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Brazil Refuses To Drop Bullshit Charges Against Glenn Greenwald; Appeal Judge's Ruling Throwing Out The Case

from the chilling-effects dept

Earlier this year, we wrote about the bogus “cybercrimes” charges brought against Glenn Greenwald in Brazil for his reporting on government corruption. As has been noted, a court and law enforcement had already said that Greenwald did not break any laws in his reporting, and had followed ethical journalistic guidelines. And yet, he was still charged with a crime for reporting on leaked documents, with prosecutors claiming that Greenwald’s suggestions to the whistleblower on how not to get caught constituted a “clear role in facilitating the commission of a crime.” This was clearly a charade, as the Bolsonairo government in Brazil seemed mostly to just want to intimidate Greenwald and the press away from reporting on what now appears to be an extremely corrupt government.

A few weeks after the charges were announced, a court again said that it was clear that Greenwald broke no laws and refused to allow the case to go forward. However, as the Freedom of the Press Foundation has now announced, prosecutors have chosen to appeal that ruling and to continue to go after Greenwald.

In a troubling development for press freedom, Brazilian authorities have appealed a federal judge?s ruling that rejected criminal charges against Intercept Brasil founding editor Glenn Greenwald. The charges stem from that outlet?s investigative series documenting corruption involving high ranking prosecutors and Sergio Moro, the Justice Minister in President Jair Bolsonaro?s right-wing administration.

Again, whether you agree with Glenn or not, this is a blatant attack on a free press, and an obvious attempt at creating a chilling effect around necessary reporting on government malfeasance. It’s shameful that the Brazilian government is doing this, and it’s important for everyone to be aware of what’s happening down there and how they’re seeking to scare off reporters from investigating corruption.

Filed Under: brazil, chilling effects, cybercrime, glenn greenwald, journalism, leaks, whistleblowers

Brazilian Court Refuses To Move Forward With Bogus Charges Against Glenn Greenwald 'For Now'

from the temporary-relief dept

We’ve already discussed how the “cybercrime” charges against Glenn Greenwald in Brazil for his reporting activities were a clear attack on a free press — especially given that a court and the Federal Police had already said he didn’t do anything wrong. In a bit of a temporary reprieve, a judge has now refused to move forward with the charges against Greenwald, but that doesn’t mean things won’t change down the road:

In a decision announced Thursday, Judge Ricardo Augusto Soares Leite ruled that Greenwald?s prosecution would not go forward, but only on account of a previous finding by the Brazilian Supreme Court that The Intercept?s reporting on Operation Car Wash had not transgressed any legal boundaries. In the absence of the injunction issued by a Supreme Court minister that prohibited investigations into Greenwald related to this case, Leite said he would have let the charges against Greenwald move forward. The judge also said that, if the Supreme Court injunction were to be overturned, he would be open to charging Greenwald.

?I decline, for now, to receive the complaint against GLENN GREENWALD, due to the controversy over the extent of the injunction granted by Minister Gilmar Mendes in ADPF n? 601, on 08/24/2019,? Leite wrote, referring to the ruling by Mendes, a Supreme Court minister.

This is, at least, a minor victory, but the situation still remains hugely problematic, and creates a significant chilling effect for journalists, showing just how far the Brazilian government will go to intimidate and silence journalists exposing wrongdoing by the government. Even the fact that the judge is making it clear that without the earlier Supreme Court injunction he’d move forward should be quite chilling in its own right (especially when other journalist are unlikely to have a similar injunction sitting in their pocket).

Make no mistake about it: the Bolsonairo government is deliberately attempting to intimidate the press to push back on investigative reporting into alleged corruption.

Filed Under: brazil, chilling effects, glenn greenwald, jair bolsonaro, press freedoms

The Similarities Between The US's Case Against Julian Assange And Brazil's Against Glenn Greenwald Are Uncanny

from the attacks-on-a-free-press dept

When Julian Assange was arrested in the UK and taken out of the Ecuadorian embassy, many of us raised concerns that the charges against him appeared to be things that every investigative reporter does in finding sources. The superseding indictment of Assange made it clear that the DOJ’s case against Assange was a direct attack on a free press. Indeed, even some federal prosecutors worried about the charges going way too far.

