Posted on 06/18/2013 9:20:57 AM PDT by Vendome
I am going to just copy paste from Wikipedia. Don't be bothered by the source of my post, it is, in fact, corrobortated by many, many publications and numerous lawsuits.
It is alleged in the lawsuit that in 2002-2003, AT&T permitted and assisted the NSA to install a NarusInsight system in its San Francisco switching center (Room 641A), which was capable of monitoring billions of bits of Internet traffic a second, including the playback of telephone calls routed on the Internet, and thus in effect spying upon the entirety of the communication of many or all American citizens and businesses who use the Internet.
A former AT&T engineer, Mark Klein, attested that a supercomputer built by Narus was installed for the purpose, and that similar systems were also installed in at least Seattle, San Jose, Los Angeles and San Diego. Wired News states Klein said he came forward "because he does not believe that the Bush administration is being truthful about the extent of its extrajudicial monitoring of Americans' communications":
The EFF alleges in the suit that AT&T also allowed the NSA to data-mine hundreds of terabytes of client records which included detailed transaction records such as domestic numbers dialed since 2001, and all Internet addresses visited, as well as other content. The EFF's attorney Kevin Bankston states:
In its Amended Complaint, the EFF seeks injunctive relief against AT&T continuing such surveillance and damages allowed under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, and other U.S. laws. It also seeks aggregated damages under each of four laws. These would exceed $100,000 for each instance of surveillance,[6] creating potentially ruinous liability for AT&T, considering the EFF's claims about the scope of AT&T's cooperation.
AT&T objected to the filing of the documents supporting the case on the grounds they were trade secrets or might compromise the security of its network. The EFF speculated that the federal government would invoke the State Secrets Privilege to bar the entire lawsuit from being heard, but added: "If state secrecy can prevent us from preserving the rights of millions upon millions of people, then there is a profound problem with the law."
EFF's speculation proved accurate when the government indicated, in an April 28 Statement of Interest in the case, that it intended to invoke the State Secrets Privilege in a bid to dismiss the action. The Justice Department filed its motion to dismiss on May 15, 2006. On July 20, however, Chief Judge Vaughn Walker of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California rejected the federal motion, holding that "[t]he government has opened the door for judicial inquiry by publicly confirming and denying material information about its monitoring of communications content."
In his decision not to dismiss the case Judge Walker certified the case for immediate appeal, and the government and AT&T both appealed to the Ninth Circuit. The case was argued in August 2007.[7]
In July 2008, Congress passed, and on July 10, 2008, President George Bush signed, the FISA Amendments Act, which granted retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies for past violations of FISA.[8] Before any Ninth Circuit decision, the case was returned to the District Court "[i]n light of the FISA Amendments Act of 2008."[9] In September 2008, Attorney General Michael Mukasey filed a certification[10] pursuant to Section 802 of the FISAAA and the government moved to dismiss the Hepting litigation.
The Hepting plaintiffs opposed the motion to dismiss,[11] asserting that the FISA Amendments Act's retroactive immunity provision was unconstitutional. Judge Walker heard oral arguments on December 2, 2008, and took the matter under submission.[12]
The case was dismissed on June 3, 2009 by Judge Walker,[1] citing retroactive legislation (section 802 of FISA) stating that[2]
in the case of a covered civil action, the assistance alleged to have been provided by the electronic communication service provider was in connection with an intelligence activity involving communications that was authorized by the President during the period beginning on September 11, 2001, and ending on January 17, 2007; designed to detect or prevent a terrorist attack, or activities in preparation for a terrorist attack, against the United States; and the subject of a written request or directive, or a series of written requests or directives, from the Attorney General or the head of an element of the intelligence community (or the deputy of such person) to the electronic communication service provider indicating that the activity was authorized by the President; and determined to be lawful.
The case went under review in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals by a three judge panel (Harry Pregerson, Michael Daly Hawkins, and M. Margaret McKeown). The argument was heard in Seattle, Washington on August 31, 2011.[13] It was dismissed on December 29, 2011, and some issues in the case were submitted as a Petition for Certiorari to the Supreme Court on March 30, 2012.[14] The Supreme Court, however, declined to review the lower court ruling on the case on October 9, 2012, closing the door on further appeals.[3]
Didn’t the latest incarnation of the Patriot Act grant the telecoms total immunity from these sorts of suits?
About 1/2 down in the article. Yes.
totally and completely and several lawsuits were dismissed precisely because of an Ex Post Facto Law to hide what the government is doing to Fk you over.
I’ve been in telecom 30 years and watched in amazement how many laws are passed that have benign titles and are explained as to how this will help you, the citizen.
Fact is, most laws are written to strengthen one thing, while weakening another and give the government ever more access to your private records.
Maybe I should do a write up about HIPPA and how it will be and is used to violate your rights.
This has been common knowledge they had their data filtering appliances on AT&T network for some time.
Watch the film, “The Spy Factory.”
They show you video of the actual tap at the AT&T location on the West coast.
Explains it pretty well.
Also shows that none of this was unknown or unknown to our enemies - there was a freakin’ documentary on all of it.
I feel certain that all of the big Internet backbone switches have back doors like this built in now. I have a friend who worked for Juniper Systems on a “special” AT&T project. He quit pretty quickly without saying why, even though he had relocated for the job. I always had the impression they wanted him to work on spy software for their switches and he refused and quit.
the interesting thing about this, the NSA already had this room as part of it’s monitoring of the telephone traffic out of the Russian Consulate in San Francisco. So there was little modifications that needed to be done. Mr. Klein is very young, as most of us old telephone guys in California have known about “the room” for many years. I was first told about it in 1978. I’m not condoning it, but admitting it’s existence for many years. It’s a hold over from the Cold War. Someone said when I was young in the company “The Room” was established in 1966.
CISCO, Narus, Juniper....
ATT, MCI, Sprint, QWEST...
Just start naming companies, who are now partners with the government and as partners the NSA, FBI, DEA and DOJ are entitled to design and access of “their” equipment.
Protect the government.
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