AT&T Accidentally Leaks NSA Suit Information

op12 writes "CNET has an article describing how AT&T accidentally leaked sensitive information involving the NSA lawsuit. From the article: 'AT&T's attorneys this week filed a 25-page legal brief striped with thick black lines that were intended to obscure portions of three pages and render them unreadable. But the obscured text nevertheless can be copied and pasted inside some PDF readers, including Preview under Apple's OS X and the xpdf utility used with X11. The deleted portions of the legal brief seek to offer benign reasons why AT&T would allegedly have a secret room at its downtown San Francisco switching center that would be designed to monitor Internet and telephone traffic. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which filed the class action lawsuit in January, alleges that room is used by an unlawful National Security Agency surveillance program.""

Comments

Re:When will they learn?

[Bogtha]

Ever think that somebody was "stupid" on purpose in order to leak the information without going to jail? After all, assuming that they haven't had training in computer security and the specific software in question (after all, who is actually trained to create PDFs?), a prosecutor have a hard time proving that they should have known better.

Remember when Patriots died for Freedom?

[WillAffleckUW]

But now we just let them spy on us, arrest us without warrants, ship American citizens off to foreign prisons to be tortured for years without any formal charges, and turn the Constitution into confetti for their personal profit.

That said, the NSA has never been that legal, from a constitutional view, but noone is willing to challenge their existance, most likely due to fear or threat of tag teams of government lawsuits, IRS audits, and other tricks used by those who wish America to live in Fear.

Plausible bullshit.

[way2trivial]

Not the first time 'redacted' pdf's when 'uncovered' have led to increase the defensive position of the group who supplied the 'poorly' protected document.

I recall a redacted PDF from italy that 'supported' the US gov'ts claims at the time..

it's too damn convenient, if the redacted portion had been damming.. I'm sure the doc would have been on paper, with the blocked portions cut out... not blacked over with a sharpie.

Re:Why are they suing AT&T?

[DragonWriter]

AT&T is the one prohibited by law from providing this information; the government isn't prohibited from receiving it, though they are prohibited from seizing it.

So they are suing the people that broke the law.

Plus, of course, sovereign immunity makes it difficult to sue the government unless it voluntarily decides to let you.

Re:What's amazing is

[iminplaya]

Oh look! American Idol is on!

US pop show victor attracts more votes than any president

Re:Extraordinary rendition?

[barefootgenius]

Thank you for your reply. I'm still pretty angry about this and after getting moderated as flamebait (probably correctly), I'm going to cancel my Slashdot account in disgust. If I had the money, I would come over and protest myself but the only money I have is currently negative. Instead I have sent a letter to our PM, as follows;

Dear Prime Minister,
I have just read about extraordinary rendition on an online forum. This is a practice where the American government sends suspects overseas for interrogation and imprisonment. This practice is seen as a way of circumventing their obligations under the United Nations Convention Against Torture. If cases such as these are presented in an American court they are dismissed by the administration on "State Secrets" grounds.
In view of this I would like to ask the Prime Minister to;
*Assure me that we are in no way an accomplice, indirectly or directly, to this practice.
*Investigate these rumors for evidence.
*Act upon any evidence obtained.
I realise that America is the most powerful country in the world currently, but at the same time I don't think any moral person of our country would justify that as grounds for turning a blind eye to torture.
Yours sincerely, .

I doubt that will have any effect, but who knows, maybe she has received a thousands more like it. Good luck, I hope things improve for you. If it gets to bad, you will more than likely be welcome at this end of the world. We aren't totally screwed up in N.Z. yet (just a touch). Its a pity, America once epitomized hope for me. I believed in it standing for freedom, rights, humanity. When Neil Armstrong said, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." I believed he meant for mankind. When I visited Los Angeles as a teenager, I liked the people. They were helpful and friendly....just good people. I still believe that most Americans are good people. At some point though, you have to stand for what you believe in or you will lose it. Even if you find it was a lie, it is still better to know.

Over the past five years my impressions of America have been destroyed by the actions of its government both at home and on the world stage. After reading Slashdot over the past year, there was a brief moment of hope that there were people still willing to lay down their comforts for the ideals expressed in your constitution. It seems now that Slashdot is a place were people say they stand for certain ideals, but the saying of it is enough for them. It is not enough for me.

Goodbye, good luck. BarefootGenius.