

New Zealand appears to have used NSA spy network to target Kim Dotcom - discostrings
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/08/new-zealand-appears-to-have-used-nsa-spy-network-to-target-kim-dotcom/

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junto
Kimble appeared on the NSA radar back in 1994. He was allegedly part of a
global conspiracy trading in calling cards stolen from AT&T. They were stolen
by an insider and cost AT&T an estimated $20 million if memory serves me
right.

This was back in the day, just after many countries made the switch from
analogue to digital telephony and blue boxing was no longer viable. BBS access
(I.e. pre-Internet) was therefore harder to get for free. Hacking int. PBXes
with 0800 numbers and calling cards were the next best thing at the time
(allegedly :-] )

Due to the nature of the crimes the case fell under the jurisdiction of the US
Secret Service. Kimble has been on their hit-list ever since. The guy is like
a soap bar to the US security apparatus. They are dying to get their greasy
mitts on him. Every time they get close he slips out of reach.

~~~
malandrew
Why does the Secret Service have jurisdiction over those types of crimes?

~~~
zevyoura
The Secret Service has two responsibilities: protection (e.g. of the
president) and preventing/investigating financial crimes.

~~~
toomuchtodo
At least they get one job right.

~~~
fnordfnordfnord
Almost all of the time.

------
WestCoastJustin
This is _extremely scary_ if proved to be true. Imagine if the Recording
Industry Association of America (RIAA) were able to get their hands on or
direct their war on bittorrent with these tools. Actually, the RIAA has a
listing on its website [1] of various news clippings, like, _" Pirates beware:
Kim Dotcom's Mega isn't the safe haven he says it is"_ and _" Kim Dotcom,
Pirate King"_. It would be interesting to find out how Dotcom came to be
entered into a NSA system as a target.

[1] [http://www.riaa.com/news_room.php?content_selector=riaa-
news...](http://www.riaa.com/news_room.php?content_selector=riaa-news-mega-
upload-developing-news)

~~~
grecy
> It would be interesting to find out how Dotcom came to be entered into a NSA
> system as a target.

He's not in the United States.

Everyone outside the United States is a target.

~~~
discostrings
This is in the context of New Zealand (but it does raise many questions about
international intelligence sharing and the nature of these systems).

New Zealand has already admitted that their targeting of Kim Dotcom was
against their laws. Their solution for the future? They passed a law this week
that removes the exemption from domestic spying for New Zealand citizens and
residents[1]. Once the system's in place, it just takes a stroke of the pen...

[1] [http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-08-21/new-zealand-passes-
spy...](http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-08-21/new-zealand-passes-spy-
bill/4903500)

~~~
marssaxman
This is disappointing. New Zealand seems to be a pretty sensible country and
I'd hoped for better.

~~~
foxylad
Most New Zealanders hoped for better. Depending on the poll, somewhere between
60% and 80% of us opposed the GCSB bill.

A little background - our prime minister John Key is a very pragmatic
politician, carefully avoiding contentious issues to remain popular and keep
his party in power. His actions over the GCSB bill are very out of character -
he's pulled in a lot of favours, twisted a lot of arms and spent a lot of
hard-earned political capital to get it passed (just). If he loses the next
election (still very much up in the air), passing this bill will be largely to
blame.

There is a very bad smell about this. He's already changed labour laws purely
for Warner Brothers (they threatened to move the Hobbit to eastern Europe),
and I'm fairly sure that the GCSB bill is mostly about fixing the legal
disaster that the Kim Dotcom exercise has degenerated into. The MAFIAA is a
remarkably apt name, given their tactics.

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panarky
Step 1: We must violate your rights for national security.

Step 2: We must violate your rights to stop child abuse.

Step 3: We must violate your rights to prevent cybercrime.

Step 4: We must violate your rights to protect entrenched business interests.

Step 5: We must violate your rights to preserve our own power.

Step 6: We must violate your rights to enrich ourselves at your expense.

~~~
ballard
Sad, but true it seems. There might be a difficult way out, but I don't
believe we should accept this.

One insight is that the framers of the US Constitution did not necessarily
anticipate the current differences of today (even though the more some things
change, the more these remain the same)...

IMHO, USG needs:

    
    
      1. The separation of powers could use a rebalancing to prevent the executive branch from wielding absolute autonomy, i.e., post-Henry VIII.
    
      2. Campaign finance reform is a requirement.  Congress isn't going to cut off their own campaign funding, except by sheer force of the people.  Fund candidates equally with 50% matching public-for-private funds up to the absolute total limit for the seat.  Then let the best message, hustler and money manager win.

~~~
adventured
The concept of executive orders - particularly as it's being used in modern
times - needs to be abolished.

We need sunset provisions on _most_ legislation, requiring laws / regulations
to be renewed every X years or they disappear. There are now 175,000 pages of
Federal regulations. They're adding thousands of pages per year on average.
Who could possibly have a grasp of what's in that? Most of the politicians
that passed Obamacare didn't even bother to read it, and I suspect the same is
true of most of the legislation passed in DC (most of which is written by
lobbyists).

