Is the NSA spying on U.S. Internet traffic?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
Date: June 23, 2006 1:09:14 PM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Is the NSA spying on U.S. Internet traffic?
Reply-To: dewayne () warpspeed com

Is the NSA spying on U.S. Internet traffic?

Salon exclusive: Two former AT&T employees say the telecom giant has  
maintained a secret, highly secure room in St. Louis since 2002.  
Intelligence experts say it bears the earmarks of a National Security  
Agency operation.

By Kim Zetter

<http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/06/21/att_nsa/index.html? 
source=salon.rss>

June 21, 2006 | In a pivotal network operations center in  
metropolitan St. Louis, AT&T has maintained a secret, highly secured  
room since 2002 where government work is being conducted, according  
to two former AT&T workers once employed at the center.

In interviews with Salon, the former AT&T workers said that only  
government officials or AT&T employees with top-secret security  
clearance are admitted to the room, located inside AT&T's facility in  
Bridgeton. The room's tight security includes a biometric "mantrap"  
or highly sophisticated double door, secured with retinal and  
fingerprint scanners. The former workers say company supervisors told  
them that employees working inside the room were "monitoring network  
traffic" and that the room was being used by "a government agency."

The details provided by the two former workers about the Bridgeton  
room bear the distinctive earmarks of an operation run by the  
National Security Agency, according to two intelligence experts with  
extensive knowledge of the NSA and its operations. In addition to the  
room's high-tech security, those intelligence experts told Salon, the  
exhaustive vetting process AT&T workers were put through before being  
granted top-secret security clearance points to the NSA, an agency  
known as much for its intense secrecy as its technological  
sophistication.

"It was very hush-hush," said one of the former AT&T workers. "We  
were told there was going to be some government personnel working in  
that room. We were told, 'Do not try to speak to them. Do not hamper  
their work. Do not impede anything that they're doing.'"

[snip]

Weblog at: <http://weblog.warpspeed.com>



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