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November 17, 2006 3:31 PM PST
Judge won't halt AT&T wiretapping lawsuit
Last modified: November 18, 2006 8:25 AM PST
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U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker said the lawsuit could continue while a portion of it was being appealed, despite the U.S. Justice Department's arguments that further hearings and other proceedings would consequently endanger national security.
center in downtown San Francisco
is alleged to be a place where the
National Security Agency taps Internet
and telephone communications.
"I do think these are matters we can proceed on," Walker said toward the end of the status conference here, which began at 11 a.m. PST and was attended by around 50 attorneys from the government, nonprofit groups, class action law firms and major telecommunications companies.
Friday's ruling represents another preliminary victory for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which filed its lawsuit against AT&T in January. In its suit, the EFF charged that AT&T has opened its telecommunications facilities up to the National Security Agency and continues to "to assist the government in its secret surveillance of millions of ordinary Americans."
The ruling is also a win for attorneys in 47 other cases against numerous large telecommunications providers. The cases are in the process of being consolidated into one mammoth lawsuit in the northern district of California.
Last week, the Justice Department filed a 27-page request (click for PDF) saying at the least, the court should halt the AT&T case because any proceeding would "indirectly confirm or deny classified facts and cause harm to the national security."
In July, Walker rejected the Justice Department's attempt to have the suit against AT&T dismissed. That prompted federal prosecutors to appeal to the 9th Circuit a few days later. Along with AT&T, Verizon Communications, BellSouth and Comcast, they urged Walker to delay the case in front of him until the appeals courts reached a decision, which could take years, if it goes to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The "entire process is fraught with risk," a Justice Department attorney said Friday. Bruce Ericson, an attorney for AT&T at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, said that more proceedings would be useless because all his client could put in "a public answer" would be "a general denial."
After EFF's lawsuit was filed, reports of a secret room in an AT&T building in San Francisco surfaced and have become central to the nonprofit group's litigation.
A former AT&T employee, Mark Klein, has released documents alleging the company spliced its fiber optic cables and ran a duplicate set of cables to Room 641A at its 611 Folsom St. building. Improperly-redacted documents seen by CNET News.com show that AT&T has tried to offer benign reasons for the existence of such a room. (AT&T has publicly neither confirmed nor denied cooperating with the National Security Agency.)
A second wave of suits
Another twist at Friday's status conference was what might happen if a second wave of lawsuits is added to the ones already before Judge Walker.
A handful of state utility commissioners, including Vermont and Missouri, have tried to investigate whether the telecommunications companies they regulate have illegally cooperated with the NSA.
In September, for instance, Vermont's Public Service Board said Verizon could be ordered to disclose whether it has "provided local calling records to the NSA, whether Verizon provided information to the NSA before February 2006 and the conditions under which Verizon provides others with access to its customer records." (Click for PDF)
The Bush administration has taken legal action to halt those proceedings, once again invoking its "state secrets" authority and claiming that information harmful to national security could be disclosed.
That second wave of cases "raises the same issues," a Justice Department lawyer said Friday, arguing it provided an additional reason for delay so the court wouldn't have to hear the same issues twice.
But Walker let the cases proceed, setting a December 21 date to hear additional arguments, including one from media organizations for more openness, and a second one on January 11 to return to the question of whether to postpone proceedings during the appeal.
See more CNET content tagged:
AT&T Corp.,
NSA,
lawsuit,
telecommunications company,
Vermont
The reason Bush never bothered observing the law by trying to obtain FISA warrants is obvious. What court would grant an unlimited fishing license to search all communications in the hopes of finding a few relevant terrorist related ones? Possibly the Supreme Court with fresh new "conservatives" sympathetic to government interests superseding individual liberty.
While the Bush Administration throws one disingenuous argument after another in front of this court case one issue needs to be addressed. Is data mining the equivalent of a warrantless search? The federal government is massively involved in sifting through every electronic transmission around the world in addition to compiling vast data bases of financial and other information on individuals innocent or otherwise. The names, agencies, and funding of these programs is strictly guarded and shifted around as facts come to light. What started as "Carnivore" by the FBI and later "Total Information Awareness" under General Poindexter winds up at the Dept. Defense hidden away and the funding may be off th books as well. What seems apparent is that whenever anyone tries to estimate the cost or extent of these programs and the reach they have it is always a huge underestimate. For years the NSA who's legal charter prohibits spying on Americans within our borders claimed they never crossed this line. Now it clear that that is a complete lie.
