence country-by-country around the world.

        That's what is going to give this story legs. If it's proven that the information was used to affect domestic policy or international relations, or if there's strong evidence that it was used to exert economic leverage over Pacific island nations, then New Zealand's credibility in the neighbourhood drops drastically.

        In years past, a lot of the voice and data traffic in the South Pacific was handled by a company named Pacific Teleports. They resold bandwidth on an Intelsat bird. The ham-fisted monitoring there was almost a joke. You could actually see an additional 80-100 ms lag introduced at the exact point where the traffic left their earth station in Australia and entered the terrestrial networks there. SSL sessions would break continually.

        But people more or less expected this kind of behaviour from Australia. They've never really thought of the Pacific islands region as anything more than an undeclared territory, and ever since George W. Bush appointed Australia the 'sheriff' (his word) in the region, they've been even more ham-fisted in their approach.

        New Zealand, on the other hand, has always portrayed itself as a Pacific island country, perhaps the first among equals, but a peer to its neighbours. Its aid programme was more engaged, and it welcomed Polynesians and Melanesians much more warmly than Australia. The difference is similar to the difference between the USA and Canada. Now, imagine Canada being revealed as the primary source of intelligence gathering in the Caribbean.

        Australia has always been somewhat brazen in its attempts to influence events in the Pacific islands. New Zealand, in contrast, has (until now) appeared to be the more reasonable of the two. If that changes, then it has the potential to drive these strategically important nations closer to China. I'm not suggesting it would be 1941 all over again, but if it ever came to that, you'd think Australia and NZ would want friends on the islands here, rather than strangers.

        • by rtb61 ( 674572 )

          The real question is, do the Australian and New Zealand governments have a choice. The US is positioning US marines in Australia, fully armed and munitioned (so called firing range practice), as a measure against China, around 7500 km away. Now seriously so far away from China and like only a couple of thousand against the whole Chinese army. Hmm, to me it sounds like more the number you would need to take over and occupy the Australian government parliament should they disobey. For how long did the US gov

          • by grcumb ( 781340 )

            You seriously think Australia politicians want to sign the Trans Pacific Partnership and abandon their constitution to US corporate dictates and as a consequence lose any chance of ever being elected again but if they are corrupt enough they will and the consequences for US Australia relations will be awful.

            Having seen what I've seen of Australian politics, and based on the observations of some who have been in the room, so to speak, yes, I do believe that they lose all reason when it comes to pleasing the US.

            • by rtb61 ( 674572 )

              Have you failed to see how often a preferred ally of the US, suddenly becomes a distant ally, than a country of concern and finally a supporter of terrorism, as they refuse to obey US government dictates. Along with that goes regime change and bringing of US favoured 'er' democracy or autocracy or total chaos in order to remove actual democratic governments. Your seriously think Australia is save from that, why, a whole bunch of other countries certainly weren't.

              • by grcumb ( 781340 )

                Have you failed to see how often a preferred ally of the US, suddenly becomes a distant ally, than a country of concern and finally a supporter of terrorism, as they refuse to obey US government dictates.

                No, I agree that this would be a concern to some nations. But as I said, based on what I've seen—and that includes anecdotes from some people directly involved in policy making—this particular fear just doesn't come into it. There is such care taken to please the US that Australia often offers more than is necessary to secure a deal.

                • by grcumb ( 781340 )

                  Sorry, replying to myself. I think in fairness we have to note that the USA has meddled in Australian politics [greenleft.org.au] in the past.

                  Again, I don't think this is a motivating factor for the modern Liberal and Labor parties, but still, it needs to be mentioned.

                • by rtb61 ( 674572 )

                  It seems not many honest journalists are likely to agree with you http://johnpilger.com/articles... [johnpilger.com]. So yeah, Australian politicians make their own choices, yeah, nah, not that much, they aren't dumb, they know the consequences. They might fail a bit more in carrying stuff out then would seem normal, and they might leak all over the place and they might dissemble for a very long time and they might ensure indirectly that the Australian public get riled up as proof of an unpopular idea but they do not out r

              • Have you failed to see how often a preferred ally of the US, suddenly becomes a distant ally, than a country of concern and finally a supporter of terrorism, as they refuse to obey US government dictates. Along with that goes regime change and bringing of US favoured 'er' democracy or autocracy or total chaos in order to remove actual democratic governments.

