AT&T’s ’secret’ NSA room
p2p news / p2pnet: AT&T has at least one secret National Security Agency secure room, “into which AT&T has been diverting its customers’ emails and other Internet communications in bulk,” says the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation).
The revelation comes in testimony from Mark Klein, a former AT&T employee, “who was brave enough to step forward and provide evidence of the company’s illegal collaboration with the NSA,” says EFF Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston.
In January, the EFF filed a class action on behalf of AT&T customers accusing the company of allowing the National Security Agency to tap phone calls and emails between US residents and “terror suspects” abroad
The Bush administration tried to use a “military and state secrets” privileges claim against the lawsuit, which says AT&T cooperated with the Bush administration’s citizen surveillance program.
But it failed and, “we have released some of the evidence supporting our allegation that AT&T has given the NSA direct access to its fiber-optic network, such that the NSA can read the email of anyone and everyone it chooses – all without a warrant or any court supervision, and in clear violation of the law,” says Banks.
The Klein declaration and EFF’s motion for a preliminary injunction against AT&T’s ongoing illegal surveillance were filed under seal last month. Last week, however, a US district judge instructed AT&T to make them available to the public.
Also See:
EFF – Key Portions of Critical Documents Unsealed in AT&T Surveillance Case, May 25, 2006
military and state secrets – US tries to kill EFF ’spy’ suit, April 29, 2006
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May 26th, 2006 at 5:40 pm
Umm, perhaps a poor yet prophetic choice of words there. I wouldn’t be too suprised if this guy has a nasty accident before the trial. But then, I do watch a lot of action movies and read Tom Clancy
May 26th, 2006 at 6:39 pm
Okay, all of you who are suprized by this or have doubts that the NSA is spying on US citizens, form a line. Move into the shower area when the guards tell you…