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Thursday 8 March 2007

Where Is the Press on Internet Surveillance?

ABC just ran a story of whistleblower Mark Klein, AT&T technician, regarding government surveillance of internet traffic by AT&T and the National Security Agency. At a San Francisco switching center, Mr. Klein collected over 120 pages of technical documents showing how NSA installed splitters which would allow of both domestic and international internet communications to be copied.

Over at the Los Angeles Times, Mr. Klein's story by was killed at the request of National Intelligence Director John Negroponte and NSA Director Gen. Michael Hayden. However, the New York Times did publish it .

Some organizations are not taking this lightly. According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation's website, the organization "filed a class-action lawsuit against AT&T ... accusing the telecom giant of violating the law and the privacy of its customers by collaborating with the National Security Agency (NSA) in its massive and illegal program to wiretap and data-mine Americans' communications."

EFF's staff attorney Kevin Bankston stated::