Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom flew into Wellington on Wednesday (July 3) in his private helicopter to attend New Zealand parliament’s intelligence and security committee hearing chaired by Prime Minister John Key.
It placed Dotcom face-to-face with the leader for the first time since his arrest during a dramatic raid on Dotcom’s home outside Auckland in January 2012.
As ongoing revelations of U.S. spying shed more light on a secretive, Washington-led intelligence-sharing alliance, the victim of illegal spying by member nation New Zealand warned against following the United States into “the dark ages of spying”.
Their exchange becoming tense at times given that Dotcom alleges that Key may have been aware of the GCSB (Government Communications Security Bureau) spying as it was happening, something which Key has denied.
Dotcom was monitored by New Zealand’s spy agency for U.S. authorities. He told a parliamentary hearing that a proposed law to broaden surveillance capabilities would make it easier for the United States and other countries to keep track of New Zealanders.
“The Prime Minister has failed to explain why exactly these greater powers and greater privacy intrusions are needed,” Dotcom said during a parliamentary hearing on a government bill which proposes to give the Government Communications Security Bureau powers to spy on New Zealand citizens.
Dotcom’s case highlights the scope of surveillance cooperation between the United States and other countries after Edward Snowden revealed Washington’s secret spying programme last month, which has enraged allies and cranked up suspicions that the U.S. regularly spies on other countries.
“This is poorly timed considering the scandalous leaks concerning U.S mass surveillance of the world’s population,” he said.
The GCSB last year admitted it had provided surveillance information on Dotcom to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations, which accuses the internet entrepreneur of facilitating online piracy, along with money laundering and racketeering.
At the moment, the agency can spy on foreign targets although monitoring citizens and residents is illegal. In light of the incident involving Dotcom, a German national with New Zealand residency, the government is pushing to change the law to include citizens and residents.
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