Attention in N.S.A. Debate Turns to Telecom Industry]

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

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- -------- Original Message --------
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Attention in N.S.A. Debate Turns to Telecom Industry
Date: Sat, 11 Feb 2006 06:35:58 -0800
From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () dandin com>
Reply-To: dewayne () warpspeed com
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
References: <C0133F6C.10F4F%burge () proactiveteams com>

[Note:  This item comes from reader Randy Burge.  DLH]

> From: Randy Burge <burge () proactiveteams com>
> Date: February 11, 2006 6:14:52 AM PST
> To: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () dandin com>
> Subject: Attention in N.S.A. Debate Turns to Telecom Industry
>
> Attention in N.S.A. Debate Turns to Telecom Industry
>
> By SCOTT SHANE of the New York Times
> Published: February 11, 2006
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/11/politics/11nexus.html? 
> ex=1297314000&en=3218559185297985&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss>
>
> WASHINGTON, Feb. 10 — Though much of official Washington has been  
> caught up in the debate over the National Security Agency's  
> domestic surveillance program, one set of major players has kept a  
> discreet silence: the telecommunications corporations.
>
> Some companies are said by current and former government officials  
> to have provided the eavesdropping agency access to streams of  
> telephone and Internet traffic entering and leaving the United  
> States. The N.S.A. has used its powerful computers to search the  
> masses of data for clues to terrorist plots and, without court  
> warrants, zeroed in on some Americans for eavesdropping, those  
> officials say.
>
> Now the companies are in an awkward position, with members of  
> Congress questioning them about their role in the eavesdropping. On  
> Thursday two Democratic senators, Edward M. Kennedy of  
> Massachusetts and Russell D. Feingold of Wisconsin, wrote to the  
> chief executives of AT&T, Sprint Nextel and Verizon, asking them to  
> confirm or deny a report in USA Today on Monday that said  
> telecommunications executives had identified AT&T, Sprint and MCI  
> (now part of Verizon) as partners of the agency.
>
> The two senators demand information that, if it exists, would be  
> highly classified: details of secret N.S.A. requests for help and  
> the number of people whose communications were intercepted.
>
>  In a Feb. 2 reply to a similar query from Representative John  
> Conyers Jr. of Michigan, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary  
> Committee, AT&T offered a careful response. The two-paragraph note  
> did not deny that the company was assisting the agency.
>
> "Without commenting in any way on press reports," wrote Wayne  
> Watts, AT&T's senior vice president and associate general counsel,  
> "let me assure you that AT&T abides by all applicable laws,  
> regulations and statutes in its operations and, in particular, with  
> respect to requests for assistance from governmental authorities."
>
> The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit privacy group, has  
> filed a class-action suit against AT&T maintaining that the  
> company's cooperation with the agency is violating customers'  
> privacy. The suit says the company is providing the N.S.A. "direct  
> access" to its "key domestic telecommunications facilities," but  
> does not offer proof.
>
> December's disclosure of the N.S.A. program and the corporate role  
> in it has trained an unusual spotlight on the extensive and secret  
> cooperation between the government and communications companies.
>
> The companies routinely assist law enforcement and intelligence  
> agencies with eavesdropping authorized by court warrants, a task  
> streamlined by a 1994 law requiring a back door for the government  
> in every new telephone technology. The law, called the  
> Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, or Calea, has  
> created a thriving "lawful intercept" industry for technology to  
> make eavesdropping easier.
>
> But for decades such cooperation has sometimes gone further.  
> Federal law permits companies to intercept calls or e-mail messages  
> without a warrant and protects them from lawsuits if a  
> "certification" is provided by the attorney general or his deputies  
> stating that no warrant is needed.
>
> <snip>


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