A Story of Surveillance: Former Technician 'Turning In' AT&T Over NSA Program

[DeepModem Mom]

Source: Washington Post

By Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 7, 2007; Page D01

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 massive amounts of e-mail and search and other Internet records of more than a dozen global and regional telecommunications 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.

The plain-spoken, bespectacled 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 program. He is retired, so he isn't worried about losing his job. He did not have 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.

"If they've done something massively illegal and unconstitutional -- well, they should suffer the consequences," Klein said. "It's not my place to feel bad for them. They made their bed, they have to lie in it. The ones who did (anything wrong), you can be sure, are high up in the company. Not the average Joes, who I enjoyed working with."

In an interview yesterday, he alleged that the NSA set up a system that vacuumed up Internet and phone-call data from ordinary Americans with the cooperation of AT&T . Contrary to the government's depiction of its surveillance program as aimed at overseas terrorists, Klein said, much of the data sent through AT&T to the NSA was purely domestic. Klein said he believes that the NSA was analyzing the records for usage patterns as well as for content....

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/07/AR2007110700006.html?nav%3Dhcmodule&sub=AR

[hedda_foil]

1. Page D01! WTF -- Did they relegate this to fucking Business News?????

[DeepModem Mom]

5. Olbermann interviewed him tonight. Somehow I assumed he was testifying at a hearing...

but this article gives no indication of that. Sounds like Congress needs to hear from him, for sure -- and, as you say, his story should be on page one.

[Divine Discontent]

11. gimme some of that foil!

I cannot believe this SHIT!!?!! They need to have full hearings, and then once it's proven, they need dragged out of the white house and put on trial.

I'm effin sick of the Democratic enablers of this mafia in the white house. They HAVE to be scared over what would be done to them if they do this, because of all the technological ways you can be "offed" these days. This guy is another HERO! Are the congressmen & ladies, and senators afraid of what the creeps "have" on them? Is that it? One has to wonder... good luck getting that foil back, I'm keeping it, thanks.
:tinfoilhat:

[wake.up.america]

18. Great looking kids!

[defendandprotect]

32. An old method of burying it --- !!!

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

2. I sure as hell hope he as a fantastic bodyguard.

You can be sure they won't stop until he's silenced in any manner possible.

[woodsprite]

12. Then won't they have to go after more people too?

Didn't he 'hand off' the papers to his lawyers and maybe a copy to the Judiciary itself. If so, then they have copies of the wiring diagrams that show it all. :evilgrin:

[UnyieldingHierophant]

16. Blackwater

[Bozita]

3. Reason for impeachment? Start here.

Recommended.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Hold it, but I have been told here by some that this is just my imagination

and I am paranoid...

WHO KNEW???????????

the old adage comes to mind

What is better, being right or paranoid?

[truedelphi]

39. You my dear, are paranoid, but it is totally justifiable paranoia!!

And I am paranoid right along with you.

[Nomad559]

6. (AT&T) Mark Klein On Olbermann

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x68136

[DeepModem Mom]

8. Thanks, Nomad! nt

[pansypoo53219]

7. hmm, i have a freebe e-mail from my bro-ATT/yahoo

and my blog site meter goes there, BUT, on my DITTO heads account, so he looks like the lefty. right? RIGHT?!?

[jaysunb]

9. I'd like to be happy the WaPo is reporting this, but

noticed it's in section D and then I read the final paragraph. Check it out.

Klein was last in Washington in 1969, to take part in an antiwar protest. Now, he said with a chuckle, he's here in a gray suit as a lobbyist.

Pretty clever, I'd say....the bastards.

[MetaTrope]

14. It's the wording of the second paragraph that gets me

"that helped the government in its anti-terrorism efforts"

Because as we know, those "anti-terrorism efforts" have proven so fruitful in bringing loads of terrorists to justice... :spank:

[redqueen]

20. Quite a spin on "helped the government break the law by illegally spying on citizens."

Sad how many 'journalists' are really nothing but cowardly, soulless conspirators.

[sss1977]

10. Vauumeded is the key word

Suck! Suck! Suck! SUCK!

America will next go from suck to blow.

[lonestarnot]

13. Pugs suck; Dems blow.

[windoe]

15. Go whistleblowers go

hats off to this guy, brave to stand up to the spooks~~~~:tinfoilhat: is all tuned up & working fine

[kay1864]

17. Here's AT&T's bullshit answer:

"AT&T is fully committed to protecting our customers' privacy."

How's that for a non-answer? Just like the old "Our policy is..." answers. Like, "Our policy is not to torture."

:eyes:

[peacetalksforall]

25. "...committed to protecting our customers' privacy." Sounds like 'we don't do torture'.

My phrasing of the torture denial.

[L. Coyote]

19. My informant says they sent ALL COMMUNICATIONS overseas to skirt laws

and the Constitution. Outside the USA, they are not violating the law if they access your communications.

My questions:

"Did they listen to every John Kerry phone call in 2004, read every DNC e-mail......?"

"Was this capability part of stealing 2004?"