                Most people fail to see that since it doesn't actually happen.

            • by dbIII ( 701233 )
              And the Japanese (submarine project for subs that are useless to us due to short range), and the Koreans, but most especially pleasing the Chinese.
              Things are currently weird. At the G20 Putin was given a Koala and smiles while Obama was called a lair in at least two press releases for mentioning something about the barrier reef. The PM, Tony Abbott, may have a forked tongue but he needs it to lick all those arses at once.
            • .... I do believe that they lose all reason when it comes to pleasing the US.

              Rather like many do when discussing ..... hating the US?

              Well, there is plenty of madness to go around, isn't there? I seem to recall a certain faction of the NZ political establishment thought cozying up to the People's Republic of China was a better "fit" for NZ than allying with the US. I wonder what the people in Hong Kong would think, or the Philippines? Of course, what could possibly go wrong? What madness.

          • The US is positioning US marines in Australia, fully armed and munitioned (so called firing range practice), as a measure against China .... Hmm, to me it sounds like more the number you would need to take over and occupy the Australian government parliament should they disobey.

            You poor soul.

            Australia counters Chinese threat [smh.com.au]
            Ascendant China spurs increased military spending in Australia [canada.com]

            There is a very large gap between your thinking and reality. Think of the Marines as a "trip wire" protecting Australia.

        • To be fair, NZ is a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Australia isn't. This has more to do with geographic circumstance than any premeditated intention.
    • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 04, 2015 @04:31PM (#49183045)

      Most of us would have been surprised if the GCSB *wasn't* spying on the various Pacific Islands. Valid or not, it's rather assumed to be their job to do so. Let's face it - the only reason Fiji and Samoa aren't spying on NZ is because they don't have the funds to pay for it.

      • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Really? I call BS on you right there.

        Well, while I am not surprised, I do think it is a pathetic and embarrassing situation.
        Who exactly do we feel these countries are a threat to? Let along why do we feel the need to assist the damn USA to spy on them.
        Why do we feel we should spend money to spy on countries that at the same time we actively support with financial aid and other
        forms of support? And the only reason I can think of is the government is quite happy to treat their own people like this, so I guess

        • Who exactly do we feel these countries are a threat to?

          I don't know.... one of the many military coups that have happened in Fiji in recent times. It would be good to get a heads up if an extremest group staged a coup and took over a country in our backyard.

          • The only danger any of the military coups in Fiji have posed to anyone is the fijian people (whatever their ethnicity).

            The days of jumping in a war canoe and going off to war with neighbouring island groups (or Tonga ruling Samoa) are long-gone.

            • A danger to Fijian people...or any New Zealander who is in Fiji.
              Or anyone at the New Zealand High Commission in Fiji

      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) *

        What they are doing can't really be described as "spying" in the traditional sense of targeting specific individuals and lines of communication. They are doing a "full take", that is capturing everything that anyone in those countries does. Not just metadata, the content as well. Everything, indiscriminately.

        Imagine if Russia was tapping every single phone call made in the US. Would you consider that type of "spying" surprising? That's basically what is happening here, only much much worse.

        • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) *

          Actually scratch that. Imagine if Russia was tapping and recording every single phone call and sharing that data with China, North Korea, Iran and a few other "partner" states. Imagine you found out that while there was some security related use of the data, mostly it was just used for economic and political reasons, like making sure US companies didn't get big contracts that Chinese ones were bidding for. Would you be surprised?

    • by NostalgiaForInfinity ( 4001831 ) on Wednesday March 04, 2015 @04:52PM (#49183265)

      What is the deal with the general public's apathy when it comes to NSA/GCQH/GCSB/etc ?

      What exactly do you expect spy organizations to do? Why do you think we sink so much money into them.? As long as each organization spies on other countries and they don't exchange data, they are doing their job. The problem is domestic spying, or trying to circumvent rules against domestic spying by exchanging data.

