Path: news.aus.world.net!news.us.world.net!news.inc.net!trellis.wwnet.com!nntp.coast.net!howland.reston.ans.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!news.mel.aone.net.au!newshost.pcug.org.au!blchupin!blchupin From: blchupin@pcug.org.au (Basil Chupin) Newsgroups: tip.general,aus.org.efa,aus.legal Subject: Re: The police came knocking Message-ID: <09A420598905@pcug.org.au> X-Mailer: Osiris v4.1 Registered To Basil Chupin References: <4gisqm$s4c@wabbit.its.uow.edu.au> Date: Sun, 25 Feb 96 17:06:59 +1000 Organization: Back To The Future CBIS, Canberra, Australia Lines: 223 Xref: news.aus.world.net aus.org.efa:1808 aus.legal:2660 In article <4gisqm$s4c@wabbit.its.uow.edu.au> Phil Herring <revdoc@uow.edu.au> writes:
In article <312beb37.18538395@newshost.pcug.org.au> Owen Cook, rcook@pcug.org.au writes: 1. All traffic into and out of Australia passes thru this building at St Leonards 2. Xty millions of dollars were spent by Telecom and ASIO to install, secretly, computers in the site. 3. The purpose of the facility was to monitor all traffic thru keyword searches, originator and destination addressees.
Erm, no. It's just a version of the "NSA line eater" myth. Aside from the fact that there are international links all over the place, including satellite uplinks and leased phone lines, the plain truth of the matter is that the government just doesn't care about the Internet all that much. Politically it's of little consequence, and law enforcement and "intelligence" services have small budgets that just don't stretch to this kind of conspiracy.
On the other hand, the insecurity of email is legendary.
ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ Date : 10 Mar 94 13:11:46 From : Relay To : All Subject : Government Eavesdropping In New Zealand ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ * Message originally : From: Relay To : All Date: 10 Mar 94 11:42:35 Area: alt.dcom.telcom * Forwarded by Tech Support using Sphinx! 2.0 The following article was posted to the Student Journalists mailing list (STUMEDIA@UABDPO.BITNET) by Malcolm Hutchinson (malcolmh@waikato.ac.nz). This is an article that appears as the centre feature in our first issue for the year. as the token NZ representative on this list, i thought i would post it to show that the US is not the only country experiencing problems keeping their govt in line when it comes to digital privacy & secure comms. NZ is known around the world for it's anti-nuke stand in the mid- eighties, yet we allow this sort of thing to continue. the waihopai spy base feeds information *directly* to the NSA. it is because of the existance of installations like this that i encourage all my digital friends to take control of their own information and start using strong cryptographic software. PGP is available from any number of anon FTP sites around the world. get it, use it. i apologise if posting an article like this is considered wasting bandwith on this list y'all stay safe mal title: The Biggest Sour Grape in Marlborough At a predetermined signal the two groups of protesters split apart. The group I was in went round the fence to the main gates and started pushing them back and forward making a hell of a racket. The gate was secured in three places. We broke the top padlock and the steel rod holding the gate in the ground. We heard a shout from the other group. They were through the fence. Nine people arrested and many more if we didn't stop our vigorous attack on the main gates. This was it, we were there to do something radical, to make our protest well and truly heard. No-one had breached the huge inner fence of the Waihopai Spybase for years. It was my first protest at Waihopai but not the last. The Waihopai protest just South of Blenheim is an annual event organised by the Anti-Bases Campaign (ABC). Ever since the first survey pegs were planted in the ground in 1987, New Zealand women (originally) and men have protested against the existence of the secretive Waihopai Spybase. Yet despite its colourful history the vast majority of people still don't know it exists. Held from January 27-29 this year's protest was larger than usual. About 80 people (including an unspecified number of university students) from Dunedin to Auckland converged on a makeshift campsite nestled beside the Wairau River to plan what action they would take against the Spybase and all it stands for. The word "spybase" conjures images of undercover cops, secrecy, high security, mystery and murder. While this is a bit dramatic there are similarities. The Waihopai base is run by the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB), a discrete organisation which only reports to the prime minister. Hidden in a barren valley deep in the Marlborough outback, the Waihopai base is not something the GCSB wants New Zealanders to know about. Workers at the base aren't allowed to talk about what they do and even their spouses don't know how much they earn. The base has a secret budget and secret objectives. Secrecy is the aim and so far 'they' have been successful. That is until 6.00pm Sunday night of the protest when on TV3 thousands of viewers saw the Waihopai Spybase for the first time. The next day articles were published in Sunday papers, with further articles in major daily papers on the Monday. Supportive comments by Nelson MP John Blincoe added to the debate on a topic usually considered closed. For the first time many New Zealanders became aware that a government agency was spying on our neighbours in the South Pacific and giving that information straight to the United States. What is a Spybase? A more official name for the Spybase is Satellite Communications Station. This sounds very innocent but there's no escaping the fact the base invades the privacy of thousands of people, businesses governments and other organisations throughout the South Pacific without their consent. The information gleamed is not meant for the GCSB or the US, that's why it's called spying. The base consists of an 18 metre receiving dish covered by a huge white dome, an operations building and workshop, all protected by a 14ft security fence backed by