Good morning!
Posted on 04/07/2006 6:57:10 PM PDT by Bobalu
EFF: AT&T forwards all Internet traffic into NSA April 07, 2006
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) on Wednesday filed the legal briefs and evidence supporting its motion for a preliminary injunction in its class-action lawsuit against AT&T.
After asking EFF to hold back the documents so that it could review them, the Department of Justice consented to EFF's filing them under seal -- a well-established procedure that prohibits public access and permits only the judge and the litigants to see the evidence.
While not a party to the case, the government was concerned that even this procedure would not provide sufficient security and has represented to the Court that it is "presently considering whether and, if so, how it will participate in this case."
"The evidence that we are filing supports our claim that AT&T is diverting Internet traffic into the hands of the NSA wholesale, in violation of federal wiretapping laws and the Fourth Amendment," said EFF Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston.
"More than just threatening individuals' privacy, AT&T's apparent choice to give the government secret, direct access to millions of ordinary Americans' Internet communications is a threat to the Constitution itself. We are asking the Court to put a stop to it now," said Bankston.
EFF's evidence regarding AT&T's dragnet surveillance of its networks includes a declaration by Mark Klein, a retired AT&T telecommunications technician, and several internal AT&T documents. This evidence was bolstered and explained by the expert opinion of J. Scott Marcus, who served as Senior Technical Advisor for Internet Technology to the Federal Communications Commission from July 2001 until July 2005.
The internal AT&T documents and portions of the supporting declarations have been submitted to the Court under a tentative seal, a procedure that allows AT&T five court days to explain to the Court why the information should be kept from the public.
"The public deserves to know about AT&T's illegal program," said EFF Legal Director Cindy Cohn. "In an abundance of caution, we are providing AT&T with an opportunity to explain itself before this material goes on the public docket, but we believe that justice will ultimately require full disclosure."
The NSA program came to light in December, when the New York Times reported that the President had authorized the agency to intercept telephone and Internet communications inside the United States without the authorization of any court.
"Mark Klein is a true American hero," said EFF Staff Attorney Kurt Opsahl. "He has bravely come forward with information critical for proving AT&T's involvement with the government's invasive surveillance program."
In the lawsuit, EFF is representing the class of all AT&T residential customers nationwide. Working with EFF in the lawsuit are the law firms Traber & Voorhees, Lerach Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP and the Law Office of Richard R. Wiebe.
AT&T = Always Tattling and Tattling?
Did you write that?
What are you some kind fo NSA spy errr something ?
My homepage has it if ya need it !
Feel free to use as ya see fit ........:o)
Don't worry, I gave you full credit. Those royalty checks should start rolling in any day now buddy.
L
I couldn't imagine you actually typing all of that.
Fat finger disease?
;-)
"I think we drove them nuts posting every know word in the list."
Nope...I'm sure that a list of several of the keywords or phrases gets instantly culled out as an obvious attempt at taunting the system.
The list above will never be tagged for scrutiny by an actual flesh and blood agent.
To play this game add just one word from the list to an ordinary text like an email....but be aware that such a stunt WILL get you noticed...best not play this game.
To really get attention add the word to data sent via the TOR anonymous router system.... TOR is not totally secure but the snoops will get really curious if you post keywords there.
Foreign governments regularly run operations where data is highly encrypted and then placed on the net as a questionable communication...if the US takes action based on the phony data they know the cipher has been compromised. This is how various actors or governments know what level of encryption is safe to use.
Um.... I talk-type with a voice program DD !
Albeit I do have opposing thumbs !
Good morning!
No charge for the completion!
We'll yeah they are OK but I like em bigger with just a nipple on each one......:o)
TATP, pbuh, New York, Washington D.C, glory, agent, Hamburg, Sarajevo, holy, infidels, visa,...
illegals, border
Just put those last two words in there to spare you the visit.
Can you here me now?
LOL! What an awesome thread!
Actually it depends on how they interpert it ... "illegals, border" might not be taken well with "Backpack, Al Franken, dirtybomb"
If you give FedGov an inch, they'll take a mile. International calls, telegrams, faxes and whatnot have been routinely monitored for ages (See the book "Puzzle Palace"). This shift to a total survellance society will not enhance the freedom of our children one bit. They may well curse us for sitting on the sidelines while their future liberty was traded for the false illusion of security.
OMG ...
Lookie what I found ...
New Toy!!
This is Fantastic ...
Echelon's Trigger Words Generator:
http://www.bugbrother.com/echelon/spookwordsgenerator.html
Click on the button in order to generate a randomized text
made of the 'trigger words' supposed to activate Echelon.
Simon Davies, director of Privacy International, warns that the list of 1,700 suspicious "trigger words" will not outsmart the global surveillance system : "The Echelon system works on a very sophisticated system of word relationships, rather than strictly on keywords. Powerful artificial intelligence software is used to judge the relationship between words, and analyse strings of words." Davies advises sending a whole series of original keyword transmissions through email, rather than relying on someone else's template."
Sample:
From: president@whitehouse.gov
To: foia@hq.nasa.gov
Subj: BENKOLI SERRI (TOP SECRET - Iran)
Nikolai Patrushev, head of Federal'naya Sluzhba Bezopasnosti (FSB), told Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA) about Djibouti frenchelon station : a most wanted person sent TsSR (NIS Tsienntral'naya Sloujba Razviedki)`s encryption products & snake oil backdoors to Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK or MKO) !
Ask 21st Space Wing`s contact of Wal-Mart Stores money laundering Dpt via http://www.asio.gov.au/ for Ref. COCOT, NACSINSCT, SCIF, FLiR, JIC, bce, Lacrosse, Flashbangs, HRT, IRA, EODG, DIA.
------
why do I do these things? This can only lead to trouble ;-)
If more folks routinely used encryption, it would make programs like the one mentioned in the article less useful for them.
O.K. From now on, all my seditious email will contain a list of keywords that large, thus ensuring that it won't be scrutinized.
A lot of the issues that surround the posting of these types of lists has been pretty thoroughly discussed on the Cypherpunk mailing list amonst other places. Many folks who study and occasionally work with spooks would tell you that it's not so much content as traffic analysis (who is talking to who) that is checked for on a routine basis. Combine some sophisticated traffic analysis with some keyword sifting, and you can sift out an incredible amount from the garbage you're not interested in. I'd love to see some of the analysis tools that the NSA and similar agencies have come up with. I'll bet there are some interesting stories there.
The kicker was one set of trunks would go to the East coast( Maryland or Virginia). Probably West Virginia to get Byrd's vote. They would listen in on what ever they pleased without our knowledge. That's how Echelon started. All they need is a fiber leg off the main fiber ring and dial in whatever digital address you have to monitor every stream if info on the fiber. If someone says "bomb", they can trace it in milliseconds.
Digital service has many commercial advantages, but it was pushed so hard ( some went bankrupt trying to keep up) so the government could just dial in on whatever circuit they want to monitor. This is not news. It was big on FR then. It went on through anyway. Trying to put this on Bush is just crazy. Even Republicans voted for it under Clinton to stop domestic terror. They have machines that monitor everything and kick out the key words and phrases that have been mentioned. Then a human decides whether or not to follow up.
If you call in trouble on your line, the person you get could check your line in Texas, St. Louis, or Bombay. The same goes for the Feds. Now they have your digital cell phone( remember the push to get new digital phones?) with GPS in them. They know where you are within 3 feet. When and if we go wireless, it will be the same thing. 1984 is here and has been here for a decade or more. Lets not have ant "hate" speech, shall we!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.