Affidavit from AT&T Tech on TOTAL US INTERNET SURVEILLANCE

[NoodleyAppendage]

Statement
--Mark Klein, April 6, 2006


My Background:

For 22 and 1/2 years I worked as an AT&T technician, first in New York and then in California.

What I Observed First-Hand:

In 2002, when I was working in an AT&T office in San Francisco, the site manager told me to expect a visit from a National Security Agency agent, who was to interview a management-level technician for a special job. The agent came, and by chance I met him and directed him to the appropriate people.

In January 2003, I, along with others, toured the AT&T central office on Folsom Street in San Francisco -- actually three floors of an SBC building. There I saw a new room being built adjacent to the 4ESS switch room where the public's phone calls are routed. I learned that the person whom the NSA interviewed for the secret job was the person working to install equipment in this room. The regular technician work force was not allowed in the room.

In October 2003, the company transferred me to the San Francisco building to oversee the Worldnet Internet room, which included large routers, racks of modems for customers' dial-in services, and other equipment. I was responsible for troubleshooting problems on the fiber optic circuits and installing new circuits.

While doing my job, I learned that fiber optic cables from the secret room were tapping into the Worldnet circuits by splitting off a portion of the light signal. I saw this in a design document available to me, entitled "Study Group 3, LGX/Splitter Wiring, San Francisco" dated Dec. 10, 2002. I also saw design documents dated Jan. 13, 2004 and Jan. 24, 2003, which instructed technicians on connecting some of the already in-service circuits to the "splitter" cabinet, which diverts some of the light signal to the secret room. The circuits listed were the Peering Links, which connect Worldnet with other networks and hence the whole country, as well as the rest of the world.

One of the documents listed the equipment installed in the secret room, and this list included a Narus STA 6400, which is a "Semantic Traffic Analyzer". The Narus STA technology is known to be used particularly by government intelligence agencies because of its ability to sift through large amounts of data looking for preprogrammed targets. The company's advertising boasts that its technology "captures comprehensive customer usage data ... and transforms it into actionable information.... (It) provides complete visibility for all internet applications."

My job required me to connect new circuits to the "splitter" cabinet and get them up and running. While working on a particularly difficult one with a technician back East, I learned that other such "splitter" cabinets were being installed in other cities, including Seattle, San Jose, Los Angeles and San Diego.

What is the Significance and Why Is It Important to Bring These Facts to Light?

Based on my understanding of the connections and equipment at issue, it appears the NSA is capable of conducting what amounts to vacuum-cleaner surveillance of all the data crossing the Internet -- whether that be peoples' e-mail, Web surfing or any other data.

Given the public debate about the constitutionality of the Bush administration's spying on U.S. citizens without obtaining a FISA warrant, I think it is critical that this information be brought out into the open, and that the American people be told the truth about the extent of the administration's warrantless surveillance practices, particularly as it relates to the Internet.

Despite what we are hearing, and considering the public track record of this administration, I simply do not believe their claims that the NSA's spying program is really limited to foreign communications or is otherwise consistent with the NSA's charter or with FISA. And unlike the controversy over targeted wiretaps of individuals' phone calls, this potential spying appears to be applied wholesale to all sorts of Internet communications of countless citizens.

Attorney contact information:

Miles Ehrlich
Ramsey & Ehrlich LLP

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Read here for more and begin to understand that WE ARE NO LONGER A CONSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRACY.

http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/06/front2453868.0694444445.html

[Dunvegan]

1. Thank you. Bruce Schneier has been posting on this also.

Bruce is an early information security guru, and the voice in infosec I trust most.

Read Bruce's column HERE.

[babylonsister]

2. Great find, NA! This man was discussed on Democracy Now

today. Quite a contrast to Qwest asking to see a court order first. Mark Klein is a patriot!:patriot:

Edit to correct name.

[NoodleyAppendage]

4. Actually, Mark Klein is the patriot. Ehrlich is the patriot's lawyer.

Let's give props where props are due.

J

[babylonsister]

8. Thanks-edited. nt

[katty]

5. Yes, I heard it, great interview

[sinkingfeeling]

3. WOW! Good stuff.

[wicket]

6. K & R

:kick:

[Viva_La_Revolution]

7. another Kick...

and another Rec. Get this out there people!

