it when they gave AT&T the job of re-wiring Europe post WWII and control over the switching stations in the USA. This has been going on for DECADES but they got into trouble when stuff started to go digital and when Bell was broken up, then they had to rewire there eavesdropping equipment. Remember the recent scandal in Italy over this and the suspicious death of a whistleblower? Remember Clinton's Echelon program? Remember the politcal pressure brought to bear for foreign countries to use AT&T switching and technologies?

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I can't confirm either way, but something to consider....

http://thinkprogress.org/2005/12/20/the-echelon-myth/

Prominent right-wing bloggers – including Michelle Malkin, the Corner, Wizbang and Free Republic — are pushing the argument that President Bush’s warrantless domestic spying program isn’t news because the Clinton administration did the same thing.

The right-wing outlet NewsMax sums up the basic argument:

During the 1990’s under President Clinton, the National Security Agency monitored millions of private phone calls placed by U.S. citizens and citizens of other countries under a super secret program code-named Echelon…all of it done without a court order, let alone a catalyst like the 9/11 attacks.

That’s flatly false. The Clinton administration program, code-named Echelon, complied with FISA. Before any conversations of U.S. persons were targeted, a FISA warrant was obtained. CIA director George Tenet testified to this before Congress on 4/12/00:

I’m here today to discuss specific issues about and allegations regarding Signals Intelligence activities and the so-called Echelon Program of the National Security Agency…

There is a rigorous regime of checks and balances which we, the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency and the FBI scrupulously adhere to whenever conversations of U.S. persons are involved, whether directly or indirectly. We do not collect against U.S. persons unless they are agents of a foreign power as that term is defined in the law. We do not target their conversations for collection in the United States unless a FISA warrant has been obtained from the FISA court by the Justice Department.

Meanwhile, the position of the Bush administration is that they can bypass the FISA court and every other court, even when they are monitoring the communications of U.S. persons. It is the difference between following the law and breaking it.

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Albrech... isn't entirely wrong, just mostly. This program did precede 9/11 and began before the Bush administration.

As in many realms, however, any qualms or issues were steamrolled and plans implemented without reserve or oversight when the Bushies took over.

The NSA itself even had 4th amendment issues, but this will all come out in an article still in the works by a colleague of mine... stay tuned...

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Why do you good people respond to this REPUG Troll? His job is to get in here early and misdirect. It's the most recent modus operandi of the Bushites. Tell him/her to get off the site. There are a slew of Hard Right Conservative sites on which he would qualify easily. Get thee gone, TROLLKING!

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"There is no oversight despite the existence of a court (FISA) which is designed for just this purpose. Of course, you see the problem; the technology has outgrown the oversight method.."

It makes no difference to the BushCheney Thugs. The recent and fast rebirth (we put them down once) of ATT is surely symptomatic of their collusion with the government. Build us a tapping room (splitter room, more descriptive) and will look the other way as you buy up some more companies. I
know, you're longing for the good ol' 60's.

Many KUDOS to former AT&T technician Mark Klein for the whistle blowing. There has to be more people willing to fight this Orwellian government! If so, now is the time to DO SOMETHING!

"Both the EFF and the ACLU have cases in the courts at the moment. As the clip shows, the government (and AT&T) are trying to get the case dismissed on "national security" grounds."

The anger that is generated by this statement? @**%$+. The moment an illegality is discovered, identify it as relevant to "national security". You bet it's relevant to NATIONAL SECURITY...our SECURITY as a NATION!

"As Judge Walker wrote when dismissing AT&T's immunity claims, "AT&T cannot seriously contend that a reasonable entity in its position could have believed that the alleged domestic dragnet was legal." Judge Walker also flatly rejected the government's secrecy argument: "The compromise between liberty and security remains a difficult one. But dismissing this case at the outset would sacrifice liberty for no apparent enhancement of security."

Excuse me. We are NOT fighting a cold war or a hot war! It is candidly clear that our major concern NOW is to fend off liberty destroyers who claim that the "security" of our nation is at stake. Let's issue armbands to these people so we can identify them for what they are. Traitorous usurpers and goosesteppers!

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it's interesting to note what nermin al mufti said to me regarding living in a surveliance society: this well known iraqi journalist that reported throughout the sadam era told me that navigating in this type of a system is easy once you recognize their is no 'private'. email, phone conversations and even credit card purchases are all public and should be treated as such. forget firewalls or encryption and just respect the fact that these seemingly private environments are anything but...

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why chavez is looking to nationalize communications? little bit scarry to do so, but at least there is public accountability (the multinationals running it now have no such accountability)...

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"Today Germany (United States), tomorrow the world." Is there a difference? Not really. "Sieg Bush"!!!

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