We need a strong separation of corporation and state, for the same reason we
have a separation of church and state. They should not be allowed to corrupt
each other; specifically noting that it works both ways.

We need a drastic IRS overhaul. Filing should be no more complicated than
filling out six or seven lines spanning the size of an index card. Most
deductions, loopholes, etc should be abolished. All corporate welfare should
go away, including in energy and agriculture.

The ability to wage any type of war should require very specific Congressional
approval, including limiting time and scope (requiring extensions otherwise).
The ability of the executive to wage war without Congressional approval should
be completely curtailed.

The Federal Reserve should either be abolished or neutered (reformed
substantially and weakened). Its power to practically do anything it wants to
financially must be stopped. It has created three nation shattering bubbles in
the last 15 years, and is brewing two more right now on purpose (with the
stated goal to generate asset inflation). The Fed is singularly responsible
for enabling the profligate spending and general fiscal irresponsibility that
has gone on in DC the last 13 years. Without their willingness to fund it all
by devaluing the dollar, the vast military industrial complex, spying
programs, wars, and insane budget deficits would be impossible.

------
Zelphyr
"There are threats our government needs to protect New Zealanders from."

Serious question; What threats does the NZ government need to protect against
by comparison to that of the US? Don't get me wrong, I think many of the
threats against our country (the US) are as much our fault as anyones. And I'm
not saying _nobody_ wants to attack NZ. But I also don't see any jihadists
burning the NZ flag. (Or is that just another example of how much our news
media sucks?)

~~~
m4x
The last terror attack in NZ was when France bombed the Rainbow Warrior in
1985. I don't think there are any legitimate threats to New Zealand.

The only other recent piece of action here were the 2007 Uruwera raids which
turned out to be yet another police cock up resulting in no convictions

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nicholassmith
This won't be much of a surprise to people paying attention, but it does show
just how pervasive the level of surveillance has become now. If they're using
it to build a case of someone accused of enabling piracy, then it's most
definitely not being used for it's stated (and vaguely legal) purpose which
moves it onto an even more shaky footing.

We should be disgusted that our governments believe that this is just and
valid.

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fnordfnordfnord
That didn't take long. So much for those folks who thought the gov't would
never stoop so low.

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csandreasen
To begin with, this article makes its argument that the NSA is involved with
the Kim Dotcom situation based on two flawed arguments:

1) The use of the term "selectors" implies the use of PRISM because PRISM uses
the term "selectors" for search criteria. If you look at the other recent
leaks, it shows that "selectors" is a generic term used across multiple tools
by several, if not all, of five eyes intelligence agencies (try popping "gcsb
selectors" or "gchq selectors" into Google). It's possible that they used
PRISM or one of the other NSA tools, but they could very well have also used
any of their own tools.

2) The phrase "REL TO NZL, AUS, CAN, GBR, USA" means "related to fives eyes".
Google provides plenty of additional examples, but it seems that "REL TO"
means /releasable to/, not /related to/. In order words, personnel in the
other intelligence agencies are allowed to see it; it doesn't imply that they
have worked on it. See [1] for an example, but again, lots of other examples
in Google.

The document says on page 13 that the FBI asked OFCANZ for assistance in
carrying out an arrest warrant, OFCANZ then requested GCSB to "gather
intelligence" on Kim Dotcom and his associates. In addition, on page 4 it
states "No information concerning Mr. Dotcom or Mr. van der Kolk which GCSB
obtained as a result has to date been shared with the Five Eyes." The authors
of the Ars article and the original article are both trying to make the point
that the NSA is spying on Kim Dotcom, but there's no mention of the NSA or
that GCSB was using NSA tools anywhere in the leaked document.

Finally, I'm not sure who leaked these documents, but they didn't bother
redacting anything - there's personal information all over the place. I see
names of the police staff, and (though they're hard to read) the defendants'
e-mail addresses, phone numbers, addresses, passport numbers, driver's license
numbers. That's not cool.

[1]
www.transcom.mil/publications/showPublication.cfm?docID=04A4D891-1EC9-F26D-0715CB3E5AF1309B

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jmomo
Previously, Kim Dotcom had made an allegation that Joe Biden himself was
somehow involved.

At the time, it seemed preposterous.

Now,... it's entirely plausible.

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jlgreco
If they keep this shit up, then Kim Dotcom's ego is going to burst.

~~~
fnordfnordfnord
If it hasn't already burst... I can't imagine what it would take.

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johnmurch
Shocking, ha!

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Zigurd
Now that NSA surveillance is widely known, it is unavoidably up for sale. What
enterprise wouldn't position itself as a strategic national asset in order to
benefit from surveillance data, no matter how much it must pay in political
contributions. Evidently the entertainment industry has already succeeded at
it.

I was a bit shocked to read in the Wikileaks diplomatic wires how much effort
is spent on bullying US allies about petty intellectual property issues. I'm
more shocked the NSA gets dragged into such trivialities, but not surprised.

Are there any boundaries of propriety that have not been breached?

