Whistle-Blower Outs NSA Spy Room at AT&T
Just keep telling yourself, "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to worry about. I trust George W. Bush and the NSA. I trust George W. Bush and the NSA. The solar system really revolves around the Earth...the solar system really revolves around the Earth..."
(Wired News) AT&T provided National Security Agency eavesdroppers with full access to its customers' phone calls, and shunted its customers' internet traffic to data-mining equipment installed in a secret room in its San Francisco switching center, according to a former AT&T worker cooperating in the Electronic Frontier Foundation's lawsuit against the company.
Mark Klein, a retired AT&T communications technician, submitted an affidavit in support of the EFF's lawsuit this week. That class action lawsuit, filed in federal court in San Francisco last January, alleges that AT&T violated federal and state laws by surreptitiously allowing the government to monitor phone and internet communications of AT&T customers without warrants.
On Wednesday, the EFF asked the court to issue an injunction prohibiting AT&T from continuing the alleged wiretapping, and filed a number of documents under seal, including three AT&T documents that purportedly explain how the wiretapping system works.
According to a statement released by Klein's attorney, an NSA agent showed up at the San Francisco switching center in 2002 to interview a management-level technician for a special job. In January 2003, Klein observed a new room being built adjacent to the room housing AT&T's #4ESS switching equipment, which is responsible for routing long distance and international calls.
"I learned that the person whom the NSA interviewed for the secret job was the person working to install equipment in this room," Klein wrote. "The regular technician work force was not allowed in the room."
Klein's job eventually included connecting internet circuits to a splitting cabinet that led to the secret room. During the course of that work, he learned from a co-worker that similar cabinets were being installed in other cities, including Seattle, San Jose, Los Angeles and San Diego.
[...]
Klein said he came forward because he does not believe that the Bush administration is being truthful about the extent of its extrajudicial monitoring of Americans' communications.
"Despite what we are hearing, and considering the public track record of this administration, I simply do not believe their claims that the NSA's spying program is really limited to foreign communications or is otherwise consistent with the NSA's charter or with FISA," Klein's wrote. "And unlike the controversy over targeted wiretaps of individuals' phone calls, this potential spying appears to be applied wholesale to all sorts of internet communications of countless citizens."
- Ted Kahl's blog
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And the hits just keep on
And the hits just keep on coming... Public libraries (private records), public phone systems (private conversations), private medical records (to identify "abortionists") -- and what else?
The definition of "illegal search and seizure" has been totally reversed to mean "illegal withholding of State information" by ordinary citizens. For once, I am NOT being paranoid -- they ARE following me!
I want my "bankie."
LOL, Bill
I have often wondered if, I am just being paranoid too. Then out of shear rebeliousness or stupidity, (I have not figured out yet which is most accurate)I make sure to talk about this administrations lies when I call long distance to family and friends.
anyone else feel like they are in a baaad episode of the twilite zone?
Having worked for Sprint LDD...
I can say that for them to be installing SOC operations at non-gateway switching sites indicates Bush is lying about the level of spying.
If the SOC was at Restin, or other INTERNATIONAL gateway sites, if would be for monitoring internation traffic. The AT&T #4ESS switch *IS NOT* a CEPT gateway switch. The #4ESS is a pure SS7 switch.
This means the said SOCs are being used exclusively to spy on AMERICANS only.
Under Bush's stated setup, the only reason for a SOC to be installed at such a site would be for FEMA, and even then, the only reason for the NSA to show up on premesis fo a FEMA SOC is to change the codes on the key schedule for the secure lines.
What this guy is saying tho is that NSA itself has established SOCs at these switch sites.