AT&T 'Spy Room' Documents Unsealed; You've Already Seen Them ...
"This configuration appears to have the capability to enable surveillance and analysis of
internet content on a
massive scale, including both overseas and purely
domestic traffic," Marcus wrote.
AT&T likely has
15 to 20 of these rooms around the country, and shipped data out of the rooms via a separate network to another location, Marcus concluded. Collectively, he estimated that the rooms were able to keep tabs on some 10 percent of the nation's purely domestic internet traffic.
...
The government argues that the case must be
thrown out since it involves
national security matters, while AT&T says it can't defend itself without spilling
classified information. Federal district court Judge Vaughn Walker ruled last July that the case could proceed, because President Bush has admitted the existence of the NSA's warrantless wiretapping of Americans' overseas communications.
"Dismissing this case at the outset would
sacrifice liberty for no apparent enhancement of security," Walker wrote.
Cohn says she hopes the new documents will illustrate to the public that the organization's case is grounded in fact, and that the government's argument that national security is at risk is
overstated.
"It really paints them into a corner, how unreasonable their claims of state secrets are," Cohn said. "I'm hoping (the document release) demonstrates we are right and know what we are talking about and that we don't need much more to win our case. We are much closer than people think."
AT&T declined comment, except to issue this official oft-repeated statement on the case: "AT&T is fully committed to protecting our customers' privacy. We do not comment on matters of national security."
In a court filing, the company's lawyers called
Wired News a "scofflaw" for publishing the documents last year.
http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/2007/06/spy_room