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.
"Most if not all traffic is routed thru to some sort of fed.gov agency in some manner or another. Recall, the fed.gov created the internet.
Internet communications are not private whether it's att bellsouth comcast or aol etc etc."
Correct. The funding came from DARPA (NOT ALGore!).
It was originally a military/MI concept that went commercial. Since the technology originated from Govt funds and the traffic sits in "public" portals, guess what!
You said -- "Anyone that believes this foolishness should follow Tom Cruise and Issac Hays into Scientology."
Then how do you explain post #60, regarding what that company was doing and what the described capabilities accomplished (as described in that post)?
I'd say you've got a big case of "da-Nile".
Regards,
Star Traveler
P.S. -- The Bible describes this very thing (in terms of "capability") when it talks about the ability to control all "buying and selling" as part of the worldwide control coming at a particular time in the future. We're well on that way. You're simply in denial of the way things are progressing.
1. 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.
There is a tremendous difference between post #60 and the foolish statement that "AT&T forwards all Internet traffic into NSA." Digitization means you don't have to reroute traffic to the NSA in order to trap packets across a network. I never claimed our government doesn't spy on us, just that the lawsuit and it's claim is stupid.
2. 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.
I have been in Telecommunications Operations for over thirty years with the USAF, ITT, Sprint, MCI and now Verizon Business. I've seen the transition from patchcords and jackfields to keyboard troubleshooting through a DACCS and remote Fiber interface. The transition to Optical Fiber carrying Digital Packets was market and resource driven. You can do a lot more with a digital signal than an analog waveform. Todays technician delivers multiple-thousands of times the capacity and throughput above the old analog network while providing a vast range of features and capabilities.
The only thing the government did was provide the vehicle for Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn to develop TCP/IP for the ARPANET.
Our government didn't cause the creation of the network we have evolved just so they could spy on us. The ability to spy on data packets was only fortuitous gravy.
No, I think they're right. I, myself, have seen the black helicopters with very long cables tethered to them hovering over the Ft Meade area.
I know they're not just looking for sunbathers. Well, maybe not.
You said -- "Our government didn't cause the creation of the network we have evolved just so they could spy on us. The ability to spy on data packets was only fortuitous gravy."
I'm sure it was fortuitous gravy. But, nonetheless, it's there and happening.
By the way, the obligatory Echelon words, but in a contextual output (which will drive them more crazy than the "word list".
http://www.bugbrother.com/echelon/spookwordsgenerator.html
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From: fatf.contact@oecd.org
To: leslie.blake@mail.dss.mil
Subj: SANGAT RAHASIA (TOP SECRET - Indonesia)
L'honorable Claude Bisson, O.C., commissaire du Centre de la sécurité des télécommunications (CST) canadien , told Serbia's Counterintelligence Service (Kontraobavesajna Sluzba - KOS) about Domme (Dordogne) frenchelon station : a bomb maker sent ISI (pakistan Inter-Service Intelligence)`s web based CGI proxys & Anonymizers logs to Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK or MKO) !
Ask 704th Military Intelligence Brigade`s contact of Thales (ex-Thomson-CSF) colonization & slavish globalization Dpt via http://www.fsb.ru/ for Ref. Offensive Information Warfare, Counter Terrorism Security, AUSTEO.
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Regards,
Star Traveler
"It's kind of a hobby for me too. I've spent years (mostly lurking) on the cypherpunk mailing list. (there are internet archives going back almost a decade). People have no idea of the current tech the government can make use of to snoop on them. It's only going to get worse.
Apparently "terrorism" is the root password to the Constitution."
WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO HIDE? Don't you support our Government protecting us from the MUSLIM KILLERS? Get real.
"If more folks routinely used encryption, it would make programs like the one mentioned in the article less useful for them."
YOU ARE SAYING that you want to use encryption to impair the NSA data gathering system? WHOSE SIDE are you on? WHY do you want to interfere with LEGAL DATA COLLECTION about TERRORISM? I HATE TERRORISM! If you are so concerned go blow it up and be a terrorist.
"A lot of folks here on Free Republic are supportive of the government's wholesale survellance of the citizens of this country"
What about the war on terror is not worth supporting 100 percent? I do not know many who wish to have rules for everyone except me. That seems Liberal talk, not FR.
