What’s AT&T Hiding?


And then there was AT&T.


The phone company is now the only one named in various media reports that hasn’t denied its complicity in the National Security Agency (NSA)’s alleged domestic spying program.


One day after BellSouth rejected claims that it turned over customer calling
records, Verizon issued a denial of its own.


“Contrary to the media reports, Verizon was not asked by NSA to provide, nor
did Verizon provide, customer phone records from any of these businesses
(wireline telephone, wireless and directory publishing) or any call data
from those records,” Verizon said in a statement.

In February, The Electronic Frontier
Foundation (EFF) sued AT&T for allegedly turning over its customers’ telephone and Internet records to the NSA.


The EFF suit goes public today in a San Francisco courtroom when the
Internet advocacy group will argue to unseal records in the case, including a
declaration by Mark Klein, a retired AT&T telecom technician, and several
AT&T internal documents.


AT&T wants the documents returned and contends neither the documents nor
Klein’s declaration should be used as evidence in the case. The Department
of Justice has also argued the documents shouldn’t be released.


AT&T, according to Klein, is supplying data for the NSA’s
data-mining activities.

He claims AT&T has secret rooms in company
facilities in San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles, San Diego and Seattle
containing data-mining equipment, made by Mountain View, Calif.-based Narus,
that serves as a “semantic traffic analyzer.”


On Tuesday, the court denied a request to close the courtroom from reporters
and spectators for Wednesday’s hearing.

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