Snowden, Assange join Dotcom attacking 'spying' New Zealand government

WELLINGTON - Agence France-Presse

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, top left, appears via video link from London as international human rights lawyer Laila Harre, bottom left, Robert Amsterdam, second left, journalist and author Glenn Greenwald, second right and projected top right, and Kim Dotcom, right, attend a political forum at a town hall in Auckland, New Zealand Monday, Sept. 15, 2014. AP Photo

Former US intelligence operative Edward Snowden and fellow fugitive WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange joined forces on Sept. 15 to attack the New Zealand government accusing it of mass surveillance on its people, five days before the country goes to the polls.        

The appearance of the fugitives together, albeit by satellite links, was part of "The Moment of Truth" event organised by Kim Dotcom, the Internet mogul fighting extradition from New Zealand to the United States to face online piracy charges.
      
Dotcom, who has campaigned for the centre-right National Party-led government of Prime Minister John Key to be voted out of office on Saturday, promised many weeks ago he would drop a "bombshell" before the election.        

Snowden, appearing live from Moscow where he has been granted three year's residency, claimed the US National Security Agency (NSA) had a facility in New Zealand.        

He said that during his work as an analyst with the NSA he regularly came across communications of New Zealanders, and New Zealand also housed one of a network of sensors around the world which allowed access to email addresses.        

Assange, speaking from the Ecuador embassy in London where he has been holed up for three years, spoke of New Zealand's role within the Five Eyes intelligence network with the United States, Britain, Canada and Australia.        

US investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald, who appeared live at the forum held in the Auckland Town Hall, said the Key government had planned to exploit laws passed last year to broaden their intelligence gathering.        

He said they completed the first phase of accessing a telecommunications cable into the country.         However, ahead of the event Key released a series of papers that he said would counter "misinformation" about the workings of New Zealanad's Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB).
      
"There is not, and never has been, a cable access surveillance programme operating in New Zealand," Key said.        

"There is not, and never has been, mass surveillance of New Zealanders undertaken by the GCSB."        
Key also dismissed an email which purported to show he was involved in a plan to have German-born Dotcom settled in New Zealand so he could be extradited to the United States.        

The email dated October 27, 2010 is said to be from Warner Brothers chairman and chief executive Kevin Tsujihara to a senior executive at the Motion Picture Association of America.       

It said in part: "I see strong support for our anti-piracy effort. John Key told me in private that they are granting Dotcom residency despite pushback from officials about his criminal past."       

Warner Brothers called the email a "fabrication" and senior vice president Paul McGuire told the New Zealand Herald that Tsujihara "never had any such conversation with Prime Minister Key."        

US prosecutors say Dotcom's now-defunct Megaupload sites netted more than US$175 million in criminal proceeds and cost copyright-owners more than US$500 million by offering pirated copies of movies, TV shows and other content.        

The entrepreneur with a reputation for a colourful lifestyle, was arrested in 2012 by New Zealand police acting on behalf of the FBI.
      
He denies any wrongdoing and is on bail while he fights extradition proceedings.