New Zealand’s electronic spying agency shared intelligence with state security agents in Bangladesh, despite authorities in the country being involved in torture, extrajudicial killings and other human rights abuses, documents reveal.
New Zealand Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) was the lead spy agency in Bangladesh since 2004, according to a classified document dated April 2013, leaked by the whistleblower Edward Snowden, media reported.
The surveillance was done in support of the US government’s global counterterrorism strategy, mainly from Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka. It was apparently facilitated by the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency.