Wired Publishes Leaked AT&T-NSA Documents
Robin Arnfield, newsfactor.com
Tue May 23, 4:58 PM ET
news.yahoo.com
Wired News has published documents that reportedly provide evidence that AT&T installed secret equipment enabling the National Security Agency to spy on the telco's customers.
The documents are linked to evidence held under court-ordered seal in a class-action lawsuit being brought against AT&T by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The lawsuit, filed by the privacy watchdog on behalf of AT&T customers, claims that the telco illegally spied on its customers' e-mail and telephone conversations.
On May 17, U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker ruled that the EFF could use certain leaked AT&T documents in its lawsuit against the telco. The leaked documents, which are not the same as those published by Wired, reportedly include information about AT&T giving its customers' records to the NSA.
No Way To Compare
Wired has published a 29-page file online containing letters allegedly written by former AT&T employee Mark Klein. The letters warn about the telco's alleged collaboration with the NSA. The documents also provide technical information about the alleged wiretapping, along with a description of a "secret equipment room" used for eavesdropping.
"We did not obtain the documents from Mark Klein but from an anonymous source," said Evan Hansen, editor-in-chief of Wired News. Hansen declined to speculate as to whether Wired could face any legal action as a result of its decision to publish the documents.
"We believe we have a strong legal case for our decision," Hansen said. "The material published by Wired is not the same as the documents sealed by the judge. The court order only bans the EFF and its representatives and technical experts from disclosing the documents."
Because of the court-ordered seal, there is no way to compare the documents published on Wired with those held by the court. "But we think our documents are extracts from the documents under seal," he said.
Fuel to the Fire
An intelligence expert who works for a public interest group based in Washington D.C., urged a cautious approach in evaluating the documents.
"While they are certainly interesting documents, it is not entirely clear to me what they mean," said Steven Aftergood, who monitors intelligence policy for the Federation of American Scientists Project on Government Secrecy.
"They show that a secret facility is being maintained by AT&T with participation from NSA," he said. "But exactly what the NSA and AT&T are doing in this facility is not entirely clear."
Aftergood urged caution about jumping to any conclusions. "Over the years," he said, "there have been many exaggerated claims about the NSA's technical ability to monitor telephone conversations."
Lisa Pierce, a vice president at Forrester Research, said that the publication of the documents will serve to exacerbate the debate. "Consequently, I expect that this will add fuel to the fire of General Michael Hayden's confirmation hearing."
Hayden, who has been nominated to head the CIA, is currently in charge of the NSA and, as such, would have ultimately been responsible for the wiretapping program.
Motions Filed
A further hearing in the AT&T-EFF case is due to take place on June 23. The court will hear dismissal motions from AT&T and the U.S. Department of Justice.
"AT&T does not want the documents under seal to be published as it says they infringe its trade secrets," Hansen said. "The U.S. government does not want the documents to be made available to the public because it does not want state secrets to be revealed. It has the power to shut down a lawsuit on the grounds of security."
Wired is filing a motion to intervene in the case to request that the court unseal the evidence. Wired joins other news organizations that already have filed similar motions, including the San Francisco Chronicle, the Los Angeles Times, the San Jose Mercury News, the Associated Press, and Bloomberg.
"We do not know what is going on, and we want the documents to be unsealed and the EFF lawsuit to go ahead, so we can find out exactly what is happening," Hansen said.
Kurt Opsahl, a staff attorney at the San Francisco-based EFF, said the judge had told the privacy rights group not to disclose the documents to anyone. "This means that we cannot confirm or deny whether the information published by Wired is accurate," he said.
Copyright © 2006 NewsFactor Network, Inc.
Copyright © 2006 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. |
