AT&T routes all its subscribers' email through NSA

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From Democraticunderground:

 

http://www.linuxelectrons.com/article.php/2006040603130...

 

Thursday, April 06 2006 @ 03:13 AM CDT

Contributed by: ByteEnable

 

San Francisco – The Electronic Frontier Foundation

(EFF) on Wednesday filed the legal briefs and evidence

supporting its motion for a preliminary injunction in

its class-action lawsuit against AT & T. After asking

EFF to hold back the documents so that it could review

them, the Department of Justice consented to EFF's

filing them under seal — a well-established procedure

that prohibits public access and permits only the

judge and the litigants to see the evidence. While not

a party to the case, the government was concerned that

even this procedure would not provide sufficient

security and has represented to the Court that it is

" presently considering whether and, if so, how it will

participate in this case. "

 

" The evidence that we are filing supports our claim

that AT & T is diverting Internet traffic into the hands

of the NSA wholesale, in violation of federal

wiretapping laws and the Fourth Amendment, " said EFF

Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston. " More than just

threatening individuals' privacy, AT & T's apparent

choice to give the government secret, direct access to

millions of ordinary Americans' Internet

communications is a threat to the Constitution itself.

We are asking the Court to put a stop to it now. "

 

EFF's evidence regarding AT & T's dragnet surveillance

of its networks includes a declaration by Mark Klein,

a retired AT & T telecommunications technician, and

several internal AT & T documents. This evidence was

bolstered and explained by the expert opinion of J.

Scott Marcus, who served as Senior Technical Advisor

for Internet Technology to the Federal Communications

Commission from July 2001 until July 2005.

 

The internal AT & T documents and portions of the

supporting declarations have been submitted to the

Court under a tentative seal, a procedure that allows

AT & T five court days to explain to the Court why the

information should be kept from the public.

 

Here is a NYT link:

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/07/us/nationalspecial3/0...