[NoodleyAppendage]

9. Info on the Narus STA 6400 capabilities...VERY SCARY STUFF.

Prior to 9/11 Narus worked on building carrier-grade tools to analyze IP network traffic for billing purposes, to prevent what they term "revenue leakage". Post-9/11 they have continued down that path while adding more semantic monitoring abilities for surveillance purposes. They even brought in former Deputy Director of the NSA William P. Crowell as an addition to their Board of Directors. <...>

Remember that semantics is not just the data, but rather the meaning of the data. It looks at the data in a more comprehensive way than looking for keywords. Each NarusInsight machine does this at 2500 million bits per second, in real-time.<...>

These capabilities include playback of streaming media (i.e. VoIP), rendering of web pages, examination of e-mail and the ability to analyze the payload/attachments of e-mail or file transfer protocols. Narus partner products offer the ability to quickly analyze information collected by the Directed Analysis or Lawful Intercept modules. When Narus partners' powerful analytic tools are combined with the surgical targeting and real-time collection capabilities of Directed Analysis and Lawful Intercept modules, analysts or law enforcement agents are provided capabilities that have been unavailable thus far.<...>

---------------------------

Say "hello" to your new FASCIST OVERLORDS!

J

[wtmusic]

12. Narus hardware

"real-time, surgical targeting of suspect information" :scared:

http://www.narus.com/products/intercept.html

[NVMojo]

15. The BORG is already here, resistance is futile.

Assholes. I still believe they had something to do with 9-11 because it opened the door for all else to start. Beat me.

[NoodleyAppendage]

16. Resistance = Citizenry all using key encryption tech. to scramble signal.

The Borg has a weak spot. It can only intercept signals and data. If that data is encrypted with a key system that only the user and the recepient know of, then the Borg can be thwarted or slowed down greatly.

NOW IS THE TIME FOR CITIZENS TO ADOPT HEAVY KEY ENCRYPTION. FUCK THE NSA.

J

[Fovea]

42. 911 changed everything

including our system of government.

[MazeRat7]

10. Post archived to avoid any "Memory Hole" problems... K&R

[stillcool]

11. Why is it...

that even though we've known all of this for some time, I am un-nerved by the willingness of some in the media to play along? Every time there's one of these 'big' revelations....I am more concerned about what's behind the curtain.

[AndyTiedye]

17. You Have to Ask?

[Media_Lies_Daily]

25. Ask yourself, who owns the media?

[WiseButAngrySara]

13. And note the date on this! April. So, not only phone records, but total

internet(s) screening as well. Orwellian world.

:kick: and R!

This explains a comment that was posted on firedoglake (?) blog yesterday. The original post was on the Rove indictment, and this was an off comment about the NSA sying. I'll try to find it.

[NVMojo]

14. Everytime I hang up my phone from now on I will say BUSH SUCKS!!!

[mdmc]

18. i heard that it is a dry heat

in gitmo...

[eShirl]

32. lol. We used to say "Hoover wears a dress."

Didn't know how right we were, either.

[Breeze54]

37. LMAO!!

I already say that everyday with my e-mail addy!! :rofl:

[redacted]

19. It's worse: from a friend who used to work at earthlink, who claims . . .

(this is transcript from the IM session I just had with him) he told me abt this years ago:


>I have been complaining about it since the late 90s when they installed their little black boxes at Earthlink where i worked

>My understanding is that they are logging everything (email, cell traffic, phone traffic, surfing when the ISP cooperates ((ISP cooperation is required)))
they then scan for keywords using
voice recognition on phone traffic or text
for the rest

>this is why they argue that warrants are not relevant

>they would have to get a warrant on the entire US population

>UK is in the process of rolling out a more interesting system: tracks pedestrian and auto movement, establishing patterns for each person

>Deviations in the patterns are flagged for investigation

>our govt wants this, I'm sure, but we do not quite have the camera infrastructure yet

>Brave New Word


Not sure what to say.

[Raksha]

28. I think you just nailed it, i.e. why they can't comply with FISA.

Re "this is why they argue that warrants are not relevant

they would have to get a warrant on the entire US population."

EXACTLY!!!

[heartofthesiskiyou]

30. I've been an ISP since before they started calling it the Internet

So I can speak to this.

While the government, due to pressure from the Librarians, exempted Libraries from informing folks on peering over clients shoulders by NSA, this is not the case for ISP's or any other entities. The ISP is REQUIRED to cooperate with the NSA on surveillance. Not only that, the ISP could be jailed if he/she tells the client that he/she is being observed. There are no none cases where they've used the full power available in current law, but those laws are on the books, and it is widely whispered it's just a matter of time. They are avoiding bad PR at the moment and are probably saving the authority for some crisis period where they believe they can get away with it.