Yet, we got tremendous pushback on this, as people kept insisting that it was different, that Julian Assange had gone further than normal reporters, and that because there have been claims that he was associated with the Russians, that this somehow made the charges against him okay. Yet, with the recent news of Brazil charging Glenn Greenwald with crimes for reporting on leaked documents, we noted that the case seemed to parallel the US’s case against Assange. Mathew Ingram, over at the Columbia Journalism Review, has now written a more in-depth piece on how the two cases mirror each other:

This strategy?trying to paint a journalist as an active participant in a crime, as opposed to just the recipient of leaked material?is clearly a heinous attack on freedom of the press protections, something journalists and anyone in favor of free speech should be up in arms about. But it doesn?t exist in a vacuum. The case against Greenwald happens to be almost a carbon copy of the Justice Department?s argument in the affidavit it filed against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange last year, which contains more than a dozen charges under the Espionage Act. Just like the Brazilian government, US prosecutors try to make the case that Assange didn?t just receive leaked diplomatic cables and other information from former Army staffer Chelsea Manning, but that he actively participated in the hack and leaks, and therefore doesn?t deserve the protection of the First Amendment.

Regardless of what we think of Julian Assange or WikiLeaks, this is an obvious attack on journalism, just as Brazil?s legal broadside against Glenn Greenwald is an obvious attack by Bolsonaro on someone who has become a journalistic thorn in his side. A man who helped win a Pulitzer Prize for reporting on leaked documents involving mass surveillance by US intelligence, files that were leaked to him by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. And the charges come even after Brazil?s Supreme Court ruled last year that Greenwald could not be prosecuted for the hacking case because of press freedom laws. In a statement, Greenwald called the Brazil charges ?an obvious attempt to attack a free press in retaliation for the revelations we reported about Minister Moro and the Bolsonaro government,? and said he and the Intercept plan to continue publishing. And so they should.

What’s even more concerning about this: even if you think that Assange is a terrible human being and actively conspired with the Russians, even if you think he belongs in jail, recognize that the US DOJ has given a great playbook to every authoritarian country out there on how to arrest and jail journalists reporting on leaks, and to claim that they’re just doing the same thing as the supposed bastion of a free press, the United States.

Filed Under: brazil, doj, free press, free speech, glenn greenwald, journalism, julian assange, leaks

In A Blatant Attack On Press Freedom, Brazilian Government Charges Glenn Greenwald With 'Cybercrimes' For Reporting On Leaked Documents

from the silencing-the-press dept

I don’t always agree with Glenn Greenwald, and over the last few years have grown increasingly frustrated with either his confusing and contradictory positions or his bizarre stubbornness in being purposefully obtuse in his explanations of his positions. However, his general commitment to freedom of the press is hard to question. Over the last few years, Greenwald has been particularly focused on reporting about the federal government of Jair Bolsonaro in his adopted home of Brazil. Given that Bolsonaro has a reputation for attacking the press, many people wondered how long it would take for the Brazilian government to go after Greenwald.

And, indeed, today it was announced that Greenwald has been charged with “cybercrimes” for his reporting on leaked documents regarding the current Justice Minister, Sergio Moro, who was the federal judge who oversaw the trial of former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Many in Brazil, including Greenwald, have argued that the corruption trial and jailing of Lula was a corrupt show trial designed to get Lula out of office and prevent his re-election in 2018 (when Bolsonaro was elected). The leaked documents showed that Moro, while presiding over the trial, worked closely with prosecutors and helped them strategize.

Since then, there has been speculation that the government was trying to build a case against Greenwald. In July, Greenwald was called before a Congressional committee in which he was directly told he should be jailed. Back in August, the Brazilian Supreme Court actually put a stop to an attempt to investigate Greenwald, after Bolsonaro himself called for Greenwald to be jailed.

However, that appears not to have actually stopped the government’s attempts to find some reason to throw Greenwald in jail. The charges against Greenwald argue that he wasn’t just reporting on the leaked documents, but that he was part of a “criminal organization” and worked with people to hack into the phones of officials in order to access the documents:

Citing intercepted messages between Mr. Greenwald and the hackers, prosecutors say the journalist played a ?clear role in facilitating the commission of a crime.?

For instance, prosecutors contend that Mr. Greenwald encouraged the hackers to delete archives that had already been shared with The Intercept Brasil, in order to cover their tracks.

