Audio + Text: NZ Spying on Pacific Nations Revealed

New Zealand Report by Selwyn Manning – Recorded live on 6/03/15. A team of investigative journalists began this week to reveal how the New Zealand Government has been spying on a massive scale on a host of Pacific nations. Also a World War II veteran has received a medal from Vladimir Putin. ITEM ONE: A team of investigative journalists began this week to reveal how the New Zealand Government has been spying on a massive scale on a host of Pacific nations. The spying has been a part of the United States-led Five Eyes alliance that includes the U.S., Canada, Britain, Australia and New Zealand. The investigation is a collaborative effort between the New Zealand Herald, investigative journalist Nicky Hager, and the US news site The Intercept. The reports are based on a cache of official documents released by US whistleblower Edward Snowden – and are being referred to as the Snowden Revelations. The documents reveal New Zealand has been intercepting all communications taking place in the South/West Pacific and parts of Melanesia. Since 2009, New Zealand’s signals surveillance spy agency the GCSB, or Government a communications Security Bureau, has been operating a Full-Take collection protocol, the technology provided by the United States. Once New Zealand’s spy agency acquires the communications, the data is transferred to the United States’ National Security Agency – the NSA. The information is then able to be accessed by US, British, Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand intelligence analysts. The data acquired goes further than just meta-data, but includes all email correspondence, all telephone and cellphone calls, all texts or SMS, all social media comments and chats. Specifically, the information feeds into the NSA’s X-Keyscore system and provides the five Eyes spies with analytics on everything communicated within the targeted Pacific nations including: Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Nauru, New Caledonia, Solomon Islands, and French Polynesia. It is understood that while all communications taking place within the countries is acquired, the operation also targets prime ministers, government officials, opinion shapers, and non government organisations. Meanwhile New Zealand’s Prime Minister John Key said yesterday (Thursday): “Some of the information was incorrect, some of the information was out of date, some of the assumptions made were just plain wrong.” More reports are scheduled to be published on Saturday and Sunday. ITEM TWO: Stan Douglas, a WWII veteran, this week wandered down to his letterbox and found an interesting official-looking package. On opening it he realised he had been awarded Russia’s prestigious Ushakov Service Medal, by Vladimir Putin! Russia’s Ambassador to New Zealand, Valery Tereshchenko, wrote in an accompanying letter: “The President of the Russian Federation Mr Vladimir Putin decorates you for your participation in the Arctic convoys of the Allied Forces to the Russian Northern sea ports during the Second World War”. During the war Stan served on the HMS Javelin, which accompanied supply ships to the northern Russian port of Murmansk. – He remembers it as hell with freezing, rough conditions and his ship being targeted by German destroyers, bombers and U-boats. About receiving the medal, Stan said: “This one was quite a surprise.” New Zealand Report is broadcast live on Five AA Australia and webcast on EveningReport.nz, LiveNews.co.nz and ForeignAffairs.co.nz.]]>