California Lawyer on EFF versus AT&T
LinkOne sunny day in San Francisco two winters ago, a retired telecommunications technician with an understandable distrust of telephones stepped off a BART train after a short but fateful ride. His name was Mark Klein, and his destination was a red brick office building in an untouristed part of the city dominated by low-rise warehouses. There he met with a small group of maverick, tech-savvy lawyers called the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
For Klein, then 60, this trip was a long time coming. As a veteran telecommunications technician and computer network associate at AT&T, he had in recent years obtained several company documents that described in specific, technical terms a secret room he says the National Security Agency (NSA) had set up on the sixth floor of an AT&T building downtown. Klein entered the room itself only once, and that was just for a couple of minutes. (Generally, people needed a security clearance to gain access.) However, just one floor above, he managed the Internet-traffic room to which it was electronically connected.
Through that work, the documents he gathered, and conversations he had with other employees, Klein came to understand that his employer was colluding with the federal government to siphon a copy of billions of domestic Internet communications into that secret room, every second of every day. And all without a warrant. "Even Nixon didn't go that far," Klein thought. As he later told MSNBC, the situation made him think of George Orwell's classic 1984. "Here I was, being forced to connect the Big Brother machine." However, after complaining to a supervisor, with no result, he did not pursue the matter. He retired in 2004.
Then, in December 2005, the New York Times outed the Bush administration's warrantless domestic-surveillance program, which the administration subsequently defended as an effort to monitor no more than a handful of phone calls to the Middle East. This convinced Klein that the time was finally right to share his inside information.
His timing was better than he imagined: When he knocked on EFF's door that day in January 2006, the lawyers inside were already working feverishly to craft a class action against the nation's largest telecommunications company.
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Glen Greenwald on the FISA agreement:
The current extension on FISA expires on the 16th but if there is one thing Harry Reid can do it's count votes so he has scheduled voting for the 4th and 5th, the day before super Tuesday. This means that candidates would have to give up campaigning in order to cast their vote, giving them an out.
So it would appear that the fight to remove telecom immunity from the Senate bill is over, but there is still time to call or fax. It is unlikely that the amendment to remove immunity will pass though. The real fight will take place in the House which has yet to pass it's version.
The EFF does fantastic work. Every time I hear of a case they're working on that resonates with me, or read of a situation where they're desperately needed, I donate to them.
See, you just type a few more letters and presto; I know what EFF means. Don't restrict knowledge because your too slack to type.
Is it possible that the federal government coerced AT&T into giving up data? If the Feds really are as big and bad as we all like to think, maybe AT&T just thought it would be in the best interest of their stock holders if they went along with the Thugs? Just like BMW did, and lots of other German companies. Gosh, asking a corporation to become a beachhead in the fight to maintain privacy rights is like asking the Madame not to keep a little black book on her clients. Ain't gonna happen.
Jeff, other telcos refused to cooperate.
Yes, Cory, they did, and good for them. All I can say is that AT&T is run by a more conservative board, where members are used to a system whereby cooperating with the Feds can help you. Whereas not cooperating can mean you miss out on contracts. The problem (add to the list)with our current form of market ecconomy, is that it is so tied to our government, that the too are incestual at times. I would like to think I would not have opened up the data myself, but I might have caved. It's hard to know what stock holders are going to do. AT&T's stock profomance was not bumped down because of this. Rather it is still a stable performer and I'd buy now. But like I said, it's about money, not morality.
Jeff, AT&T helped to write the FISA legislation. Besides, the Nuremberg defense doesn't cut it.
I'm on to you, Ployntabs.
You are in fact, a NSA AI bot,designed to cull web traffic for intelligence and have not yet developed efficient algorithms to reliably extract and sort when too many acronymns are used. Hence your charade here. Well, you're turinged lad!
@#7Noen
I was going to quote Nuremberg to Jeff, but you beat me to it.
In this situation there is no excuse that is a good excuse.
Profitability of shareholders as an excuse to break the law and spy on fellow citizens?
Any shareholder that voted for that deserves to share a cell with those that implemented it.
Feingold "Pleased" with Surveillance Bill Deal
blah blah blah...
Or in other words, he will support the filibuster if the amendment striping telecom immunity doesn't pass. This is good news. About the best that can be hoped for at this time.
What a great article!