Amy Goodman: AT&T Whistleblower Gets Cold Shoulder from Democrats in Congress

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Amy Goodman: AT&T Whistleblower Gets Cold Shoulder from Democrats in Congress

via AlterNet:

AT&T Whistleblower Gets Cold Shoulder from Democrats in Congress

Posted by Democracy Now!, Democracy Now! at 3:10 PM on July 7, 2008.

"The Democratic Party and the Congress, in general, has been unfriendly to me..."

The Senate is expected to vote on a controversial measure to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act tomorrow. The legislation would rewrite the nation’s surveillance laws and authorize the National Security Agency’s secret program of warrantless wiretapping. We speak with Mark Klein, a technician with AT&T for over twenty-two years. In 2006 Klein leaked internal AT&T documents that revealed the company had set up a secret room in its San Francisco office to give the National Security Agency access to its fiber optic internet cables.

Mark Klein, former technician at AT&T for over twenty-two years. He discovered that internet traffic in AT&T operations centers was being regularly diverted to the National Security Agency. Klein is a witness in a lawsuit filed against AT&T by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which alleges AT&T illegally gave the NSA access to its networks.

AMY GOODMAN: The Senate is expected to vote on a controversial measure to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, tomorrow. The legislation would rewrite the nation’s surveillance laws and authorize the National Security Agency’s secret program of warrantless wiretapping. It gives the government new powers to eavesdrop on both domestic and international communications and could also grant immunity to phone companies involved in President Bush’s secret domestic spy program. The Democratic-controlled House approved its version of the bill late last month.

Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold, speaking on Democracy Now!, called the measure “one of the greatest intrusions, potentially, on the rights of Americans protected under the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution in the history of our country.”

I’m joined right now by a man who blew the whistle on the involvement of phone companies in the Bush administration’s domestic surveillance program. Mark Klein was a technician with AT&T for twenty-two years. In 2006, he leaked internal AT&T documents that revealed the company had set up a secret room in its San Francisco office to give the National Security Agency access to its fiber optic internet cables. He testified before Congress last November to urge lawmakers not to give A&T and other telecom companies immunity.

Mark Klein is also a witness in a lawsuit filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which alleges AT&T illegally gave the National Security Agency access to its networks. Mark Klein joins us now from San Francisco, California.

Welcome to Democracy Now!

MARK KLEIN: Thank you. Good morning, Amy.

AMY GOODMAN: It’s very good have you with us. This is highly controversial, the vote that is expected to take place tomorrow, especially Senator Obama’s role in it. But let’s go back to the beginning, Mark Klein. Talk about how you found out about AT&T spying on Americans.

MARK KLEIN: Right. I first should add a correction: Congress never invited me to testify, although I did go to Washington to lobby, but no committee has ever invited me to testify, which says something about Congress.

But going back to 2002, we were told one day in late 2002 that an NSA representative was coming to the office to speak to a certain management technician about a special job. And this turned out to be installing a secret room in the next office I was going to be in the following year. And that secret room involved a lot of spying equipment. Only this one management technician could go in there, and the regular union technicians were not allowed to go in there.

But when—in 2003 I was assigned to that office, and I got hold of the documents which were available—they’re not classified—and the documents showed what they were doing. They were basically copying the entire data stream going across critical internet cables and copying the entire data stream to this secret room, so the NSA was getting everything. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/90687/