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The NSA Wiretapping Story Nobody Wanted

Posted by Soulskill on from the since-privacy-is-such-a-minor-issue dept.

CWmike writes "They sometimes call national security the third rail of politics. Touch it and, politically, you're dead. The cliché doesn't seem far off the mark after reading Mark Klein's new book, Wiring up the Big Brother Machine ... and Fighting It. It's an account of his experiences as the whistleblower who exposed a secret room at a Folsom Street facility in San Francisco that was apparently used to monitor the Internet communications of ordinary Americans. Amazingly, however, nobody wanted to hear his story. In his book he talks about meetings with reporters and privacy groups that went nowhere until a fateful January 20, 2006 meeting with Kevin Bankston of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Bankston was preparing a lawsuit that he hoped would put a stop to the wiretap program, and Klein was just the kind of witness the EFF was looking for. He spoke with Robert McMillan for an interview."

4 of 144 comments (clear)

  1. PBS Nova did a show that mentioned Folsom by billmarrs · · Score: 5, Informative

    It was called "The Spy Factory".
    Here's a transcript (search for "Folsom" 4/5ths down the page):
    http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/3602_spyfactory.html

  2. Re:I question a key point from TFA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    That was a lie promulgated by the Bush administration. The device copied _all_ communication that traveled through this facility, domestic and foreign. There is good evidence also that this wasn't the only place were AT&T, or other carriers, were imposing dragnet surveillance.

  3. Domestic traffic too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    From EFF.org

    The undisputed documents show that AT&T installed a fiberoptic splitter at its facility at 611 Folsom Street in San Francisco that makes copies of all emails, web browsing, and other Internet traffic to and from AT&T customers, and provides those copies to the NSA. This copying includes both domestic and international Internet activities of AT&T customers. As one expert observed, "this isn't a wiretap, it's a country-tap."

    Of course, we may never know all the details thanks to Bush, Obama and all the other assholes that voted for FISA2008:

    • Prohibits the individual states from investigating, sanctioning of, or requiring disclosure by complicit telecoms or other persons.
    • Protects telecommunications companies from lawsuits for "'past or future cooperation' with federal law enforcement authorities and will assist the intelligence community in determining the plans of terrorists."
  4. Mis-information modded 'Informative'? by DJRumpy · · Score: 5, Informative

    Actually he voted against immunity for telecoms but the amendment failed (see the post below).

    http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/11/obama.netroots/index.html

    What's even more frightening is that they modded you informative when it's public record that he voted to strip the immunity provisions out although the amendment failed.

    Yes, he did vote for the larger bill with the amendments that basically put the warrant requirements back in for any American they may have eavesdropped on whether on US soil or abroad.