Prosecutors also say that Mr. Greenwald was communicating with the hackers while they were actively monitoring private chats on Telegram, a messaging app.

Some may argue that there is a fine line between reporting on leaked documents and encouraging people to hack to get those documents, but from what’s described so far, Greenwald’s actions sound like pretty typical efforts by a journalist to work with whistleblowing sources to help them protect themselves. Telling people to delete their archive is just good security advice for a source to protect themselves, and should never be seen as meaning that you’re a part of the hacking activity. But, of course, when an oppressive government wants to blur the lines, that’s what happens. Indeed, this is quite similar to many of the DOJ’s charges against Julian Assange, taking standard journalistic practices and arguing that they make you an accomplice.

For now Greenwald is (as you would expect) not backing down, and claiming (with good reason) that this is an attack on a free press in Brazil. In a lengthy statement he gave to the Daily Beast, it’s clear what he thinks of these charges:

?The Bolsonaro government and the movement that supports it has made repeatedly clear that it does not believe in basic press freedoms?from Bolsonaro’s threats against Folha to his attacks on journalists that have incited violence to Sergio Moro?s threats from the start to classify us as ?allies of the hackers? for revealing his corruption,? Greenwald said in a statement to The Daily Beast.

?Less than two months ago, the Federal Police, examining all the same evidence cited by the Public Ministry, stated explicitly that not only have I never committed any crime but that I exercised extreme caution as a journalist never even to get close to any participation,? he continued. ?Even the Federal Police under Minister Moro’s command said what is clear to any rational person: I did nothing more than do my job as a journalist?ethically and within the law.?

He also calls out that Supreme Court ruling from last August:

?It is also on an attack on the Brazilian Supreme Court, which ruled in July that I am entitled to have my press freedom protected in response to other retaliatory attacks from Judge Moro, and even an attack on the findings of the Federal Police, which concluded explicitly after a comprehensive investigation that I committed no crimes and solely acted as a journalist.

?We will not be intimidated by these tyrannical attempts to silence journalists. I am working right now on new reporting and will continue to do so. Many courageous Brazilians sacrificed their liberty and even life for Brazilian democracy and against repression, and I feel an obligation to continue their noble work.?

No matter what you think of Greenwald, this appears to be an intimidation technique by the Bolsonaro government, and an outright attack on a free press.

Of course, it also has one other effect: I hadn’t followed closely that original story about Moro and his collaboration with prosecutors while being the judge in a case. Yet now I’ve gone back to read all of the reporting on it, and it certainly suggests a deeply, deeply corrupt Brazilian government.

Filed Under: brazil, corruption, free speech, glenn greenwald, intimidation, jair bolsanro, journalism, press freedom, reporting, sergio moro
Companies: the intercept

Chilling Effects: UK Police Admit To Investigating Journalists For Covering Snowden Leaks

from the freedom-of-the-press? dept

Remember back when UK law enforcement detained David Miranda while he passing through Heathrow airport for nine hours, under an anti-terrorism law, claiming that journalism could be terrorism? Apparently, UK law enforcement is really doubling down on that claim, with the new admission that there is an ongoing and open criminal investigation into the reporters who have published Snowden documents.

As you recall, the first such documents were obtained and published by Glenn Greenwald, an American living in Brazil but working for the UK’s Guardian newspaper. There had been a number of bizarre reports about just how far UK law enforcement wanted to go to intimidate journalists from reporting on such leaks in the future — even forcing the Guardian to physically destroy a laptop that had the Snowden documents for no good reason other than security theater.

But that kind of intimidation has been taken up a notch. Greenwald’s new publication, the Intercept, has been engaged in an ongoing Freedom of Information battle with the Metropolitan Police Service in the UK to find out if that organization is investigating journalists, and the police have finally confirmed that they are, in fact, investigating journalists, though it only does so obliquely, but “confirming” that “it continues to conduct an investigation into the events as described above” (with the “above” being the details laid out in the Freedom of Information request).

Of course, it doesn’t appear that the reporters actually did anything wrong, and thus it seems fairly clear that the entire reason for the investigation is to create chilling effects for journalists who might publish such stories in the future and to harass those who published them in the past. The current UK government’s continued move to use Orwell’s 1984 as a guidebook, rather than a warning sign, is really reaching ridiculous levels.

