EFF: Key Portions of Critical Documents Unsealed in AT&T Surveillance Case

May 25, 2006
Key Portions of Critical Documents Unsealed in AT&T Surveillance Case

Technician Describes Secret NSA Room at AT&T Facility

San Francisco - AT&T has set up a secret, secure room for the NSA in at least one
of the company's facilities -- a room into which AT&T has been diverting its customers'
emails and other Internet communications in bulk -- according to evidence in key documents
partially unsealed today in the Electronic Frontier Foundation's (EFF's) class-action
lawsuit against the telecom giant.

"Now the public can see firsthand the testimony of Mark Klein, a former AT&T employee
who was brave enough to step forward and provide evidence of the company's illegal
collaboration with the NSA," said EFF Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston. "Today we have released
some of the evidence supporting our allegation that AT&T has given the NSA direct access
to its fiber-optic network, such that the NSA can read the email of anyone and everyone
it chooses -- all without a warrant or any court supervision, and in clear violation
of the law."

The Klein declaration and EFF's motion for a preliminary injunction against AT&T's ongoing
illegal surveillance were filed under seal last month. But last week, U.S. District
Judge Vaughn Walker instructed AT&T to work with EFF to narrowly redact the documents and
make them available to the public.