"AT&T built a secret room in its San Francisco switching station that funnels Internet traffic data from AT&T WorldNet dialup customers and traffic from AT&T¹s massive internet backbone to the NSA..."
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http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70650-0.html
AT&T SEEKS TO HIDE SPY DOCS
By Ryan Singel
Wired
April 12, 2006
AT&T is seeking the return of technical documents
presented in a lawsuit that allegedly detail how the
telecom giant helped the government set up a massive
internet wiretap operation in its San
Francisco facilities.
In papers filed late Monday, AT&T argued that
confidential technical documents provided by an
ex-AT&T technician to the Electronic Frontier
Foundation shouldn¹t be used as evidence in the case
and should be returned.
The documents, which the EFF filed under a temporary
seal last Wednesday, purportedly detail how AT&T
diverts internet traffic to the
NSA via a secret room in San Francisco and allege that
such rooms exist in other AT&T switching centers.
The EFF filed the class-action lawsuit in the Federal
District Court in Northern California in January,
seeking damages from AT&T on behalf of AT&T customers
for alleged violation of state and federal laws.
Mark Klein, a former technician who worked for AT&T
for 22 years,
provided three technical documents, totaling 140
pages, to the EFF and
to The New York Times, which first reported last
December that the Bush administration was
eavesdropping on citizens¹ phone calls without
obtaining warrants.
Klein issued a detailed public statement last week,
saying he came forward because he believes the
government¹s extrajudicial spying
extended beyond wiretapping of phone calls between
Americans and a party with suspected ties to
terrorists, and included wholesale monitoring of the
nation¹s Internet communications.
AT&T built a secret room in its San Francisco
switching station that
funnels Internet traffic data from AT&T WorldNet
dialup customers and
traffic from AT&T¹s massive internet backbone to the
NSA, according to a statement from Klein....
