AT&T collaborates on NSA spying through a web of secretive buildings in the US

techcrunch ^ | Taylor Hatmaker

[daltec]

Two what? AUTOVON switches?

[RinaseaofDs]

Huge monolithic buildings that are heavily guarded with heavy fencing and very few windows.

[daltec]

BTW you can see the parking garage for the building I used to work at, in the left of the image I posted. One of the secure entrances was over there; the other is right at the front of the building.

The platform elevator was in the covered area at lower right, as I recall. Cameras everywhere.

This image was taken from Columbia Pike. The west side of the building is to the rear, from the point of view of the photographer. A branch of the Arlington County Library is also back there.

[daltec]

Thanks! Are they AT&T? Although, hard to tell these days. On rare occasions I have seen heavily armed guards (body armor, helmets, SMGs) outside of otherwise perfectly nondescript "storefront" types of buildings. Others are as you describe.

But your observation about no or very few windows is key -- they could very well be COs for your local telephone carrier. Verizon COs in the northern VA area are usually small affairs, since there are so many of them. But none of them have any windows, to speak of.

[RinaseaofDs]

One is dead downtown, just kitty corner from the HS softball field. The other is at the nexus of the Boeing Freeway and Evergreen Way. The latter is guarded by two fences, and appears to have only a single door.

I have no idea what a CO is. I can tell you that the TransPacific internet cable terminates somewhere off of Everett, WA. There’s a data center here in town.

Central Washington has a huge number of data centers. Access to copious water and cheap hydroelectric power drives that.

[daltec]

Sorry to be so late in replying -- did not see your message until just now. A CO is a "central office;" sorry about that! Here is one in the Everett area. It may be one of the buildings you are talking about (the one on Evergreen Way).



If so, then yeah it's a big one! Cool! Here is some info and a map.

[RinaseaofDs]

Yup. That’s the one by the Boeing Freeway.