    • Re: (Score:2, Offtopic)

      by geekmux ( 1040042 )

      Is the general attitude of the public simply not giving a shit. This is currently front page news in the New Zealand Herald but it'll quickly be gone and forgotten, and nothing will change.

      What is the deal with the general public's apathy when it comes to NSA/GCQH/GCSB/etc ?

      Are we really at the point where it's too late to do anything about this and just admit defeat?

      There are two groups of people involved in this issue.

      There are those who still hold on to the belief that citizens can effectively create change, and are still enabled vehicles to do so.

      And then there are those who are smart enough to know better.

      A standing president tried to warn the American people about the Military Industrial Complex. What did that do? Not a damn thing. Should you be surprised? Not really. George Orwell warned you about all of this other shit over sixty years ago. No one listene

      • A standing president tried to warn the American people about the Military Industrial Complex. What did that do? Not a damn thing. Should you be surprised? Not really. George Orwell warned you about all of this other shit over sixty years ago. No one listened. No one believed it could ever happen. And now it has happened. And there are no vehicles left for you to use to change or stop it.

        Not many years before that warning the US devoted about 40% of GDP to defense spending. The long term trend of the percentage of GDP devoted to defense spending has been a long decline until today where only aroud 5% of GDP is spent on defense. That wouldn't happen if the "MIC" were all powerful as some people mistakenly claim.

        There appears to be a gap between the facts of history and your theories.

    • Is the general attitude of the public simply not giving a shit. This is currently front page news in the New Zealand Herald but it'll quickly be gone and forgotten, and nothing will change.

      What is the deal with the general public's apathy when it comes to NSA/GCQH/GCSB/etc ?

      Are we really at the point where it's too late to do anything about this and just admit defeat?

      When was the point where it wasn't already too late? I think any of us still breathing must honestly answer that time was prior to our birth. If we ask our ancestors the same, they'd answer the same. If we asked them to ask theirs...

    • by Anonymous Coward

      Rugby and cricket.

      It reminds me of what Noam Chomsky once said [alternet.org]:

      When I'm driving, I sometimes turn on the radio and I find very often that what I'm listening to is a discussion of sports. These are telephone conversations. People call in and have long and intricate discussions, and it's plain that quite a high degree of thought and analysis is going into that. People know a tremendous amount. They know all sorts of complicated details and enter into far-reaching discussion about whether the coach made the ri

    • What is the deal with the general public's apathy when it comes to NSA/GCQH/GCSB/etc ?

      I have one theory. We now know that the NSA/QCQH/GCSB/etc seemingly know everything about everyone. Yet the underwear bomber was allowed to board a plane despite being dobbed in to the powers that be by his own family, and terrorism really hasn't changed much.

      I am beginning to get a feeling of apathy because I am starting to believe they have so much information that they aren't able to draw any meaningful conclusions from any of it. It's very hard to target a person when you're busy tracking 7billion.

      • by dbIII ( 701233 )

        and terrorism really hasn't changed much

        Conrad's "The Secret Agent" from 1907, and set in 1886, fits depressingly well into current circumstances.

        From wikipedia:

        In modern times, The Secret Agent is considered to be one of Conrad's finest novels. The Independent calls it "[o]ne of Conrad's great city novels"[22] whilst The New York Times insists that it is "the most brilliant novelistic study of terrorism".[23] It is considered to be a "prescient" view of the 20th century, foretelling the rise of terrorism,

      • "Yet the underwear bomber was allowed to board a plane despite being dobbed in to the powers that be by his own family"

        The alternative theory is that "they" let him board and get caught in order to have an excuse to grab more power.

        • Never attribute to malice what could be attributed to incompetence.

          I love a good conspiracy as much as the next guy, but honestly I don't think the people have the brains for it.

          • I totally agree, but given a bunch of stuff I'd attributed to incompetence has been proven otherwise via Snowden revelations, the other explanation can't be discounted out of hand. :-(

    • What is the deal with the general public's apathy when it comes to NSA/GCQH/GCSB/etc ?

      Many geeks have been crying "the world is ending" nonstop forever (warranted or not). Theres such a thing as outrage fatigue.

