Blockbuster: Former AT&T worker details federal Internet spying in S.F.

Ellen Nakashima, Washington Post
Wednesday, November 7, 2007


(11-07) 04:00 PST Washington - --
His first inkling that something was amiss came in summer 2002 when he opened the door to admit a visitor from the National Security Agency to an office of AT&T in San Francisco.
"What the heck is the NSA doing here?" Mark Klein, a former AT&T technician, said he asked himself.

A year or so later, he stumbled upon documents that, he said, nearly caused him to fall out of his chair. The documents, he said, show that the NSA gained access to huge amounts of e-mail, Web search and other Internet records of more than a dozen global and regional telecom providers. AT&T allowed the agency to hook into its network at a facility in San Francisco and, according to Klein, many of the other telecom companies probably knew nothing about it.

Klein is in Washington this week to share his story in the hope that it will persuade lawmakers not to grant legal immunity to telecommunications firms that helped the government in its anti-terrorism efforts.

Klein, 62, said he may be the only person in the country in a position to discuss firsthand knowledge of an important aspect of the Bush administration's domestic surveillance. He is retired, so he isn't worried about losing his job. He carried no security clearance, and the documents in his possession were not classified, he said. He has no qualms about "turning in," as he put it, the company where he worked for 22 years, until he retired in 2004.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/11/07/MNIST7NS9.DTL

Repbulicans at every corner?

If Dems are too intent on getting things done and can't initiate impeachment hearings, what are they doing?

Are hearings and letters the best we can expect.

If yes, it sends me the signal that we should be appreciative of the education we are getting and this will be good for the historical record, but, for now, corporations/barons with Cheney fighting for them is the best that can happen to us. All our money depleted and the kids in graves, hospitals, rehabilitation centers, and the bars? Exiles from Iraq coping and those left behind getting slaughtered, their country and lives a disaster?

wrong? Many Congress Critters need to recuse themselves from voting on this because
they tool money from the TeleComs.

the NSA intercepts internet traffic, voip, and electronic intelligence. They have for decades, under all administrations, done so.

Discussing operational technology is, in my opinion, a billion dollar error. Once the technology is compromised it will be re-implemented.

One would think that some aspects of national security events were born secret. This should be one of them.

The NSA will NEVER discuss its role. The congress will never defund it. The NSA has done this job before there were islamic terrorists and it will be doing this job 50 years from now.