AT&T eavesdropping for NSA

[ElHombre]

anyone who uses AT&T (i just got switched over myself when SBC was bought out) might want to check this (http://www.wired.com/news/technology/1,70619-0.html) out.


Whistle-Blower Outs NSA Spy Room

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.

methinks i'll be keeping a close eye on this.

[Sancho Pancho]

....apart from my bookie, my mistress, and my Colombian connection....I got nuthin to worry 'bout!!! Go ahead, tape me all you want......praise be to....p-)

[CobrasLosPhantiminium]

What ever happened to the Constitution?

[Violet Fashion by Mindy]

Goerge W bush used it as toilet paper?

[Aerosoul]

i see Bellsouth 4 out of 5 days a week at the same location coming home from school. they were by one of those big metal boxes...hell i don't know what they're called. like a substation, but for the phone company instead of electrical company.
there was a black crown vic with the phone company truck a couple times. i'm not kidding.
i'm sure you all would draw the same conclusion i have.

[vryhpyammoadded]

And this sort of access has been on going between the telco’s and the NSA since 47. As for the warrantless eavesdropping, well that all depends on what side of the argument you (legislature) agree with. Does Bush have the ability to perform these intercepts as per war powers or not?

[Chulo]

AT&T only? bull crap.. i bet they have access to all the phone companies!

[WolverineBlue]

All telephone companies operating in the US have to provide access to call detail records under CALEA (Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act) when an law enforcement agency needs stuff for criminal investigations.

As for wire-tapping, the law enforcement agencies of course should be getting warrants, but times are a-changin'.

Nothing is as amusing as coming across people's phone conversation while we were doing some testing at one of our central offices -- pretty hilarious.

As for what aerosoul saw with BellSouth at the box, they could be doing anything. That box probably contains a digital loop carrier which concentrates calls from different customer premises in a small area onto a more cost-efficient trunk back to the switch at the central office. Those DLC's sometimes can get completely hosed up and so a lot work needs to be done to fix it. Or, perhaps there upgrading capacity there.

[Aerosoul]

yeah, yeah i know.... i just like being suspicious.

[signatory]

Thing is, when authorities don't go the full legal path with warrants or proper collection of evidence, that evidence is rendered useless in a court. But sure, maybe they get to kill the guy in a shoot-out so...

[Miles.]

Sounds like a slogan...

"AT&T, doing our part in the Global War on Terror...

BellSouth, why do you hate America?"

;)

[signatory]

Sounds like a slogan...

"AT&T, doing our part in the Global War on Terror...

BellSouth, why do you hate America?"

;)

tsk


http://att.sbc.com/Common/images/news_room/press_kits/214x70.jpg
AT&T Inc. and BellSouth Corporation have announced an agreement to merge the two companies


AT&T .. Anti Terrorism & Telecoms

Or is that Anti Telecom & Terrorism ?

[remo williams]

I had found and posted some liks to a web site where they disclosed in an interview that the NNSA had outsourced it's communications evesdropping activities. I'll try to find it. What got me though, was that they operate with very little oversight from the NSA. Even though they were said to be only "gatherers"of the information.