News orgs to tackle AT&T Thursday over surveillance docs

A number of news organizations will argue tomorrow that AT&T should publicly disclose documents that relate to its alleged participation in the government's warrantless domestic surveillance program:

Wired News -- joined by the San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, Associated Press, San Jose Mercury News and Bloomberg News -- is seeking documents and statements provided by former AT&T technician Mark Klein about the government spy program. AT&T says the pages contain corporate trade secrets. At 2 p.m. Thursday, both sides will make oral arguments before U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker in San Francisco.

Wired News attorney Timothy Alger believes it's unlikely that genuine trade secrets are at issue, but argues that even if they are, the public interest in the case trumps trade-secret protections.

"Even if there are trade-secrets interests, that interest has to yield to the paramount public interest in what the court is deciding," Alger said. "People should know if their phones are being tapped into by AT&T on behalf of the government."

Link to Wired News item by Ryan Singel.

Related posts on BoingBoing include:

• EFF suing AT&T for helping NSA illegally spy on Americans
• AT&T built warrantless wiretap rooms for the NSA
• AT&T retrofits privacy policy: your data is not yours
• Wired News publishes damning docs from EFF vs AT&T
• More archived BB posts on AT&T