US Gov Monitoring Email / Internet Traffic

[REOdeathwagon]

For Your Eyes Only?

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.

PBS tv show NOW has a great 25 minute, streaming online show, about this issue affecting our privacy.

This week, NOW reports on new evidence suggesting the existence of a secret government program that intercepts millions of private e-mails each day in the name of terrorist surveillance. News about the alleged program came to light when a former AT&T employee, Mark Klein, blew the whistle on what he believes to be a large-scale installation of secret Internet monitoring equipment deep inside AT&T's San Francisco office. The equipment, he contends, was created at the request of the U.S. government to spy on e-mail traffic across the entire Internet. Though the government and AT&T refuse to address the issue directly, Klein backs up his charges with internal company documents and personal photos.
Criminal Defense Lawyer Nancy Hollander, who represents several Muslim-Americans, feels her confidential e-mails are anything but secure. "I've personally never been afraid of my government until now. And now I feel personally afraid that I could be locked up tomorrow," she told NOW.

Who might be eyeing the hundreds of millions of e-mails Americans send out each day, and to what end?


Also this week, David Brancaccio talks to John Yoo, the former Bush Administration lawyer who was a key figure in granting the President expansive powers in the wake of September 11th. "There's no doubt that, in wartime, Presidents exercise much broader power than they do in peacetime," Yoo tells NOW. He also says President Bush has "tried to not go too far," in increasing such powers, as compared to previous administrations in wartime.

Link to the NOW homepage : http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/307/index.html

Link to the TV show : http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/307/video.html

The show is also availabable for download in audio only format, on the website.

Related Links:
» Wired: Whistle-Blower's Evidence, Uncut : http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70944-0.html
» Wired: Wiretap Whistle-Blower's Account : http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70621-0.html
» Wired: Whistle-Blower Outs NSA Spy Room : http://www.wired.com/news/technology...?tw=wn_index_1

[Mousey]

Let's not forget that w/UIGEA the gov't has pressed the banks into 'service' so that they monitor all our banking transactions -- heaven forbid we should send $50 out of the country to spin a few reels. It's all for our own good. Makes you feel safe and secure and all warm and fuzzy inside doesn't it?

Nothing like living in a country that spies on its own citizens.

[GrandMaster]

The Gnu Privacy Guard from www.gnupg.org is your friend.

[REOdeathwagon]

Let's not forget that w/UIGEA the gov't has pressed the banks into 'service' so that they monitor all our banking transactions -- heaven forbid we should send $50 out of the country to spin a few reels.

They are starting to monitor everything now. People need to get fed up and revolt!

It's all for our own good. Makes you feel safe and secure and all warm and fuzzy inside doesn't it?

Nothing like living in a country that spies on its own citizens.

They have done a lot of this crap post 9/11. Under the guise of protecting the citizens from terrorism. I am not afraid of terrorists one bit. I am afraid of other americans. And I am scared to death of my government.


And the dumbass American public just "ho-hums it."

[winbig]

If enough people were to take all of their money out of banks? Hmmm....that would be interesting.

[amatrine]

I still think if enough peole just didnt pay their taxes.... Of course then that would be marshall law.

Ama

[AussieDave]

Nothing like living in a country that spies on its own citizens.

Sounds like the cold war days & the KGB...

[AussieDave]

The Gnu Privacy Guard from www.gnupg.org is your friend.

I've thought of implementing this for sensitive business emails, but, I can never figure out how to use the damn things.

[Mousey]

In today's news...

Article is HERE

FBI criticized for Patriot Act use By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer
41 minutes ago



WASHINGTON - An internal Justice Department report accuses the FBI of underreporting its use of the Patriot Act to force telecommunications and financial firms to turn over customer information in suspected terrorism cases, according to officials familiar with its findings.

Shoddy bookkeeping and records management led to the problems, said one government official familiar with the report. The official said FBI agents appeared to be overwhelmed by the volume of demands for information over a two-year period.