Filed Under: ed snowden, glenn greenwald, investigation, journalism, metropolitan police, uk

Stewart Baker: Journalists Are To Blame For Making The NSA Look Like It's Doing All The Things It's Actually Doing

from the narrative-controller-gripes-about-narrative-he-can't-control dept

Stewart Baker, former NSA General Counsel and unofficial apologist for the DHS, CIA and NSA, is still trying to pin the blame for everything on everyone that isn’t a member of these fine American agencies. Privacy activists are to blame for TSA groping. Civil libertarians are to blame for the 9/11 attacks. FISA minimization procedures are also to blame for the 9/11 attacks. Encryption is to blame for the Blackberry’s disappearance from the cellphone market. And so on.

Now, in an interview with Wired where he supposedly dispels “cyber-security myths,” it’s journalists who are to blame for people’s distrust of government surveillance. But, you know, not in the flattering sort of way where uncomfortable truths are told and transparency is forced on reluctant, shadowy agencies. No, it’s in the bad way where journalists didn’t present a “fair” picture of domestic surveillance.

He leads off by saying there’s no possible way to hold a “conversation” about surveillance programs because to do so compromises security. We’re supposed to just trust the government on this, apparently.

This assertion is challenged by Wired’s Caleb Garling, who asks Baker whether Snowden’s leaks have served any positive purpose. Baker says there’s nothing to be gained because it’s journalists — not the Executive Branch and the intelligence community — that have been secretive and dishonest.

It was a scam from the start. Greenwald, Poitras, Snowden, and Bart Gellman did exactly what people like them have been accusing the intelligence community of doing for 40 years. They used the classification to tell a partial story in the hopes of shaping the debate, and they succeeded.

They released that order saying the government is scarfing up metadata about all your calls and they withheld, for roughly two weeks,* the [documentation] which they all had which showed all the limitations on that access. Why? Because they didn’t want a debate on the limitations—they wanted to leave the impression that everybody’s phone calls are looked at by NSA and they have succeeded in leaving that impression because of their manipulation of the classified information. That’s a shame.

*OMG ALMOST TWO WHOLE WEEKS

Left unmentioned by Baker is the fact that the government could have stepped in at any time and countered this mis-impression. But it never did. It still doesn’t, at least not to any significant extent. When documents are served up by news agencies with access to them, they’re routinely greeted with denials, refusals to comment or cliches about “lawful authority” and “oversight.” Only very belatedly has the government experimented with transparency, and even in this, there’s routinely more redaction than insight.

While it’s true that the debate over security vs. privacy will always be somewhat hampered by security concerns, the US government spent years hiding its expanding surveillance programs from everybody, including oversight committees and the FISA Court. It made no effort over the next decade-plus to welcome the public to the debate — mostly because it had already held this debate in the public’s absence shortly after the 9/11 attacks. Now, government apologists like Baker want to blame the press for “skewing” the perception of these agencies and their tactics. But what other view could possibly have been presented? The government — until June of 2013 — held (almost) all the cards. Snowden gave journalists a deck of these own and Baker wants to criticize how the press played its limited hand.

Someone who spent years keeping information out of the public’s hands (and applauds further efforts to do the same) is in no position to criticize the transparency efforts of others, no matter how subjectively much it looks like activists pitching skewed narratives.

Filed Under: glenn greenwald, journalism, nsa, reporting, stewart baker, surveillance

News Corp. Sends DMCA Notice Over Glenn Greenwald Trashing The Sunday Times' Ridiculous Snowden Story

from the yeah,-that's-convincing dept

We already wrote this morning about the ridiculous claims by The Sunday Times that Snowden’s documents had been either given to the Russians and Chinese or that they had cracked the encryption to get them — and that, because of this, the UK had to move intelligence “agents” out of Moscow for their safety. We pointed to numerous problems with the article, including many direct factual mistakes. One of the links we pointed to was Glenn Greenwald himself challenging many of the claims in the Sunday Times. This included highlighting the flat out lie that David Miranda was detained in Heathrow after visiting Snowden in Moscow (a claim the Sunday Times later simply deleted, with no correction or retraction).