Time and again our government officials secretly expand the scope of surveillance programs on innocent Americans without public debate or input. Now it seems we have reached a tipping point. Do we just shrug and submit to an ever growing Federal Government with it's agencies reaching into every phone call, email, and bank statement because "things have changed" and we need this in our war on terror, child abuse, drugs, or fill in the blank?
I remember a time when conservatives stood for LIMITED government. Too bad there are so few around today.
The reason Bush never bothered observing the law by trying to obtain FISA warrants is obvious. What court would grant an unlimited fishing license to search all communications in the hopes of finding a few relevant terrorist related ones? Possibly the Supreme Court with fresh new "conservatives" sympathetic to government interests superseding individual liberty.
While the Bush Administration throws one disingenuous argument after another in front of this court case one issue needs to be addressed. Is data mining the equivalent of a warrantless search? The federal government is massively involved in sifting through every electronic transmission around the world in addition to compiling vast data bases of financial and other information on individuals innocent or otherwise. The names, agencies, and funding of these programs is strictly guarded and shifted around as facts come to light. What started as "Carnivore" by the FBI and later "Total Information Awareness" under General Poindexter winds up at the Dept. Defense hidden away and the funding may be off th books as well. What seems apparent is that whenever anyone tries to estimate the cost or extent of these programs and the reach they have it is always a huge underestimate. For years the NSA who's legal charter prohibits spying on Americans within our borders claimed they never crossed this line. Now it clear that that is a complete lie.
Time and again our government officials secretly expand the scope of surveillance programs on innocent Americans without public debate or input. Now it seems we have reached a tipping point. Do we just shrug and submit to an ever growing Federal Government with it's agencies reaching into every phone call, email, and bank statement because "things have changed" and we need this in our war on terror, child abuse, drugs, or fill in the blank?
I remember a time when conservatives stood for LIMITED government. Too bad there are so few around today.
Then again, one must not forget he also has on his head the death of innocents fitted up the corrupt and very inept Texas Legal System(the travesty of inept conviction of the innocent Tulio 42+ in 1999, from a police officer, who very deliberately knowingly and wilfully committed perjury in all cases he was involved in! , when he was then in Texas Supreme Court,is but one classical example of mismanagement under his continuing watch, along with numerous other very questionable links/connections/ decisions)
Oh well, Junior could always stack the federal court, in order to win on an appeal, it has been done before in the past!
The administrations efforts rest on the idea that there's a global
terrorist network with cells and/or affiliates in the US.
I don't doubt this is possible. But the government has gotten
nearly unlimited mileage out of this apparently and surprisingly
unsupported claim.
So again, name one al Qaeda cell in the US?
For one...
Lackawana 6? No. The charges of operating as a cell or terroris
conspirators were dismissed, and they were only charged with
visiting an al Qaeda camp.
In the 80's, there were grand claims that the Soviets were
orchestrating terrorist activities around the world. That turned
out to be BS, actually based on false information planted by the
CIA.
Where's the proof of an international terrorist network beyond
the rhetoric?
I know I sound like a conspiracy-theory nut-job. But, think
about it. It's worth entertaining the idea at least for a moment
before dismissing it. It's happened before.
Bush thinks he is above the law. If he doesn't end up in jail where he belongs, at least history will put him in his rightful place, among the traitors.
you need help. Its been happening in its current form for years
(maybe decades). Bush was just the unlucky president to have
someone leak the program during his term.
- Welcome to USSR
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by alegr
November 20, 2006 3:06 PM PST
- "National security" argument can become a source of endless abuse. I hope the courts will get rid of it some day. It basically allows the government or government-linked enterprises (like Lucent (? see case of underwater cable hookup)) get away with anything, by declaring it a state secret. It's very slippery slope on a way of NSA becoming KGB, and USA becoming USSR.
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See all 31 Comments >>By the way, in USSR there was state censure (GlavLit). And a list of matters not allowed for publications was itself secret. I think Bush would love to have the same. So many times P.O'd by those pesky "liberal" journos.