"They lost track," said the official who like others interviewed late Thursday spoke on condition of anonymity because the report had not been released.

The errors are outlined by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine in an audit to be released on Friday. The audit requirement was added to the Patriot Act by Congress over the objections of the Bush administration.

The FBI in 2005 reported to Congress that its agents had delivered a total of 9,254 national security letters seeking e-mail, telephone or financial information on 3,501 U.S. citizens and legal residents over the previous two years. Fine's report, according to officials, says that number was underreported by 20 percent.

It was unclear late Thursday whether the omissions could be considered a criminal offense. One government official who read the report said it concluded the problems appeared to be unintentional and that FBI agents would probably face administrative sanctions instead of criminal charges.

The FBI has taken steps to correct some of the problems, the official said.

The Justice Department, already facing congressional criticism over its firing of eight U.S. attorneys, began notifying lawmakers of the audit's damning contents late Thursday. Spokesmen at the Justice Department and FBI declined to immediately comment on the findings.

FBI Director Robert Mueller was to brief reporters on the audit Friday morning, and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was expected to answer questions about it at a privacy rights event in Washington several hours later.

Sen. Charles E. Schumer, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee that oversees the FBI, called the reported findings "a profoundly disturbing breach of public trust."

"Somebody has a lot of explaining to do," said Schumer, D-N.Y.

Fine's audit also says the FBI failed to send follow-up subpoenas to telecommunications firms that were told to expect them, the officials said.

Those cases involved so-called exigent letters to alert the firms that subpoenas would be issued shortly to gather more information, the officials said. But in many examples, the subpoenas were never sent, the officials said.

The FBI has since caught up with those omissions, either with national security letters or subpoenas, one official said.

National security letters have been the subject of legal battles in two federal courts because recipients were barred from telling anyone about them.

The American Civil Liberties Union sued the Bush administration over what the watchdog group described as the security letter's gag on free speech.

Last May, a federal appeals judge in New York warned that government's ability to force companies to turn over information about its customers and keep quiet about it was probably unconstitutional.

[Mousey]

This gets even creepier.... Essentially the same story as above with a couple more details. See bolded below.

Mistakes in FBI use of power to get records: report Fri Mar 9, 1:53 AM ET



WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The FBI improperly obtained credit reports and other information on individuals through errors in using its power to investigate terrorism or espionage suspects, the Washington Post reported, citing a U.S. Justice Department audit.



The findings prompted an "incensed" Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to order the FBI to place new safeguards over its use of so-called national-security letters to secretly demand telephone, e-mail and financial records, the Post said in its Friday edition.

"These past mistakes will not be tolerated," Gonzales spokeswoman Tasia Scolinos was quoted as telling the Post. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment.

National-security letters allow the FBI to compel the release of private information such as communications or financial records without getting authority from a judge or grand jury. Their use has grown exponentially since the September 11 attacks, the Post said.

Critics have accused President George W. Bush's administration of weakening civil liberties protections in its war on terrorism.

The congressionally mandated audit found that in 2005 alone, the FBI issued more than 19,000 national security letters amounting to 47,000 separate requests for information, the Post said.
In their sampling of 293 letters, investigators found that 22 errors were possible violations of department rules and some were potential violations of law, the Post reported, citing officials with access to the audit.

The FBI identified 26 potential violations in other cases in the audit, which was limited to 77 case files in four FBI field offices, the Post said. It said officials believe the 48 known problems may be the tip of the iceberg in a "shoddy" internal oversight system, but that the problems were not deliberate.

In at least two cases cited by the newspaper, the investigators found that the FBI obtained full credit reports whereas the security letters could only be used to obtain summary information.

In other cases, telephone companies, banks or Internet providers responded with detailed personal information about customers that the letters do not permit to be released, the article said.
A Justice Department official who spoke on condition of anonymity told the paper that Gonzales learned of the findings three weeks ago. He "was incensed when he was told the contents of the report," the official was quoted as saying.