Snowden files expose NZ’s part in America’s spy network

Edward Snowden. Photo by NZ Herald.

The Herald -- with investigative journalist Nicky Hager -- is working on stories based on files from the United States National Security Agency (NSA), taken by whistleblower Edward Snowden in the biggest intelligence breach in history.

Internationally, the information obtained by Snowden has sparked concerns about the behaviour of the intelligence agencies in the grouping of Five Eyes nations, of which New Zealand is a member.

Fierce debate has raged over diplomatic breaches, the intrusion into citizens' privacy and a shift towards a "collect it all" policy.

Hager obtained access to files from the Snowden trove through a partnership with the news site The Intercept, set up by campaigning journalist Glenn Greenwald after he revealed Snowden as a whistleblower who took a vast number of files from his former employer because he was concerned by the extent of the agency's actions and reach.

Hager said the information would show New Zealand was "far more involved than most people realise".

"The discussion about GCSB [Government Communications Security Bureau] in New Zealand has always been about GCSB spying on New Zealanders. What this is going to be about is all the other countries New Zealand spies on.

"Some of that won't be a surprise and some of it will be a great surprise."

Hager said the information would not only surprise the public but also "people all through the foreign policy and intelligence bureaucracy who will know much more about this subject at the end of these revelations than they did before.

"When I read through this material and see that New Zealand is doing these things, it seems bizarre to me -- like it is from another era."

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Snowden files expose NZ's part in America's spy network