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deputy, Detective Sergeant Nigel McMorran, briefed those at the meeting on the allegations against the Megaupload group and the requests expected to come from the United States, and he supplied information about each of the “targets”. Wormald later said “there was information on where they were from, their role in the company and where they were believed to be living”. There was a focus on Dotcom, including his interest in buying the property.

“Wormald said those present had been told in the briefing that Dotcom’s application to buy the mansion had been “deferred on the basis his application for permanent residency under the overseas investor scheme had been declined”. This was an incorrect statement — there was no application for permanent residency and the application to purchase the mansion had hit other snags. It did, though, have the effect of putting in the minds of those present that Dotcom was not a “permanent resident”, when in fact he was in the definition of the law.

Wormald told the meeting he had wanted a domestic interception warrant to listen in on the targets but could not get one. That “fact”, and the details in the briefing, “were all the matters the GCSB had to be satisfied of before they could consider assisting us”, Wormald’s October 2012 affidavit said. He raised it as a “brief remark” in case the police legal team had anything to say about it.

Nobody raised a word.

The briefing finished and the officials from the Ministry of Justice, Crown Law Office and Police legal team filed out — ten lawyers leaving the room just as police embarked on what would turn out to be an illegal course of action.

Two spies remained: members of the Government Communications Security Bureau, whose activities were almost unknown until unmasked in the book Secret Power, by investigative journalist Nicky Hager.

The book revealed the GCSB was enmeshed with the Five Eyes intelligence group. The bond which linked the agencies stemmed from World War II intelligence co-operation between Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and United States.

New Zealand’s involvement is a Commonwealth legacy — the network is bonded through the UKUSA Security Treaty. The name “Five Eyes” grew out of the “Eyes Only” system. When intelligence officials classified information, they would do so knowing that at the highest levels it would be seen by “Five Eyes” — each of the co-operating nations.

The grouping initially bound together the nations contributing to Echelon, a satellite and communications network which intercepted information around much of the world. New Zealand collected, analysed and passed on intercepted communications from the Western

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