Evidence of AT&T Secret ‘Spy’ Room Mounts

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed suit earlier this year against AT&T for their collaboration in invading privace by data-mining and providing wiretaps for the National Security Agency.

Last week, Wired broke the news of an affidavit filed by Mark Klein, a former AT&T employee. Klein describes a shady scenario in which the NSA came in to oversee a special hire.

“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.”

He later observed that fiber optic cables wired to the “secret room” were piped into AT&T’s circuits.

While the president may or may not have the constitutional authority to demand domestic wiretaps, the involvement of a public corporation willingly cooperating without a warrant would seem to be a violation.

Michael Hiltzik writes in his L.A. Times weblog:

The NSA’s vacuuming of terabytes of personal data from AT&T’s network is an example of the government aggressively taking advantage of a tattered fabric of privacy protection.

Klein may seem a hero to some, for stepping forward with a smoking gun that has At&T scrambling to ask the judge to return all of their “highly classified” NSA-related documents. But as Martin McKeay reminds, Klein’s actions will be viewed by some as a criminal disclosure of government secrets.

Either way, this story has exploded with this new twist and is now receiving broad coverage.

Klein may be just a disgruntled former employee, but would he really take such a risk if he didn’t have the truth on his side?

Ars Technica has an in-depth look at the technology involved in this case and the Narus STA 6400, which apparently can literally vacuum data from the internet.

Hold Bush Accountable for Admitted Criminal Acts

Bush Spies on Americans By: Pat Bagley Salt Lake Tribune
NYTimes editor Bill Keller offers up a most pathetic statement “excusing” the publication for the Bush/NSA story. Hannity, O’Reilly, et al would be pleased.As Matt Stoller proclaims in MyDD:

This spy scandal is a very important development. One of the problems with the blogosphere and the media landscape in general is that it feels like the outrage-meter is always turned up to maximum hot setting. You’re hearing a lot of chatter on the blogs, and I would suggest that this time, you pay special attention to it. This story cuts across all the themes of modern Republicanism – national security, 9/11, abuses of power, political opportunism, media manipulation, violation of civil rights, attacks on privacy, and the evisceration of checks and balances in the American system. Rarely is there such a narrative that ties so many threads together.

See AmericaBlog’s call for action.

Former Congressman Bob Barr (R-GA) even got in on the qaction during a heated debate with Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) on CNN Friday:

Barr is far from a usual suspect in raging against the president, as Shakespeare’s Sister illustrates:

Barr is no left-winger, he?s a fire-breathing conservative who tried the case against Clinton, strongly supports the Second Amendment, drafted the Defense of Marriage Act, staunchly apposes abortion, and has been a speaker before the Council of Conservative Citizens, which has been noted as becoming increasingly ?radical and racist? by the Southern Poverty Law Center, who classifies the CCC as a hate group.

I previously posted in disgust and dismay that the Times published this “groundbreaking” story a year after they had it, and even apologized within the text of the front page indictment. David Sirota assails the media in general and NYT in particular for sheer deference to the “powers” of government and profit in a must-read post:

..[T]he Times tells us Bush “secretly authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans.” The paper also refers to “the powers granted the N.S.A. by President Bush.” “Authorized” and “granted.” The word “authorize” is defined as “to grant power or authority to,” and the word “grant” is the act of giving something one has. The media’s use of these terms, then, is the media trying to make the public assume as fact that Bush actually had the power or authority to grant in the first place.

Its more than just the NSA and Bush. Matt Rothschild of the Progressive points to MSNBC recent detailing of Rumsfeld’s DoD sending out teams to track even the most “innocuous and lawful” protests.

The Pengaton?s partial file on the spying is available here (.pdf).

As the president proclaimed at a recent Oval Office meeting (h/t Capitol Hill Blue):

I don?t give a goddamn,? Bush retorted. ?I?m the President and the Commander-in-Chief. Do it my way.?

?Mr. President,? one aide in the meeting said. ?There is a valid case that the provisions in this law undermine the Constitution.?

?Stop throwing the Constitution in my face,? Bush screamed back. ?It?s just a goddamned piece of paper!?

For more on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, click here.