John Key rejects Snowden docs as 'outdated'

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UPDATED 5 pm: John Key rejected the recent intelligence leaks in front of media this afternoon saying the documents were “out of date and some of the assumptions were just plain wrong.”

The internal Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) documents, dated 2009, show New Zealand spies on many South Pacific nations as part of its responsibilities in the Five Eyes signals intelligence group.

Mr Key described the GCSB as a foreign intelligence service that gathers intelligence from foreign countries in the best interests of New Zealand.

“I’m 100% convinced and assured that [the programme] is legal. And there are always valid reasons set out in the GCSB Act [2003].

“Where we gather intelligence, particularly when there is a friend involved, then it isn’t to harm that particular organisation or country, it is often to support them or at least assist them,” he says.

Responding to a question about the involvement of the GCSB in the "full-take data" project, Mr Key said he had no intention of talking about how the GCSB conducts its collection processes “other than to say that what we do is absolutely lawful and bound in good reasons.” (See video below)

He says, according to the GCSB Act 2003, there are only minor circumstances under which intelligence can be gathered against a New Zealander.

“What I’m telling you is that our government is doing what previous governments have done.

“We don’t intend to start talking about who we gather information against, why, or what it’s used for, what techniques we use. No government has, and this government certainly won’t be.” Mr Key says.

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EARLIER

Documents released to media today by the US National Security Agency (NSA) leaker Edward Snowden show New Zealand signals intelligence agencies spy on South Pacific nations.

The documents, dated July 2009 and entitled “GCSB SIGINT Development Quarterly Report”, are a series of official reports disseminated among the so-called Five Eyes countries.

They show New Zealand has been spying on the digital communications of various South Pacific nations. The communications collected reportedly include digital, email, telephone metadata, landline and mobile conversations and other forms.

Prime Minister John Key stated yesterday that he believed the information expected to be released would be “wrong.”

However, the reports are all stamped with the logo of the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) with a redacted address, presumably that of the director of the GCSB.

The internal report states that the GCSB in 2009 was facing a “rapid pace” of technological change throughout the South Pacific as newer cable communications began to supersede older methods such as satellite communications.

Targets for the GCSB include Fiji, Samoa, New Caledonia and Vanuatu.

The collection site is listed as the GCSB’s signals intelligence station at Waihopai in Marlborough.

Other documents from Mr Snowden are expected to be released over the coming days.

nsmith@nbr.co.nz

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