"Is this just another illegal method in maintaining power? How many more are there?"

"Who profits from the insider trading info?"

[LiberalArkie]

21. I would say they have tapes of every person in congress.

[defendandprotect]

34. Wonder who they listen to FIRST every day . . . ?????

Hillary --- and Bill's phone calls?

Giuliani? 'cause if you're gonna put the guy in office to do your dirty work you have to have plenty on him to keep him in line.

Supremes --- making sure none of them are getting any democratic ideas .....

Ted Kennedy ---

Pelosi --- what might she have on her mind each day to defeat the GOP --- ???


Bush is probably listening to Cheney's personal calls and vice versa ---


And bet they're monitoring Ashcroft's calls to make sure he doesn't crack ---
I think some of this stuff scared the hell out of him --- 9/11 or Anthrax?

Imagine how busy they have to be just to make sure all their dirt is covered up every day ---

[Constance Craving]

22. As if they give a shit . . .

I unfortunately had an AT&T MasterCard/Calling Card thing-y that I got when I was an undergraduate, lo these many years ago.

I have taken that credit card, cut it up into tiny-ass pieces and sent it back to them. The letter that I sent with it stated something along the lines of: you've always been able to know what I buy cause that how CCs work, but I will be damned if I allow you to know what I am saying, thinking, reading, downloading, etc. And I will be double damned if I will stand by and allow you tell the fascist government!:mad:

No response yet . . .

[Ellen Forradalom]

24. Welcome to DU Constance!

[DeepModem Mom]

26. Good for you, Constance! Glad to have you at DU!!! nt

[mogster]

38. Welcome!

:-)

[bagrman]

23. Time 4 a letter to AT&T saying your sevices will no longer be needed.

[truedelphi]

40. We tried that and it's hard - they are buying the Bells up right and left

And not only that - they BLOCK calls from anyone who uses an AT&T carrier line to those on the other services.

I have MediaCom and my friends with AT&T are blocked. My boss was so upset on not reaching me that she told her best girlfriend not to sign up with MediaCom - and the friend did. Now my boss has to call her girlfriend on the cell phone - otherwise their land lines are blocked.

AT&T is gonna do whatever it takes to keep people enrolled with them. My husband and I are returning to AT&T since so many calls are blocked we have lost several hundred if not several thousand dollars worth of business while being with MEDIACOM.

Not happy about it, but having a phone that doesn't allow for incoming calls SUCKS!

[Truth2Tell]

27. A post I made about a friend back in June

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=1144221#1146509

Edit to correct my post frm June: This guy works for T-Mobile - entirely different company, but same gov program, I believe.

[defendandprotect]

33. This is lawlessness on AT&T's part . . . they are covered by FISA if they report the illegal contact

QUOTE: He tells me that secure server cabinets and an outdoor, barbed wire enclosed, switching box even have their own armed security. UNQUOTE


This must be somewhere in the ole Nazi "homeland" security budget some where . . . ????

It's obvious you can't keep something like this totally hidden ---
people do know, but it takes a lot of courge to come forward ---
people have made fantastic sacrifices to give us info about these crimes . . .
and nothing happens!!!

[kestrel91316]

28. People right here on DU have told me in no uncertain terms that I was

practically delusional for believing they WERE spying on all of us and had been for quite some time. I guess I was right. My instincts about these things have always served me well.

They don't give a goddamned rat's ass about any f---ing "terrorists". The whole wiretap thing is ENTIRELY about spying on the political opposition and blackmail and intimidation. That's how they have managed to castrate our side so effectively.

[Zhade]

30. Many people here on DU also excuse murder and are willing to let criminals walk...

...through their cowardly refusal to support the Constitutional REQUIREMENT of impeachment for this administration's crimes.

Be nice if some of these fools listened to people like us, eh? We've been right so many times before, you'd think they'd learn.

[defendandprotect]

35. Everyone who sensed this spying --- hang around and keep reminding us --- !!!

[kestrel91316]

29. Time for a return to communication by snail-mail. They don't have the

necessary manpower to spy on every fricking letter we write on paper.

[SeattleGirl]

31. This article was on the FRONT PAGE of The Seattle Times today!

Woo-fuckin'-hoo! I was glad to see it placed there, instead of buried inside somewhere.

[Divine Discontent]

37. alrighty!! kick! n/t

[johnp]

36. WE NEED TO CAN ANY DEM THAT VOTES FOR TELCO IMMUNITY!

Lets makes sure and post the names of any Democrat that is for immunity for these Telcos and make sure they loose their job.

[kelligesq]

41. Better yet cancel all ATT accounts. $$Money is what these people understand

 hitting them in their pocketbook or bottom line to punish,
show your dissatisfaction with their spying on American
citizens wholesale and violating your constitutional rights.

Should all Americans join the class action suit?  Wouldnt that
be a kicker?

If you have their cellphone, dsl, or phone service
cancel it and
SWITCH

and afterwards write the President of the Company and tell
them why.

The only one that did not cooperate was Qwest he said.