AT&T asks judge to order documents alleging wiretaps returned

[struggle4progress]

By Elise Ackerman
Mercury News

Attorneys for AT&T have asked a federal judge to order a San Francisco civil liberties group to return ``highly confidential'' documents that allegedly show that the telecommunications giant provided detailed records of millions of its customers to a government intelligence agency.

In documents filed on Monday, AT&T's attorneys also asked Judge Vaughn Walker to order the Electronic Frontier Foundation to refrain from referencing the documents in its lawsuit.

The EFF filed a lawsuit against AT&T in January alleging that AT&T had collaborated with the National Security Agency in a ``massive and illegal program to wiretap and data-mine Americans' communications.''

Last week, the group filed additional documents to the federal court in San Francisco totaling more than 140 pages. The documents purportedly provide evidence of the technology that AT&T had used to conduct surveillance for the NSA. <snip>

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/14319042.htm

[FogerRox]

1. F U AT&T . . . KNR

[0007]

12. These are the real bastards of the world. Fuck 'em is right.

[Poll_Blind]

2. What garbage...K&R

PB

[simonm]

3. Just one good reason

Why anyone should be a member of the EFF.

http://www.eff.org

[gulfcoastliberal]

4. K&R

nt

[caligirl]

5. I called SBC who bought AT&T and has changed their nameto AT&T

and cited the wired.com information on them as reason to cancel my service, probably this June.

[AuntiBush]

6. Yup

Rec'd something from Kohn law firm stating my emails might have been blocked between 2004-2005. I'm one pissed Verizon user right now.

Aggrieved Verizon customers are invited to join a class action that seeks damages arising from the US ISP's enthusiastic email filtering policies. Philadelphia law firm Kohn, Swift & Graf, P.C. filed suit this week against Verizon on behalf of a DSL subscriber in a civil case that seeks class action status.

Since 22 December, mail servers at verizon.net have been configured to reject connections from Europe and other parts of the world including China and New Zealand by default, according to Reg readers and industry sources such as MessageLabs. Verizon says the move is designed to reduce spam and says it is following industry best practice and applying blacklists as "narrowly" as possible.

Domains can be unblocked on request but Verizon's catch-all filtering has generated fierce criticism, reflected in letters from Reg readers in response to our report last week on the e-blockade.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/01/21/verizon_class_action/

Edited to Add: Does not pass smell test. I think they have been part of evesdropping for varient of reasons, some seen and heard as does many in my state. But, what I rec'd in the mail was *not* from above law firm but another. After checking them out, it was another not in Phil. PA and after reading their bio it seemed odd.

[Gman]

7. As a former telephone company employee I know

the company never did anything without a court order, at least at one time. This tells me ATT was politically pressured into this. Probably on the promise of favorable treatment on legislation. I don't know how much SBC had to do with this, but they would do it also for favorable treatment on legislation.

[caligirl]

8. The only thing SBC had to do with this seems that they bought AT&T, poor

decision now. They could get sued and I would definitly want a suit brought. Oh thats right EFF is doing that one.

[Gman]

10. Whitacre seems to have this nasty and destructive ability to buy companies

that are trashed when he thinks they are shining. The Ameritech merger was an unmitigated disaster. It took hundreds of millions to rehab the plant to the point it should have been. SBC brought back retired SW Bell I&R managers as contractors to sort the out the Ameritech mess. Due dates for orders for new service and transfers of service were running 3 months rather than the 5 days required by law. Whitacre's yes persons have no idea what the words "due diligence" means. Its all about telling Whitacre how great and wonderful he is. Of course, no one wanted to talk about Whitacre's nasty little affair that caused his divorce either. They all just snickered.

Whitacre has been on a mission since Zane Barnes left to put back together the old Bell System. Whitacre's people around him (including suckup VP levels that will do and say anything for their bonus and another promotion) let Whitacre think the old Ma Bell is a graceful old lady when in fact she's an old washed up old whore. The name AT&T is synonymous with cramming, slamming, fraud and just about every other immoral and unethical business practice you can think of. SBC should know as AT&T was the worst offender in deceivingly getting people to switch their local service. AT&T was a major offender in switching people's long distance service without their knowledge. None of this is news. In fact, its very old news.

I could go on and on.

[Demeter]

17. SBC IS TEXAS BASED!

So is it any surprise to find them in bed with BushCo?

[Scout1071]

9. In return BushCo is passing the AT&T friendly pay as you go Internet

scam. Pay as you post and pay as you go. Itemized like a damn cell phone bill. Fuck them. Forever changing and effectively killing the Internet as we now know it. Fuck them.

They tried to sneak this through just today per this diary at Daily Kos:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/4/11/194439/884

[Gman]

11. As I said, I've no doubt they were promised favorable treatment

on legislation if they cooperated. SBC/AT&T will do literally anything to get favorable treatment on legislation. And even SBC didn't used to be like that. They changed about the time Daly headed External Affairs (which his direct reports called a complete cluster fuck... one told me personally) which is also why Daly's not there any more.

[Rex]

13. Big Biz rules and serfs drulz.

AT&TNSA want all evidence of their criminal misdeeds back and for the case to disappear - watch for it to vanish in a courtroom not near you.

[DemInDistress]

14. a customer rep said to me,"no sir, we don't spy on our customers"

I pointed out to her the lawsuit out west and she denied knowing anything about it. We don't spy on our customers.Wow! what blatant liars they are. I referred her to several internet stories but she wasn't interested.
Is any communications company supportive of "privacy?"

[caligirl]

15. my sbc rep was not only interested she sent it to her supervisor

she wanted the wired.com addy and the eff addy. She was pretty alarmed.

[Zan_of_Texas]

16. If you haven't, everyone read the original Wired story. It's HUGH111.

Whistle-Blower Outs NSA Spy Room

By Ryan Singel
Wired.com
11:15 AM Apr, 07, 2006
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/1,70619-0.html

AT&T provided National Security Agency eavesdroppers with full access to its customers' phone calls, and shunted its customers' internet traffic to data-mining equipment installed in a secret room in its San Francisco switching center, according to a former AT&T worker cooperating in the Electronic Frontier Foundation's lawsuit against the company.

Mark Klein, a retired AT&T communications technician, submitted an affidavit in support of the EFF's lawsuit this week. That class action <http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70126-0.html> lawsuit, filed in federal court in San Francisco last January, alleges that AT&T violated federal and state laws by surreptitiously allowing the government to monitor phone and internet communications of AT&T customers without warrants.

On Wednesday, the EFF asked the court to issue an injunction prohibiting AT&T from continuing the alleged wiretapping, and filed a number of documents under seal, including three AT&T documents that purportedly explain how the wiretapping system works.

According to a statement released by Klein's attorney, 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, which is responsible for routing long distance and international calls.

more

PS -- I sent the Wired story to a career SBC worker. Response: No personal knowledge of this, but "Not surprised."