whistle blower discusses illegal AT&T spying

AT&T screwed up, big. They’ve betrayed their relationship with consumers and committed to furnishing the data of millions of Americans for domestic spying purposes. Next week, Congress will hold a hearing on whether the telecommunications deserve immunity from illegal spying. Since Congress has let the Bush Administration off the hook for lies leading up to the war, treason in outing a federal agent, Valerie Plame, torture of enemy combatants and denying habeas corpus to “potential terrorists”, I hesitate to say that Congress might do the right thing this time.

One can hope. Below is a clip from the Washington Post on the issue that will be illuminated by an insider at AT&T in 2002.

His first inkling that something was amiss came in summer 2002 when he opened the door to admit a visitor from the National Security Agency to an office of AT&T in San Francisco.

“What the heck is the NSA doing here?” Mark Klein, a former AT&T technician, said he asked himself.

A year or so later, he stumbled upon documents that, he said, nearly caused him to fall out of his chair. The documents, he said, show that the NSA gained access to massive amounts of e-mail and search and other Internet records of more than a dozen global and regional telecommunications providers. AT&T allowed the agency to hook into its network at a facility in San Francisco and, according to Klein, many of the other telecom companies probably knew nothing about it.

In an interview yesterday, he alleged that the NSA set up a system that vacuumed up Internet and phone-call data from ordinary Americans with the cooperation of AT&T . Contrary to the government’s depiction of its surveillance program as aimed at overseas terrorists, Klein said, much of the data sent through AT&T to the NSA was purely domestic. Klein said he believes that the NSA was analyzing the records for usage patterns as well as for content.

He said the NSA built a special room to receive data streamed through an AT&T Internet room containing “peering links,” or major connections to other telecom providers. The largest of the links delivered 2.5 gigabits of data — the equivalent of one-quarter of the Encyclopedia Britannica’s text — per second, said Klein, whose documents and eyewitness account form the basis of one of the first lawsuits filed against the telecom giants after the government’s warrantless-surveillance program was reported in the New York Times in December 2005.

Claudia Jones, an AT&T spokeswoman, said she had no comment on Klein’s allegations. “AT&T is fully committed to protecting our customers’ privacy. We do not comment on matters of national security,” she said.

The NSA and the White House also declined comment on Klein’s allegations.

Klein is urging Congress not to block Hepting v. AT&T, a class-action suit pending in federal court in San Francisco, as well as 37 other lawsuits charging carriers with illegally collaborating with the NSA.

Klein’s attitude is a good one. If the corporation did something that is illegal, then they should pay the price for breaking the law. How often are youngsters who make mistakes given a second chance? Does the government routinely bail gamblers out when they roll the dice and lose their homes? When is the last time the government let American citizens off the hook for any illegal activity and crimes against fellow citizens?

It’s rare, and the telecommunications companies will argue that this was entirely done in the interest of protecting national security. This is not their call, however, and we must remember that even if the burden is shifted away from telecommunications to the government.. the law was broken. Terrorism or fear of terrorists is no excuse to breaching trust, contractual agreements, and betraying the nation’s sacred Constitution. If the excuse is allowed, then our country would never be held accountable for anything it does that is “above the law”.

Fred Soto is an Attorney and Entrepreneur from the Silicon Valley.
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