Hager book: person claiming to be hacker comes forward

UPDATE: Through his or her @Whaledump Twitter account the person who claims to be the Whale Oil hacker has now posted links to several screen shots of emails (hosted on Mega). 

The screenshots include a section of what purports to be Cameron Slater's Gmail Contacts list. 

The screen shots might be designed to help authenticate @Whaledump as the person who gained access to thousands of Mr Slater's emails and documents in January, then passed them on to Nicky Hager to form the basis of his new book, Dirty Politics. 

Beyond that, however, they add no scandal or accusations — even assuming their text has not been edited.

Arguably, they move things back a step as the correspondent NZ Jed (presumably National Party staffer Jason Ede) contacts Mr Slater from a personal Hotmail account for his banter, rather than a National Party or Parliamentary address.

The earliest email is from 2008, before National took office. It is from John Key's head press secretary of the time, Kevin Taylor, and tells Mr Slater, "Our intention is not to engage with any blogs".

But it ends with the line, "Jason Ede asked me to mention he will be giving you a call in the next few days".

Speaking on RadioLive at midday, Nicky Hager said he was unable to say if Whaledump was "the real deal."

EARLIER: A person claiming to be the hacker at the centre of Nicky Hager's Dirty Politics has come forward.

In January, in the wake of an attack on Cameron Slater's Whaleoil site, Mr Hager was delivered thousands of documents and emails. 

Mr Hager has refused to name the person, who approached the NZ Herald a week ago.

The paper's report today says, "The Herald sought additional information from the hacker to prove claims they were the person who had hacked Slater's website. The information, which was provided yesterday, showed a range of details which could be directly linked to Slater."

They hacker says they will release more information on Twitter through an account called @Whaledump.

The Twitter account has yet to reveal any new information. Meantime, it's facing plenty of skepticism on social media. 

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