AT&T refusing to deny that it let the NSA spy on its customers' emails and phone calls, now implies it got a court order

Americablog
Apr. 25, 2006

Well, this is interesting. AT&T is now claiming, in responses to customers concerned about a recent lawsuit claiming AT&T permitted the government to spy on every single email and phone call you ever made, that AT&T was obeying a court order if and when it helped the government spy on its customers.

Note that the AT&T rep refuses to deny the charge, that they let the US government spy on its own customers (and I'm told lots of OTHER traffic goes through AT&T's servers).

The following email was received from AT&T by an AMERICAblog reader who complained:

Dear Mr. xxxxx,

This letter will stand as a response to your inquiry regarding AT&T's practice with wiretapping requests. It is AT&T's policy to comply with court orders that have been issued through an authorized law enforcement agency according to federal laws.

Very truly yours,
Donna C. Norman
Manager – Regulatory Relations
310 Orange Street
New Haven CT 06510

This is particularly interesting since the lawsuit against AT&T alleges that AT&T did this without being served warrants to spy on individual customers:

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 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.

The article, however, is vague, and it's not clear if AT&T was served with a court order requiring it to let the government spy. Though, the way the AT&T response is worded, it's also not clear whether it was a real court, or whether a federal agency has the power to issue the court order (does it in these circumstances?).

Again, either way, AT&T is refusing to deny the charge that it helped the government spy on EVERY SINGLE ONE of its customers' emails and phone calls and Web sites they visited and instant messages and online chats and online video calls. You get the picture. It's time to leave AT&T. (Question: Does this mean that if we have cingular cell phones, that was included in this?)

Don't miss a great NYT editorial calling on AT&T to come clean.