    • Playing devils advocate here, but it's hard to give a shit when there is no visible impact to anyone anywhere. Pre-spying I did stuff, post-spying I'm doing the same stuff. If there's no impact why should anyone go out of their way to care?
      Just to repeat, this is not my personal opinion, but can see why this there is no traction among the general public.
    • Social conditioning since the birth. A belief that there exists a nation state; a reality shaped by a language and a culture and most importantly emotion, which can be manipulated.

      The thing is that the people behind the agencies in any country are not patriots or nationalists, but pragmatic players of a game of their own.

      In essence one could say they are the enemy. The trick is that cognitive dissonance keeps us not accepting that.

  • Ob (Score:4, Funny)

    by Hognoxious ( 631665 ) on Wednesday March 04, 2015 @04:25PM (#49182981) Homepage Journal

    Probably on the hunt for some Rugby talent.

    Again.

  • by BLToday ( 1777712 ) on Wednesday March 04, 2015 @04:27PM (#49183007)

    Every government tries to spy on every other government. Don't be surprised by it. Don't be surprised when they get caught doing it. How many Israeli spies have the US caught in the last 30 years? And the US is suppose to be Israel's BFF.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    The shock would be the ones not doing it.

    They would have to be incompetent.

  • by alen ( 225700 ) on Wednesday March 04, 2015 @04:32PM (#49183069)

    it's what they do. find stuff out about other countries that they don't want anyone else to know

    • by wiggles ( 30088 )

      THIS.

      How many Chinese spies are embedded with major multinationals?

      Stuff like this [wikipedia.org] happens all over the world, from every country. Everybody spies on each other.

  • Will gather intelligence to the best of it's ability.

    Why is this so shocking?

    Here you go
    http://theaviationist.com/2014... [theaviationist.com]

    • Already two guys playing the "welp that's what they're supposed to do!" card. Very useful fallback when you can't use the tired old "We knew about this before Snowden!" line, huh?
      • by alen ( 225700 )

        we did
        the NSA had tapped ocean fiber cables in the 1990's, there was even a book about it. and back when long distance calls were transmitted by satellite and microwave, the NSA would suck those out of the air as well. only thing changed in the last 20 years is there is more data and it's almost all on fiber rather than wireless backbones

        • by Rujiel ( 1632063 )
          Even assuming you're right, you seriously think "interception of communications" meant the same thing in the 90s that it does now?
      • by pbjones ( 315127 )

        Are you saying that no one should collect data? ES has gone past the exposure of local collection and into a world which he judges is wrong but is a realistic function of government bodies, what is next? Can't read foreign newspapers or listen to local radios. As for the shill label, if that's your only comeback, you haven't given this whole issue much thought.

      • Already two guys playing the "welp that's what they're supposed to do!" card.

        This statement makes me curious - what DO you think spy agencies are supposed to do?

        Do you think they're a form of welfare (providing jobs to people to do nothing)?

      • by Anonymous Coward

        I guess pointing out painfully obvious facts to easily offended ignoramuses who still subscribe to the "gentlemen don't read each others mail" bullshit, makes one a "shill". Because like it or not, THAT IS WHAT INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES DO! Yes there's an intelligence agency called the NSA that gathers signals intelligence. It's been around for over 6 decade doing this exact thing for that entire time. We knew that before Snowden. Every other advanced nation does the same thing.

      • by Anonymous Coward

        a) New Zeleand has been a member of 5 EYES since they started 5 EYES.
        b) Yes, identifying diplomatic, informational military and economic threats is the job of spy agencies
        c) Not doing this would be suicidally negligent.

      • by LWATCDR ( 28044 )

        Shills?
        Get a grip Google Sigint, Comint, and reconnaissance aircraft. Yes everyone that is literate knows this.

    • by Fire_Wraith ( 1460385 ) on Wednesday March 04, 2015 @05:12PM (#49183431)
      "In God We Trust... ...All Others We Monitor."
  • Is this the first time we've gotten documentation of actual full take occurring? It's the first one I recall; if it's not, does anyone have a link to past reports?

    • New Zealand doesn't have the resources to filter the data first, hence off-shoring that to NSA.

