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NSA Unlawfully Surveilled Kim Dotcom In New Zealand, Says Report (thehill.com)
According to new documents from New Zealand's Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB), the NSA illegally used technology to spy on Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom. "The New Zealand Herald first reported that the GCSB told the nation's high court that it ceased all surveillance of Dotcom in early 2012, but that 'limited' amounts of communications from Dotcom were later intercepted by its technology without the bureau's knowledge," reports The Hill. From the report: Dotcom was surveilled by the NSA and the GCSB in a joint intelligence operation named Operation Debut. According to the Herald, that surveillance was scheduled to end in January 2012, but the United States continued to use New Zealand's technology. According to court documents obtained by the Herald, "Limited interception of some communications continued beyond the detasking date without the knowledge of GCSB staff." The court papers don't explain how the NSA was able to use the GCSB's spying technology without the bureau's knowledge. According to the Herald, "The GCSB documents do contain an admission of NSA involvement, although it was not made outright." Dotcom is facing charges of copyright infringement and money laundering related to Megaupload, a file-sharing website shut down in 2012. He is currently fighting U.S. attempts to extradite him from New Zealand.
he holds the keys
It's not illegal in the US for the NSA to spy on other countries. And it's not illegal in Russia to subvert elections in the US.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
When it comes to anything on foreign soil, the NSA isn't under their jurisdiction. Until they get caught, at which point it becomes a political and diplomatic issue. Same for any government agency of any country, in any other country.
Never underestimate feature creep. You think it's bad in software? Just check out what it does to government agencies.
I doubt the US constitution offers any protection from unreasonable search and seizure to foreign people in a foreign land -- regardless of whether it may have violated NZ law. As such fighting against extradition from NZ is the only thing keeping him from facing the courts.
I am not surprised that the NSA spied on him, I would just be surprised if any of that information could or would make its way into civilian law enforcement hands. I suspect the NSA was spying because any storage could be used to store information used to communicate between terrorist cells (i.e. steganography)
I know this isn't really an answer, but the answer is that they play dirty. Makes me think more and more that at some point at my life I'll scream the words "You'll never take me alive!"
The Internet Party NZ will be drafting an Anti-Spy bill live online on Sunday the 6th of August with the help of international guests who are experts in the field of state and private intelligence gathering practices, violations and mass surveillance.
I reserve the write to mangle english.
He directly profited from the piracy of Hollywood content, that alone is enough to make the US government (after some prodding from their masters in the media industry) interested in the guy.
Sure, Kim Dotcom is a dirtbag, but I don't understand why he's a target of the NSA.
1)
In the US, people who have lots of money can get the government to do their bidding. This is the basis of the lobbying industry, but it is certainly not limited to lobbying.
2)
The people behind the media industry have lots of money. They have for some time been freaking out that they are not getting more money as fast as they think they should be getting more money and they blame sharing, such as Kim Dotcom facilitated, for a great portion of their cash stream slowing.
3) The people behind the media industry will stop at nothing in their efforts to get more money or at least make sure no one gets anything for free.
Details like international borders don't matter to these people. They will do whatever it takes to make sure they get as much money in their pockets
as possible. And if that means using the NSA and subverting local or national laws, that's what they will do.
4)
Money and guns run the world. Rules and laws are for the peasants, not for the ruling class.
Any questions ?
New Zealand became a member of the Five eyes. Easy to follow NZ and what would be the NSA, GCHG after 1945 into the 1960's.
They did a lot of work on Japan, France, the Philippines, South African military, Laos. Some issues with NSA in 1985 and France.
NZ had one thing the NSA wanted. Locations for NSA satellite receiving stations.
A long history of politics, hardware and total support for the NSA.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
I'm sorry, is that supposed to mean something to the NSA, or any of the other agencies that are designed to operate outside the 'law'?
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Why were the NSA spying on someone who was possibly involved in copyright infringement?
Why was the GCSB assisting the NSA in spying on someone who was possibly involved in copyright infringement?
Remember, back then the 'crime' that DotCom was supposed to have committed was not actually a crime in NZ (they later played a lot of political games to shuffle things over the other supposed crimes that were, so they could not get laughed out of extradition hearings). It was certainly nothing that should come under NSA jurisdiction.
What we are really seeing here is the truth of the government spying - and that is it is a tool to use against citizens whenever the government feels they have 'crossed the line' of what they are allowed to do. It is not a particularly useful tool against terrorism - because you need to know your targets, and you usually dont know a terrorism target until AFTER they have done whatever they were planning.
It is however a very VERY effective political tool for repressing alternative views - you only have to point out to someone some 'embarrassing' details that have been trawled up, and quietly suggest they play along, or such things could get leaked by accident..
What report?
No report in the Herald or other NZ publication would use the word "surveilled". They still speak English there.
The real reason is probably something benign, like one of his servers has some version of a game that can't be found anywhere else, and the uploader decided to PGP encrypt it, and now 3 levels of the NSA are committed to quietly breaking the encryption on these files, because it's a game that some of their top programmers / mathematicians / etc. played in college but could never finish (and now that they have a job, money, and some free time, they intend to complete it, come hell or high-water).
Someone stole my bike. But since I'm not a billion dollar corporation I don't get to have several government agencies at my disposal for pursuing what amount to a civil case.
I assure you the I am hurt more for not having a bicycle than a movie studio is when someone pirates a film.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Why is the NSA wasting resources and time on someone like DotCom ?
Last I checked the man wasn't exactly a threat to National Security.
If you believe the news these days ( hahahahaha ) there are so many terrorists out there to " get us ", that the NSA should have plenty to do instead of spying on someone like DotCom.
The NSA's main task for the past few decades has been mass domestic surveillance for political/ideological purposes to stifle dissent, to silence whistle-blowers, and to protect the criminally-corrupt holding power.
"National security" is simply the keycode to unlocking more extra-Constitutional powers and funding.
The USA *used to be* a nation of laws. Now, it's just another (though large) corrupt & authoritarian banana-republic.
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
Misread that title as NASA - Kim is almost big enough to show up on one of their LEO satellites I suppose.
terrorist, unfriendly foreign power, or any sort of security threat to the US. The NSA is an intelligence agency, not an anti-piracy agency.
They work for the highest (domestic) bidder. What do you think their base in Germany is for? But people only gets apeshit crazy about Chinese Industrial espionage.
sudo rm -r -f --no-preserve-root /
It is very simple.
Copyright violation charge versus a conviction, for rape of a child no less.
Moving the goalpost towards questioning the validity of the conviction is going away from the point. Would a different example of someone fleeing justice help?
My point is the response to copyright violation seems disproportionate.