Many people have been asking if the Sunday Times will say anything about the myriad problems with the article, and we now finally have a response. And it’s… to send a DMCA takedown notice to Greenwald’s publisher, First Look Media, claiming that, because he posted an image of the Sunday Times’ front page layout, he is violating their copyright. Here’s the section of Greenwald’s article the Times (really, Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of News UK, which is a subsidiary of News Corp) is complaining about:

The idea that this is somehow infringing is ridiculous. But here’s what the lawyers at News Corp are claiming:

We write on behalf of Times Newspapers Limited (TNL) the publishers of The Times and The Sunday Times. TNL owns the copyright in the typographical arrangement of the front page of The Sunday Times published on 14 June 2015 (Material). The Material is an original work created by employees of TNL. A copy of the Material is enclosed.

A copy of the Material appears [on First Look’s website] under the headline “THE SUNDAY TIMES’ SNOWDEN STORY IS JOURNALISM AT ITS WORST — AND FILLED WITH FALSEHOODS” (Infringing Content). The Infringing Content has been reproduced, communicated to the public and published onto the Website without TNL’s permission and as such infringes the intellectual property rights of TNL….

Later, it notes:

… we have a good-faith belief that the use is not authorized by the copyright or other intellectual property rights owner, by its agent, or by law…

To put it mildly: this is ridiculous. Of course it’s authorized by law, and that law is fair use. The UK may not have fair use, but the US does, and First Look is a US publication. The use above clearly and easily is fair use — so much so that the lawyer for News Corp pretending otherwise is either the worst lawyer ever, or is being deliberately disingenuous with this threat letter.

Even more to the point: how could anyone at News Corp not realize how this would end up? There was no way that such a letter would have the intended purpose of taking down the content and the only thing it could do would be to draw extra attention to the fact that News Corp is trying to censor one of the people forcefully criticizing its ridiculous article, and highlighting what it got wrong. And, thus, the end result is further ridicule for News Corp, and further reasons to question the credibility of the Sunday Times.

Filed Under: censorship, copyright, dmca, ed snowden, glenn greenwald, sunday times
Companies: news corp, news uk, sunday times, times newspapers

Barrett Brown Loses Email Access For A Year After Using Email To Complain About Prison

from the that's-ridiculous dept

Last week, whistleblower Chelsea Manning was able to start tweeting from prison, while at nearly the same time reporter Barrett Brown lost his email access for an entire year for daring to email a journalist about bad prison conditions. If you don’t recall, Barrett Brown is the reporter who was recently sentenced to more than five years in jail for reporting on the hacking actions of Anonymous. Bizarrely, the length of the sentence hinged on Brown’s sharing a link in a chat room, even though the Justice Department dropped that particular charge. We also found it ridiculous that during the course of his trial, Brown was ordered by the court not to talk to journalists.

It appears that, once again, that was a part of the problem here. The judicial and correctional systems apparently really don’t like it when you talk to journalists:

An hour or so after having used the system to contact a journalist about potential BOP [Bureau of Prisons] wrongdoing, Barrett Brown?s access to the TRULINCS prisoner e-mail system was restricted, for a full year until April 2016, without explanation.

This is contrary to the BOP?s own policy on several points, as noted in their 2009 documentation ? the administration is only allowed to remove access to TRULINCS for thirty days pending an investigation of any potential misuse, and the inmate is supposed to be informed in writing of the reason for that.

But despite all of that, prison officials don’t seem to care. They made it clear they just wanted to shut up Brown:

Barrett spoke to a supervisor this morning who told him that he lost his e-mail access because he was ?using it for the wrong thing?. This refers to his contacts with the press. A review of his e-mail activity had been made, Barrett was also told by this person that he ?wasn?t supposed to have? e-mail, when there?s been no such order or determination that we?re aware of.

Apparently, Brown had been talking to Glenn Greenwald about writing some articles for The Intercept, and that’s what set off the Bureau of Prisons into a full-fledged lockdown on Brown’s email account. Brown himself was later able to provide more details, suggesting a completely arbitrary process by a prison official:

Failing to find Mr. Coleman, I met that afternoon with Unit Manger Ivory, who checked my files but could find no reason why my access should have suddenly been suspended and also advised me to meet with Mr. Coleman. At some point that day, my attempts to log in started to prompt a different message stating: ?This account is on suspension until 4/1/2016 11:59:59 pm (from portal 16)?. At the next lunch period on Thursday, April 2nd, I was unable to locate Mr. Coleman, but laid out my problem to the associate warden who told me to return in five minutes, when Mr. Coleman would be present.

