How The President spies on us ..... all

TASH HEPTING, GREGORY HICKS and
ERIK KNUTZEN on Behalf of Themselves
and All Others Similarly Situated,
Plaintiffs,
vs.
AT&T CORP., AT&T INC. and DOES 1-20,
Defendents

Full Plaintiff writ here

Writ preamble tells it succintly ;

"This case challenges the legality of Defendants’ participation in a secret and illegal government program to intercept and analyze vast quantities of Americans’ telephone and Internet communications, surveillance done without the authorization of a court and in violation of federal electronic surveillance and telecommunications statutes, as well as the First and Fourth Amendments to the United States Constitution."

This case has also attracted a great deal of Press interest and especially in the cyberworld. Naturally AT&T, and no doubt the US Government wish to bury these documents, and prevent any discussion either in court or in public of the mechanics of wholesale surveillance of private telcoms and internet traffic between individuals, companies , many of which are overseas.A previous post here April 8th covers the case and the supplier of spying equipment Narus more here.

Hepting et al are named for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) bringing this class action in which a retired employee, and whistleblower, of AT&T, Mark Klein supplied 3 confidential company documents totalling 140 pages detailing how AT&T diverts internet traffic to the National Security Agency via a secret room in San Francisco and allege that such rooms exist in other AT&T switching centers...effectively a massive unselective internet wiretap. EFF filed these documents in the court under a temporary seal last Wednesday. This is the only direct evidence filed so far by the EFF.

Now AT&T is seeking the return of these technical documents.

In papers filed late Monday, AT&T argued that confidential technical documents provided by an ex-AT&T technician to the EFF shouldn't be used as evidence in the case and should be returned.
Lexis-Nexis
provides an excellent layers view of the issues involved and discussion with legal observers. Other sites report on the case Wired CorpWatch The Knowledge Base

A Google Alert "Hepting v AT&T" should keep you up to date. Meanwhile just don't post that you intend to drop an H Bomb on the Houses of Parliament.