another electric fence, security cameras and floodlights. The base monitors communications transmitted via satellite: private and commercial telephone, fax, e-mail, telex and telegrams. These messages are scanned for key words by computer. The information collected is then relayed to the GCSB headquarters in the Freyberg building in Wellington. Useful information is then sent to the United States National Security Agency or the larger Spybase in Geraldton, Australia. Why protest? "The Waihopai Spybase uses your money to invade your privacy for other countries' benefit?" This statement taken from an Anti-Bases Campaign pamphlet about the base sums up the general reason why people are motivated enough to protest, and to be arrested. In the past, politicians like David Lange claimed the Waihopai base will give New Zealand more independence in intelligence matters and that the information would be under New Zealand control. However a document obtained from the US Navy by peace researchers last year has confirmed long held suspicions that the GCSB passes the intelligence collected at Waihopai to the powerful US National Security Agency. This evidence completely contradicts the claims made by New Zealand politicians. What's more, according to British investigative journalist, Duncan Campbell, the Waihopai Spybase is part of a world wide network of spybases monitoring satellite communications for the benefit of the NSA. What really sticks in the throats of those who know about the Waihopai Spybase is that despite the fact that the information is given to the US, New Zealand pays for it. Based on the costs of similar bases in other countries, the Anti-Bases Campaign estimates that the base cost $20 million to set up and up to $100 million so far. Protesters ask why should we be paying for this 'service' especially when we weren't even told about it. The Waihopai Spybase was established without the consent of the New Zealand people and operates without the permission of the Pacific countries who's sovereignty it intrudes on. The Spybase is part of a reliance on military power and cold war politics which reinforces the nuclear powers domination of the globe. Instead of building relationships with our neighbours based on trust, cooperation and peace we are furthering the interests of oppressive military alliances by the world super powers. Under international law it is in fact illegal to intercept international communications. The activities of the Waihopai Spybase contravene the International Tele-Communications Convention to which NZ has agreed. It is also illegal under NZ law to act on such information. The question we must ask ourselves is "Do we want New Zealand to participate in this misuse of technology?" "Do we want to be consulted before we enter into secret military alliances with the super powers? Would we rather the money spent on spying was spent on education or health? Protesters at Waihopai demand a Parliamentary inquiry into the activities of the GCSB, and that the activities of this organisation be subject to review by the judicial system. We also demand the closure of the Waihopai Spybase and the redirection of the money spent on its operations to be put toward a peaceful future. Until this happens we will continue to protest at Waihopai. I didn't try to be unbiased in this article. For a start I was actively protesting the base myself. It is also difficult to get another side to the story when politicians won't talk about it. The head of the GCSB even refused to answer MP's questions in Parliament about the Spybase. But secrets never last forever and thanks to the New Zealand peace movement at least some of the truth is becoming public. The more people who demand knowledge of the Spybase and accountability for its operations, the more likely politicians will take notice. Already Nelson MP John Blincoe (Labour) has come out in support of the Waihopai protest. In the Christchurch Press Blincoe said international circumstances had changed and it was time for the "cloud of secrecy" over the base to be lifted. "The public is entitled to know what is being done from its own soil," said Blincoe. "At the very least there should be Parliamentary scrutiny of Waihopai and the other listening station, Tangimoana, near Palmerston North." Yes there are other spybases, of different sorts, but did you know about them? I find it unnerving to think people could be listening to my phone conversations, that foreign spy networks are operating through New Zealand and I am helping finance something I don't believe in. But then we don't have to like it and nor do we have to accept it. It is our right to question and protest. To find out more information about Waihopai and other bases in New Zealand write to the Anti-Bases Campaign, PO Box 9314, Wellington. [NEW ZEALAND] Paul Smith wc 1345 ********************************************************* Malcolm Hutchinson internet: malcolmh@waikato.ac.nz Editor: NEXUS 1994 The Waikato Students' Union Te Wharae Wananga O Waikato Hamilton, New Zealand PGP Public Key available on request ********************************************************* -- Nigel Allen ae446@freenet.carleton.ca ---------------------------------------------------------- Basil Chupin Internet: blchupin@pcug.org.au Fidonet: 3.620.269.0 +61-6-285-2353 XLTNet: 370.100.1.0 +61-6-285-2353 ---------------------------------------------------------- -- "I mean, after all; you have to consider we're only made out of dust. That's admittedly not much to go on and we shouldn't forget that. But even considering, I mean it's sort of a bad beginning, we're not doing too bad. So I personally have faith that even in this lousy situation we're faced with we can make it. You get me?" - Leo Burlero/PKD +---------------------+--------------------+----------------------------------+ |Julian Assange RSO | PO Box 2031 BARKER | Secret Analytic Guy Union | |proff@suburbia.net | VIC 3122 AUSTRALIA | finger for PGP key hash ID = | |proff@gnu.ai.mit.edu | FAX +61-3-98199066 | 0619737CCC143F6DEA73E27378933690 | +---------------------+--------------------+----------------------------------+