I did so, and when I asked another group of prison officials if they knew where I could find Mr. Coleman, another individual came up to me and said that he was the person I was looking for. He pulled me aside and told me that he was the one who had cut off my email, as I wasn?t supposed to have access to it in the first place due to my charges. I noted that I had three charges and asked which one precluded me from using the email service. He told me to list my charges and I did so. He then added that he had done a review of my email correspondence and found that I had ?been using it for the wrong thing.? I replied that I had simply been using it to communicate with the press. He confirmed that ?that was the wrong thing.? I asked him his name, which he gave as ?Moore?.

Yes, when you go to prison, you have given up a lot of your rights and freedoms. But this seems like a purely arbitrary decision to punish Brown for criticizing the prison system. And, it appears to be backfiring, only driving that much more attention to the issue.

Filed Under: barrett brown, bureau of prisons, email, glenn greenwald, journalism, prison, vindictive

New Zealand PM Releases Documents… That Don't Actually Discuss GCSB Mass Surveillance

from the wait,-what? dept

So we had just posted New Zealand Prime Minister John Key insulting the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald, referring to him as a “henchman” and “a loser” for showing up in New Zealand to reveal that, contrary to Key’s own claims, the country’s GCSB (local equivalent of the NSA) had been engaged in mass surveillance of New Zealand residents. The documents Greenwald revealed showed how the Kiwi government was being pressured by the NSA to pass a law to fully “legalize” the program for mass surveillance of metadata. Further support to Greenwald’s claims was provided in an article written by Ed Snowden, discussing just how easy it was to go surfing through the metadata collected on New Zealanders by GCSB.

Over the weekend, Prime Minister Key had said that once Greenwald revealed what he had, he would declassify a set of documents proving that Greenwald was wrong. Well, now Key has, in fact, declassified a set of documents from the GCSB… and they don’t actually discuss what Greenwald or Snowden were talking about. Instead, they look like some internal discussions of why GCSB needed a (dangerous) program that would allow GCSB to try to spot and deal with foreign cyberattacks (similar to what the NSA wanted to do in the US, but which banks on Wall St. rejected).

So, basically all that Key has revealed is that GCSB supported an overly broad cyberattack plan that would let the GCSB take it upon itself to deal with cyberattacks — a plan so insane that even the US has rejected it — in part because it would massively increase surveillance. So, Key has revealed secretly approved plans to increase GCSB surveillance, while pretending he’s debunking increased GCSB surveillance. And, yet, the documents don’t even address any of Greenwald and Snowden’s actual claims. When asked about that Key appears to have done his standard childish pouting, refusing to answer about specifics:

“There is not, and never has been, mass surveillance of New Zealanders undertaken by the GCSB.

He would not discuss XKEYSCORE, ”we don’t discuss the specific programmes 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,” Mr Key said.

Frankly, this is a bit of a let down. Given the documents that Greenwald revealed on Monday, there was still the slight possibility that changes had happened along the way and people had rethought a bad plan. So I was wondering if Key might actually reveal something miraculous like that. Instead, it seems like he’s trying a sleight of hand trick by declassifying and releasing unrelated documents (that actually reveal a secret surveillance expansion different from the one Greenwald revealed) and hoping no one notices. Interesting strategy. It seems to assume that the New Zealand populace doesn’t actually pay attention to any details, which seems like a risky move.

Filed Under: cybersecurity, ed snowden, gcsb, glenn greenwald, john key, kim dotcom, metadata, nsa, surveillance

Snowden & Greenwald Reveal PM John Key Lied About Kiwi Mass Surveillance; Key Hits Back By Calling Greenwald 'A Loser'

from the not-very-convincing dept

Over the weekend, Glenn Greenwald made it clear that he was going to reveal evidence of domestic mass surveillance on New Zealanders by the GCSB (the Kiwi version of the NSA). The plan was to reveal it at a political event organized by Kim Dotcom. Before Greenwald even had the chance, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key tried to preempt the story by claiming that the country had considered such options, but never actually went through with it. He also used the opportunity to toss out random ad hominem insults at Greenwald, because that’s always convincing.

“Dotcom’s little henchman is wrong,” says Mr Key….. “I’m probably not going to jump in front of what information he’s got,” says Mr Key. “It’s up to the henchman to go and deliver that information I suppose, but mark my words, he’s wrong. I’m right and I’ll prove I’m right.”