    • by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      The personal papers of a former NZ Prime Minister did have a top secret report about what NZ was doing in the 1980's.
      Lange's secrets (15 January 2006) http://www.converge.org.nz/pma... [converge.org.nz]
      Of interest to NZ where Japanese and Philippines diplomatic cables, the government communications of Fiji, the Solomons, Tonga, "international organisations operating in the Pacific" and UN diplomatic cables.
      It was interesting to see terms like "most of the raw traffic used" "South Pacific telex messages on satellite commun
  • by Rujiel ( 1632063 ) on Wednesday March 04, 2015 @04:58PM (#49183331)

    Every single time, like clockwork.
    "This isn't new information!"
    "Well they're a spy agency, what do you expect?"
    "I don't care who reads all my text messages!"

    Even though this isn't representative of what most users will post later on in time.
    It's almost as if a bunch of people are employed to squat on Snowden threads and post the same old reheated bullshit!.. Oh wait, that's totally what's happening.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      Although I intensely dislike what New Zealand (where I live), if you live in New Zealand this is indeed not news. That NZ is part of 5 eyes is understood here by anyone that cares in the least. That there is equipment owned by the USA for spying on everyone else is also not news - The Waihopai Ploughsares incident - where activists damaged a spy dome was big news at the time (ie April 2008). Wikipedia even has a whole article on this spy base - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waihopai_Station and its p

      • It really should be a big deal. We still have major cred overseas as that tiny country with the balls to tell the yanks to fuck off with their nukes. They still haven't forgiven us for that. Yet here we are helping them damage our own reputation as a fair, fearless, and independent nation. I guess we don't need our reputation when negotiating trade deals with other countries anymore. Maybe if we grovel really hard the US will throw us some scraps instead. Look at Australia (six prime ministers no less) beg

        • "We still have major cred overseas as that tiny country with the balls to tell the yanks to fuck off with their nukes. They still haven't forgiven us for that"

          NZ has been bending over backwards to please the USA for the last 15-20 years. Whatever credibility it might have as a result of "Truck off Fuckston" should have evaporated a long time ago.

  • What were they looking for? A general weakness for wool products? The likelihood of spending lots of money on tickets to see Flight of the Conchords? Susceptible coastlines perfect for beaching wakas and unloading a bunch of All Blacks?
    • by mikaere ( 748605 ) on Wednesday March 04, 2015 @05:26PM (#49183543)

      Most likely an understanding of China's intentions / deals with various Pacific states, such as their support for post-coup Fiji [radionz.co.nz].

      Given the undemocratic nature of UN representation (Tuvalu's population of 10,000 has the same level of representation is India's 1.24 billion), the Pacific's developing nations are prime targets for vote-buying by China, US and other regional players.

      I am a kiwi, and I have campaigned against this government and find this kind of spying to be very much against my country's values.

      • Wow, thanks for sharing. I was just being a flippiant 'Merican and trying to be funny. I should have known that there was stuff going down of a serious nature.
    • by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      Trade, aid and diplomatic cables. Anything that could degrade NZ standing in the region and have it replaced by a France, EU, Japan or China.
      NZ can also trade its geographic location to the US and UK to offer them full civil, naval and military satellite intercepts in the region.
      For that NZ gets huge hardware and software upgrades it could never afford and gets to share in the raw material of interest to NZ.
      US and UK staff also get to be "attached" to the NZ effort and can see the world and help with co
  • Can someone in the know explain how does this work? are new documents being leaked constantly or what? how is it that we see new stories like these so frequently?

    If new documents are being leaked, by whom?

    • by Anonymous Coward

      Can someone in the know explain how does this work? are new documents being leaked constantly or what? how is it that we see new stories like these so frequently?

      First, there is more than one leaker.

      Second, for the material Snowden leaked, he took it to a couple of journalists. There was more than he could have analyzed himself, and he didn't have the time or the expertise to do it. Snowden no longer has the documents; the journalists who are now in posession of the documents are going through them and m

    • Too much to publish at once.
  • sitting on top of barad-dur
  • fair trial.

    He absolutely will if he comes back home. Then he will get a improper execution using the new drug cocktail that does not work well.

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