Unanswered questions about the GCSB’s relations with the NSA

By
Keith Locke
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7
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gcsb-scum

There are several unanswered questions, in the wake of the Snowden revelations, about the GCSB’s contribution to the US National Security Agency’s global surveillance programme.

1. What is the nature of the mass communications data collected by the GCSB at the Waihopai satellite communications interception station for the NSA’s Prism database? We know it includes information on millions of international phone calls? What else does it collect?
2. Are NSA officers seconded to work in the GCSB, as has been reported in the past. Are GCSB officers seconded to work in the NSA?
3. How much is the GCSB funded by the NSA? We have found out through the Guardian newspaper that the British Government Communications Headquarters is subsidised by the NSA? Is any subsidy of the GCSB in the form of cash or equipment, or a combination of the two?
4. What processing of the mass communications data does the GCSB do for the Five Eyes networks, and around what targets? Which countries’ communications are particularly targeted, and does this list include China?
5. What consideration has been given to the downside of the GCSB spying for the NSA on the communications of countries which are also our major trading partners, like China?
6. What access do GCSB operatives have to the NSA’s giant Prism database? Is it direct access, of the type that Edward Snowden apparently had, which we now know from the Guardian is via the XKeyscore NSA search system? Or do the GCSB’s questions have to be funneled through an NSA officer, either one resident in New Zealand, or one resident in the United States?

New Zealanders have a democratic right to know the answers to these question, because they deal with important matters relating to the privacy of our communications, our sovereignty and our foreign policy.

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7 COMMENTS

  2. Make FOIA requests now. Identify the targets & compensate all those whose lives have been illegally and immorally interfered with.

  3. I’d feel more comfortable about this if those questions were honestly answered and I was given assurance that our rights under the bill of rights were protected and not traded like the US constitution…

  4. Question 1 is somewhat overqualified.

    Waihopai and Tangimoana are well known because they are in plain sight, with Waihopai in particular “sticking out like dog’s balls”.

    They are designed for the interception of radio and satellite communications but also afford communication with satellites which can surveil the electromagnetic spectrum, including all radio communications and imagery, and provide military communications infrastructure over the whole planet.

    While it is believed that these stations include considerable computing power, it appears likely that the bulk of this capability is at other unknown facilities, probably closer to main centres and international fibre optic cables.

    Also, while we now know about PRISM, we still only have a few pieces of the puzzle, and it appears that PRISM may only be a small part of the whole, so let’s not limit the question there either.

    Finally, as we know that members of the Five Eyes use each other’s systems to avoid legal limitations on spying on their own citizens, reference to only one member of the alliance provides room for deceptive answers.

    This leaves: What is the nature of the mass communications data collected by the GCSB for the Five Eyes alliance?

  6. Waihopai look like two giant puffballs about to be stomped on by the giant gumboots of kiwi indignation and outrage.

    Thank you Keith, we need to know the answers to these questions and more!

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