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Kiwi spook stood down after Dotcom SNAFU

Dotcom talks up Megabox, Google, as only surviving movie studios

A senior employee at New Zealand's Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) appears to have been sent on gardening leave, as the Bureau and other government agencies investigate the Kim Dotcom affair.

In recent works it has emerged that the GCSB conducted surveillance of Dotcom under laws that empower it to spy on foreigners. But the ebullient former Megaupload owner is a permanent resident of New Zealand, and spying on him is therefore verboten under Kiwi law.

New Zealand media report a man identified as “Agent CX” signed off on the surveillance is now undergoing an “employment process”, which sounds like bureaucratese for “ticking all the boxes to sack a civil servant in a way that makes it hard for them to sue later on.”

Agent CX, who the New Zealand Herald names as Hugh Wolfensohn, is said to have been the GCSB's senior legal officer.

Dotcom, meanwhile, is pursuing New Zealand Prime Minister John Key through his Twitter stream, as he feels Key's explanation of just when he learned about the illegal surveillance leaves a fair bit to be desired and could indicate memory loss.

The master of megaupload is also spruiking that service's sucessor, Megabox, recently tweeting “I just time-travelled. 15 years from now there are only two major movie studios: Google & Megabox.” ®

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