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be used for “contact-chaining” to “determine patterns in the way a network of targets may communicate” up to two hops away from a target. The report included the statement: “Because metadata was not constitutionally protected, NSA did not consider it to be as sensitive as content collection.” The finding would echo at the GCSB years later.

Also an echo of the Stellar Wind program was the terms the NSA used for contact with the FBI. They referred to “selectors” and “Requests For Information” (RFI). It was the same term the GCSB instructed Wormald to use in his requests.

The bulk collection of metadata ended in 2011, the White House claimed after the Snowden leaks in 2013. However, the duplication of the RFI process by the GCSB, the information it used and the way it was produced strongly suggest a similar system was used to spy on the Megaupload group.

Within months of the leaks beginning, Snowden had provided details of a multitude of surveillance programs. There was Prism, which created access to social media and email services, with the acquiescence of the tech companies which created the services. There was X-Keyscore which allowed the searching of almost anything a user would do online. Internet cables in and out of the United States were mined for their data streams.

When Ofcanz called on the GCSB for help, they weren’t just bugging a few phones or intercepting a few emails. They were turning to the entire intelligence apparatus designed to fight the War on Terror — in Afghanistan, Iraq and in the defence of the United States — to run an over-blown police raid in a case later described by Crown lawyers as just a “big fraud case”. And what’s more, they did it illegally because no one bothered checking properly to see if they were allowed to spy on people with resident visas.

Or, at least, they never checked until afterwards.

THE DEBRIEF OF the Megaupload raid took place on 16 February with senior police and GCSB staff. Wormald’s affidavit in subsequent court action revealed the most significant detail happened outside the meeting. Approached by one of the spies who worked on the operation, Wormald said he was told of “a possible issue surrounding the fact Mr Dotcom and Mr van der Kolk had been intercepted”.

“It appeared to GCSB that the interception may not have been lawful because of their residency status.”

The announcement must have alarmed Wormald. He described himself as “surprised this matter had come up at this point given we

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