A technology news Web site has published documents that it said appear to have been filed under seal in a lawsuit accusing AT&T of taking part in a secret government program to track Americans' phone and Internet communications.
The site, Wired.com, said the documents included a statement by former AT&T technician Mark Klein claiming that the telecommunications company built a "secret room" at one of its buildings in San Francisco that he believes housed equipment that allowed the federal government to monitor Internet traffic flowing on its network.
The documents that Wired posted online also include eight pages of technical drawings and tables, most of which are marked "AT&T Proprietary" that Klein said describe how to "spy on fiber-optic circuits."
A former chief technologist at the Federal Communications Commission, Dale Hatfield, said the documents posted on the Wired site appeared to be authentic and to describe a way to monitor traffic on a high-speed fiber-optic circuit.
A class-action lawsuit filed this year by the nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation and others claims AT&T took part "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."
In court filings, AT&T has argued, without confirming or denying it carried out any of the activities alleged, that Congress and the courts have given blanket immunity to telephone firms that "respond to apparently lawful requests for national security assistance" from the government. The company has argued the lawsuit should be immediately dismissed.
The judge last week refused AT&T's request that certain documents filed under seal in the case be returned to the company, and he ordered the plaintiffs and their lawyers not to disclose those documents to anyone.
The site, Wired.com, said the documents included a statement by former AT&T technician Mark Klein claiming that the telecommunications company built a "secret room" at one of its buildings in San Francisco that he believes housed equipment that allowed the federal government to monitor Internet traffic flowing on its network.
The documents that Wired posted online also include eight pages of technical drawings and tables, most of which are marked "AT&T Proprietary" that Klein said describe how to "spy on fiber-optic circuits."
A former chief technologist at the Federal Communications Commission, Dale Hatfield, said the documents posted on the Wired site appeared to be authentic and to describe a way to monitor traffic on a high-speed fiber-optic circuit.
A class-action lawsuit filed this year by the nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation and others claims AT&T took part "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."
In court filings, AT&T has argued, without confirming or denying it carried out any of the activities alleged, that Congress and the courts have given blanket immunity to telephone firms that "respond to apparently lawful requests for national security assistance" from the government. The company has argued the lawsuit should be immediately dismissed.
The judge last week refused AT&T's request that certain documents filed under seal in the case be returned to the company, and he ordered the plaintiffs and their lawyers not to disclose those documents to anyone.