Four years ago I was severely pressured to take down a certain tape from my server that a client was distributing that the government didn't want the public to have access to. I had nothing to do with the distribution of the information which was footage on a VCR offered on a clients WEB site. The tape had been removed all over the country and the client and others couldn't get it out any where in the US. I considered it censorship and wouldn't comply. All other ISP's of all the sites that were permitting the film to be sold through their servers caved in. Only one other site in the world, somewhere in Germany, stood ground. I got served with legal papers by few attorney's from England and was pestered by the British government. I ignored them and after a while they gave up because it would have created an international incident for the British government to do anything about it and would have caused more people to see the footage of people being starved in a barbed wired concentration camp they liked.

Over the years I've had to endure dozens of attacks on equipment and data. One time they destroy a server with a BIOS bomb traced back to a machine owned by the equivalent on the German National Guard when they didn't like the largest anti-war site in the world that I hosted. That one required the cooperation of RIPE, the European version of the InterNic (domain name registration).

A couple years ago they stopped pestering ISP's on information they wanted down. It's quite apparent they've got a more effective way to block persons, info or URLs they don't like by sitting right on the backbone, people now are calling the NSA wiretapping controversy.

I'm pretty sure the public doesn't fully appreciate the degree commitment required by a business willing to stand on the constitution, and oppose censorship, to companies that would have the audacity to host sites like democraticunderground.com. Indeed we have a new world ODOR.

[redacted]

31. Thanks for sharing that -- it's really incredible. Hold your ground!

One questions: was it the US gov that wanted the site down? Or the Brits?

And was this during Bush or Clinton? My friend remembers this occruing in the late 90s.

Thanks again.

[heartofthesiskiyou]

33. The US government never contacted me

But the info from the client, was the brits tried to get the US gov to intervene and were told to handle it as a civil matter, so they started to serve me with papers to suit me. The British government sited their version of MY legal position which seemed to indicate my butt was hanging out there. I don't remember the particulars on their version of how I could be held responsible but it was something to do with US/British treaties. I remember the clients attorneys provided me with reason to believe they couldn't really do anything if I ignored them. My position was I had no editorial control of a clients site and therefore they were talking to the wrong guy. I felt it was tantamount to holding the telephone company responsible for someone say plotting a robbery or something over the phone.

It started at the end of clinton and ran into the first year of bush.

[redacted]

34. Great thanks for the info, have a friend who is a small ISP/web hoster.

I'll share this with him.

[progressoid]

20. Umm...how reliable is this site?

[NoodleyAppendage]

22. The affidavit is real. It was used by the EFFF to bring the ATT suit.

This affidavit is the real thing. The Electronic Freedom Frontier Foundation used Mr. Klein's statement as the basis for their lawsuit against AT&T for divulging the personal records of US citizens without cause or warrant. The same case the Justice Dept. is dropping because they don't have the clearances necessary to investigate the NSA.

J

[progressoid]

27. Well all I can say is HOLY SHIT!

[thecrow]

21. Stay out of small planes and dark alleys...!!

[heartofthesiskiyou]

23. I was stolling threw the equipment one day

in the merry merry month of May
and what to my suprise,
big brothers peering eyes,
I was strolling threw the equipment one daaaayyy.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

24. K & R.

[originalpckelly]

26. WOW! I had never heard about this. Good Find!(n/t) K&R

[Canuckistanian]

29. Will this ever be reversed?

Kind of hard to get the government out of your life when it's got such a toehold already.

This is unbelievable that it's been happening for so long, unmonitored and unchecked.

[Miss Chybil]

35. I heard on NPR news a class action suit was being filed against Verizon.

I'm sure AT&T and Bell South will be next.

[Usrename]

38. A link was just posted about it the class action.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1176266

[Rainscents]

44. I can't wait to Monday to see there fucking stock!

Hit them where it hurts!!!

[file83]

36. So we lived in China and didn't even know it. Wonderful.

[seemslikeadream]

39. Could someone post a link to the Affidavit?

I can't find it at that link

Thanks

[OnyxCollie]

43. Here's all the stuff from EFF.

http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/att/#legal

[seemslikeadream]

45. Thanks so much blackops

:hi:

[michael_1166]

40. Isn't it time for starting a DU group

like "Secure internet encryption technologies for everyone", where we can discuss and check out available encryption/firewall/tunneling/proxy server software? Could be a place for helping and encouraging people to use encryption in their everyday internet usage.

[NoodleyAppendage]

41. That's a great idea. How do we start it up???

It's high time that we started arming ourselves against cyberspying and our fascist overlords.

J