XPost: ba.politics, dc.media, soc.penpals   
   XPost: alt.burningman   
   From: behead@democrats.com   
      
   (CNN) -- NSA leaker Edward Snowden accused New Zealand Prime   
   Minister John Key of misleading the public over the country's   
   spying activities, as the nation's explosive election campaign   
   reached a crescendo Monday.   
      
   The event, held in Auckland's Town Hall and organized by the   
   German tech entrepreneur Kim Dotcom, was titled a "Moment of   
   Truth," and had been billed by Dotcom as a "game-changer" that   
   could alter the course of this Saturday's general election.   
      
   Journalist Glenn Greenwald, who broke the NSA leaks story,   
   appeared in Auckland alongside Dotcom, lawyer Robert Amsterdam,   
   and Laila Harre, the leader of the political party founded by   
   Dotcom, while Snowden and Wikileaks founder Julian Assange spoke   
   via video-link.   
      
   Drawing on information contained in Snowden's NSA leaks and   
   elaborating on articles they had published earlier in the day,   
   Snowden and Greenwald said New Zealand was involved in mass   
   electronic surveillance activities as part of the Five Eyes   
   intelligence partnership with the United States, the United   
   Kingdom, Canada and Australia.   
      
   The pair said their information showed that New Zealanders were   
   subject to mass electronic surveillance via the "X-Keyscore"   
   tool that New Zealand intelligence agency the Government   
   Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) shared with the NSA. They   
   claimed this directly contradicted Key's assertion that "there   
   is not, and never has been, mass surveillance of New Zealanders   
   undertaken by the GCSB."   
      
   Rather, Snowden wrote: "If you live in New Zealand, you are   
   being watched."   
      
   Key said in a statement he would not discuss the X-Keyscore   
   program, saying "we don't discuss the specific programs the GCSB   
   may, or may not use.   
      
   "But the GCSB does not collect mass metadata on New Zealanders,   
   therefore it is clearly not contributing such data to anything   
   or anyone."   
      
   Project 'Speargun'   
   Greenwald said Key had also misled the New Zealand public when   
   the government was seeking to pass controversial, beefed-up   
   spying laws last year, by giving assurances the new legislation   
   would not allow mass metadata collection on the New Zealand   
   public.   
      
   On the contrary, claimed Greenwald, the new bill, which was   
   narrowly passed into law, was designed to enable just that.   
   Leaked NSA documents appeared to show that at around the time   
   Key was making his public assurances around the planned   
   legislation, the GCSB was implementing the first phase of a mass   
   surveillance program code-named "Speargun," Greenwald said.   
      
   The project, which involved tapping into the Southern Cross   
   undersea telecommunications cable to harvest internet data,   
   would have required the expanded laws to operate, and would have   
   constituted "the greatest expansion of GCSB spying activities in   
   decades."   
      
   The claims prompted the government to acknowledge the existence   
   of plans for the "cable access surveillance program" for the   
   first time.   
      
   In a statement, Key said work was begun on presenting a business   
   case for the project, described as a "cyber security protection   
   initiative," but that the project was shelved.   
      
   "The business case for the highest form of protection was never   
   completed or presented to cabinet and never approved. Put   
   simply, it never happened," he said.   
      
   War of words   
   The conflicting claims over the government's surveillance   
   activities have sparked a harsh war of words between Key and   
   Greenwald, with the prime minister labeling the latter a "clown"   
   and "Dotcom's little henchman" in remarks to reporters.   
      
   "If this loser's going to come to town and try to tell me, five   
   days before an election, staying at the Dotcom mansion... he's   
   doing anything other than Dotcom's bidding? Please don't insult   
   me with that," Key told a radio interviewer.   
      
   In response, Greenwald told the audience in the Auckland Town   
   Hall it was a new experience to arrive in a foreign country and   
   be "publicly maligned and attacked by the nation's head of state   
   using the most adolescent set of epithets imaginable." He had   
   not been called a loser "since I was, like, 14 years old," he   
   said.   
      
   Dotcom in politics   
   At odds with the government since his 2012 arrest, Dotcom has   
   emerged as a significant political player on the campaign trail   
   since forming the Internet Party, which has campaigned on a   
   platform of Internet freedom, digital rights and opposing   
   government electronic surveillance.   
      
   A New Zealand resident since 2010, Dotcom is fighting a battle   
   in New Zealand courts to avoid extradition to the United States,   
   where he faces major criminal copyright charges relating to his   
   now-defunct cloud storage site, Megaupload. which is alleged to   
   have enabled the piracy of hundreds of millions of dollars worth   
   of films and music.   
      
   READ MORE: Who is Kim Dotcom?   
   Dotcom himself was subjected to illegal surveillance by the GCSB   
   prior to his arrest. The surveillance would have been unlawful   
   at the time as the GCSB was not permitted to spy on New Zealand   
   residents, although those laws have since been changed; the   
   seizure of his electronic data by U.S. authorities has also been   
   ruled illegal by a New Zealand court.   
      
   In his fight against his extradition, Dotcom has argued he is a   
   victim of a conspiracy by the New Zealand and U.S. governments   
   and Hollywood. He claims his arrest in a military-style police   
   raid over criminal copyright charges is a clear-cut case of   
   prosecutorial overreach and an example of the way in which the   
   surveillance state was being harnessed to pursue commercial   
   interests rather than protect citizens from terrorism.   
      
   READ MORE -- Kim Dotcom writes: 'Why New Zealand is a slave to   
   U.S. interests'   
   He has repeatedly outlined his beliefs that the New Zealand   
   government decided to grant him residence in 2010 -- over the   
   objections of intelligence officials -- only in order to   
   facilitate his extradition to the United States.   
      
   He claims he was used as a bargaining chip in the New Zealand   
   government's negotiations with Hollywood executives who were   
   threatening to relocate the filming of "The Hobbit" trilogy at   
   around the same time in October 2010 at which his residency   
   application was being considered.   
      
   Key has previously rejected those claims, saying he did not know   
   of Dotcom's existence until more than a year later, in the   
   immediate prelude to his arrest.   
      
   Smoking gun?   
   But in the lead-up to his event Monday night, Dotcom released to   
   the New Zealand Herald newspaper what he claimed was an email   
   between Hollywood executives which he said backed his version of   
   events. He gave no account of the email's provenance, but the   
   newspaper reported that the email formed part of Dotcom's   
   planned "big reveal" during his "Moment of Truth" event.   
      
   Dated October 27, 2010, it purports to be from Warner Brothers   
   chairman and chief executive Kevin Tsujihara to a senior   
   executive at the Motion Picture Association of America, the   
   lobby group for the Hollywood studios.   
      
      
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