HUGE (IMHO) * sought to implement domestic spying within two weeks of taking office!

[BigBearJohn]

AT&T engineer says Bush Administration sought to
implement domestic spying within two weeks of taking office

Nearly 1,300 words into Sunday's New York Times article revealing new details of the National Security Agency's domestic eavesdropping program, the lawyer for an AT&T engineer alleges that "within two weeks of taking office, the Bush administration was planning a comprehensive effort of spying on Americans’ phone usage.”

In a New Jersey federal court case, the engineer claims that AT&T sought to create a phone center that would give the NSA access to "all the global phone and e-mail traffic that ran through" a New Jersey network hub.

The former AT&T employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity to the Times said he took part in several discussions with agency officials about the plan.

"The officials, he said, discussed ways to duplicate the Bedminster system in Maryland so the agency “could listen in” with unfettered access to communications that it believed had intelligence value and store them for later review," Times reporters Eric Lichtblau, James Risen and Scott Shane wrote. "There was no discussion of limiting the monitoring to international communications, he said."

“At some point,” he told the paper, “I started feeling something isn’t right.”

"Two other AT&T employees who worked on the proposal discounted his claims, saying in interviews that the project had simply sought to improve the N.S.A.’s internal communications systems and was never designed to allow the agency access to outside communications."

SOURCE:
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/ATT_engineer_says_Bush_Administration_sought_1216.html

[magellan]

1. Similar reported on TruthOut in 2006:

Bush Authorized Domestic Spying Before 9/11
By Jason Leopold
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Friday 13 January 2006

The National Security Agency advised President Bush in early 2001 that it had been eavesdropping on Americans during the course of its work monitoring suspected terrorists and foreigners believed to have ties to terrorist groups, according to a declassified document.

The NSA's vast data-mining activities began shortly after Bush was sworn in as president and the document contradicts his assertion that the 9/11 attacks prompted him to take the unprecedented step of signing a secret executive order authorizing the NSA to monitor a select number of American citizens thought to have ties to terrorist groups.

In its "Transition 2001" report, the NSA said that the ever-changing world of global communication means that "American communication and targeted adversary communication will coexist."

more....

[EFerrari]

2. Which raises the question, never asked, was Clinton doing it, too. n/t

[magellan]

3. Probably

I think I've seen reports saying just that. My perspective is that two wrongs don't make a right; if I'd known Clinton was doing it I'd have been just as appalled. And I would have supported impeaching him over it.

[lapfog_1]

4. "NSA internal communications system"

Ha. That's a joke. I have contracted for the "Brown Company" in the past and been to a certain facility in Maryland (Ft. Meade) and I can tell you that nothing electronic gets in or out of the classified areas. No phone calls, no wireless, no internet, no nothing. Not even power cables. Everything is optically isolated. The entire facility is a "tempest" box. Copper plating 1/4 inch thick covers every wall. There is the appearance of "glass windows" to the outside observer, but there aren't any windows (the former Soviets built an embassy on a hill that overlooked the area, and would routinely bounce laser beams off the glass of offices and pick up conversations in the rooms... all the windows were removed and the copper plating went up).

So... internal communication system... like between offices of the NSA? Right. :sarcasm: I don't think so. Whatever they use (I can guess) it's not likely to travel anywhere near telephone switching centers or piggy back on telecom long haul networks. Secure sites just don't work that way.

Striiiiike one. Try again with an explanation boys.