Transmission of encoded messages during wartime is "PRESUMPTIVE EVIDENCE OF ESPIONAGE" That is the American law.
"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen."
- Samuel Adams, quoted in "Citizen's Rule Book", Whitten Printers, Phoenix AZ
WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO HIDE?
"If ye love wealth better than liberty..."
I love liberty better than slavery to Islamofascism. DO YOU?
The amusing thing here...is that there are mountains of information created each and everyday. You can filter all you want...but this is simply too much information for any government agency to ever get any use out of. If the NSA figureheads ever stood up and looked at the picture...and realized how much just sits there never to be analyzed or is overlooked...then this whole thing would fall apart. Its like looking for a needle in a haystack...amongst an entire field.
The point is, this lawsuit is ridiculous. Read post #70.
...an NSA agent showed up at the San Francisco switching center in 2002 to interview a management-level technician for a special job. In January 2003, Klein observed a new room being built adjacent to the room housing AT&T's #4ESS switching equipment...
"...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."
This Card carrying Union Member was pissed that a non-union craft person was allowed to do install work like an ordinary technician in his CO. And now he will get back at them any way he can. Our Nation's Security be damned!
I feel sure they have psuedo-AI sorting it by now.
I do, but apparently like many you would give up all that makes us unique in the world for the illusion of safety.
I suppose you keep a large supply of postcards handy for all your correspondence. Wouldn't want to use envelopes, unless you had something to hide. Encryption is an envelope for electronic communications.
"I do, but apparently like many you would give up all that makes us unique in the world for the illusion of safety."
I think that George Bush is NOT a greater threat to my liberty than al-Qaeda.
Even Thomas Jefferson had to fight the Islamofascists when he was President, and said "Millions for Defense not One Cent for Tribute."
If you think that the United States is a greater threat to your liberty then al-Qaida, you must buy a beret. LOL! Just kidding.
Europeans snarl at the country which is on eternal watch to keep them free, and lick the hands of the people that bomb their trains. Don't be European.
Can you please point out where in this thread I said that.
Strawmen are boring. Try again.
Use for the money came in 1785, when the dey of Algiers took two American ships hostage and demanded $60,000 in ransom for their crews. Then-ambassador to France Thomas Jefferson argued that conceding the ransom would only encourage more attacks. His objections fell on the deaf ears of an inexperienced American government too riven with domestic discord to make a strong show of force overseas. The U.S. paid Algiers the ransom, and continued to pay up to $1 million per year over the next 15 years for the safe passage of American ships or the return of American hostages. Payments in ransom and tribute to the privateering states amounted to 20 percent of United States government annual revenues in 1800.
Jefferson continued to argue for cessation of the tribute, with rising support from George Washington and others. With the recommissioning of the American navy in 1794 and the resulting increased firepower on the seas, it became more and more possible for America to say "no", although by now the long-standing habit of tribute was hard to overturn. A largely successful undeclared war with French privateers in the late 1790s showed that American naval power was now sufficient to protect the nation's interests.
On Jefferson's inauguration as president in 1801, Yussif Karamanli, the Pasha (or Bashaw) of Tripoli demanded $225,000 from the new administration. Putting his long-held beliefs into practice, Jefferson refused the demand. Consequently, in May of 1801, the Pasha declared war on the United States, not through any formal written documents, but by cutting down the flagstaff in front of the U.S. Consulate. Morocco, Algiers, and Tunis soon followed their ally in Tripoli.
In response, Jefferson sent a group of frigates to defend American interests in the Mediterranean, and informed Congress. Although Congress never voted on a formal declaration of war, they did authorize the President to instruct the commanders of armed vessels of the United States to seize all vessels and goods of the Pasha of Tripoli "and also to cause to be done all such other acts of precaution or hostility as the state of war will justify."
...USS Constitution, USS Constellation, USS Philadelphia, USS Chesapeake, USS Argus, USS Syren and USS Intrepid all saw service during the war under the overall command of Commodore Edward Preble. Throughout 1803, Preble set up and maintained a blockade of the Barbary ports and executed a campaign of raids and attacks against the cities' fleets.
From Wikipedia
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