Except he did try to “jump in front” by revealing that there were plans in place for such a system and in promising to “declassify and release top secret documents” that would prove his side of the story.

This morning, Greenwald delivered on his half of the bargain with a detailed look at how the NSA was relying on New Zealand to change its laws to further legalize GCSB domestic surveillance. Greenwald got a further assist from Ed Snowden himself who wrote about how he regularly had access to New Zealanders’ metadata, collected by the GCSB. Snowden’s really damning point is that there was a simple “checkbox” if he wanted to turn off such searches:

If you have doubts, which would be quite reasonable, given what the last year showed us about the dangers of taking government officials at their word, I invite you to confirm this for yourself. Actual pictures and classified documentation of XKEYSCORE are available online now, and their authenticity is not contested by any government. Within them you?ll find that the XKEYSCORE system offers, but does not require for use, something called a ?Five Eyes Defeat,? the Five Eyes being the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, and yes, New Zealand.

This might seem like a small detail, but it?s very important. The Five Eyes Defeat is an optional filter, a single checkbox. It allows me, the analyst, to prevent search results from being returned on those countries from a particular search. Ask yourself: why do analysts have a checkbox on a top secret system that hides the results of mass surveillance in New Zealand if there is no mass surveillance in New Zealand?

Greenwald’s piece further details how the NSA was pushing New Zealand to pass a new law last year to finalize the full legalization of this kind of surveillance, noting that the legal change was considered the final blockade on such a program. As we noted last year, while most of the world was passing laws to cut back on domestic surveillance, New Zealand was actually passing a law to expand those powers. While that bill was being debated, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key insisted that it was not enabling broad new domestic surveillance options, even though it was pretty clear from the text of the law.

At the time Key vehemently denied that it was legalizing domestic mass surveillance, responding to such claims by arguing “none of that is true.” And yet, Greenwald highlights documents that show that the domestic surveillance program was entirely in place, just waiting for that last legal hurdle to be knocked down:

But in high-level discussions between the Key government and the NSA, the new law was clearly viewed as the crucial means to empower the GCSB to engage in metadata surveillance. On more than one occasion, the NSA noted internally that Project Speargun, in the process of being implemented, could not and would not be completed until the new law was enacted. The NSA apparently viewed that new law as providing exactly the powers that Key repeatedly and publicly denied it would vest.

And, of course, Key did this with pure and blatant FUD. At the time, he went on and on about immediate threats to the nation:

The Prime Minister says the country faces genuine security threats, while his opponents reckon he’s being manipulative.

[….] John Key says he has received some briefings from intelligence agencies that have deeply concerned him.

“I think it would cut dead some of the most fancible claims I’ve heard lately from those who oppose this Bill.”

Except there doesn’t appear to be any evidence to support that. Just evidence that the NSA really, really wanted this bill to pass. As Greenwald highlights with newly revealed Snowden documents:

Critically, the NSA documents note in more than one place that completion of Speargun was impeded by one obstacle: The need to enact a new spying law that would allow the GCSB, for the first time, to spy on its own citizens as well as legal residents of the country. As one NSA planning document put it, completion of Speargun was ?awaiting new GCSB Act expected July 2013.?

So far, Key’s response is to ratchet up the insults. Beyond calling Pulitzer Prize-winning Greenwald a “henchman” a bunch of times, Key also called Greenwald “a loser,” and tried to spin it all as a plot by Kim Dotcom:

“People got really wound up about me calling him Dotcom’s little henchman. I would have a modicum of respect for the guy if he had the guts to turn up here six months before the election, or six months after. If this loser is going to come to town and try and tell me, five days before an election, staying at the Dotcom mansion with all the Dotcom people and being paid by Dotcom, that he’s doing anything other than Dotcom’s bidding – please don’t insult me with that.”

Except, of course, Greenwald has long explained that Dotcom agreed to pay Greenwald’s usual speaking fee to charity (though, he did pay for Greenwald’s flight to New Zealand). But, honestly, anyone following Glenn Greenwald for more than about five minutes would know that the guy is not exactly the kind of person who takes orders from anyone, no matter who’s paying for what.

Filed Under: ed snowden, gcsb, glenn greenwald, insults, john key, kim dotcom, metadata, surveillance, truth