Glenn Greenwald has just published a book on the NSA Leaks - and the online documents give some hints about the GCSB's involvement in the NSA's global panopticon:
One NSA document told New Zealand’s security services and those of other Five Eyes nations to "sniff it all, know it all, collect it all, process it all and exploit it all" [also "partner it all" - I/S]
[...]
A slideshow showed Government Communications Security Bureau spies how to operate a system that trawled through massive amounts of phone numbers, email addresses and online chat.
Other files state New Zealand was forwarded intercepted phone calls, texts and emails between the Brazilian president and her staff.
GCSB was also briefed on NSA’s efforts to put back doors into private companies’ computer networks, and given access to a program called “Homing Pigeon” which allowed in-air passenger jet conversations to be monitored, according to the book.
As Russell Brown points out, this doesn't really fit with GCSB director Ian Fletcher's public "assurance" last week that "We don't do that stuff". Clearly they do. Sadly, their way of dealing with the exposure of that fact is simply to lie to our faces rather than stop.
The powers our spies have are a standing danger to our democracy and to our freedom. We clearly cannot trust them. Therefore we must destroy them. There's an election later this year, and two parties standing who are promising to do that: the Internet Party and the Greens. Vote for them, and vote out the spies.
