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The Wiretap Rooms: The NSA's Hidden Spy Hubs in Eight U.S. Cities
The secrets are hidden behind fortified walls in cities across the United States, inside towering, windowless skyscrapers and fortress-like concrete structures that were built to withstand earthquakes and even nuclear attack. Thousands of people pass by the buildings each day and rarely give them a second glance, because their function is not publicly known. They are an integral part of one of the world's largest telecommunications networks – and they are also linked to a controversial National Security Agency surveillance program.
Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. In each of these cities, The Intercept has identified an AT&T facility containing networking equipment that transports large quantities of internet traffic across the United States and the world. A body of evidence – including classified NSA documents, public records, and interviews with several former AT&T employees – indicates that the buildings are central to an NSA spying initiative that has for years monitored billions of emails, phone calls, and online chats passing across U.S. territory.
The NSA considers AT&T to be one of its most trusted partners and has lauded the company's "extreme willingness to help." It is a collaboration that dates back decades.
(Score: 1, Troll) by khallow on Tuesday June 26 2018, @12:44PM (10 children)
My view is that there's this obsession with the evils of business, but the biggest evils require government involvement. They're the ones with the resources, specialized expertise, and legal protection to make something like this work.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday June 26 2018, @02:17PM (6 children)
They're not the ones with specialized expertise. The companies are, because as a profit-maximizing individual people with those kinds of skills will seek the greatest recompense and operational freedom they can get, neither of which government can deliver.
The government definitely does have the resources, though, because they have an extortion scheme that puts their hand into every pocket, often multiple hands in every pocket. So while we think we're out there working to support our families, we're actually funding the very operation that threatens our freedom.
So, yes, it is the government and the corporations working together, but the corporations are in the driver's seat because the government comprises bureaucrats, who, while power-hungry and corrupt, have no imagination at all. They have no know-how at all.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday June 26 2018, @02:31PM
Imagination is not required to drive and control.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday June 26 2018, @02:46PM
Fine. I'll buy that. It still remains that the specialized expertise and its development is being paid for by the government revenue stream.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday June 26 2018, @03:14PM (1 child)
LOL: unemployment
Worked for me
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 1) by oldmac31310 on Tuesday June 26 2018, @05:48PM
Well, in most cases, not really. You still have to pay tax on your labor insurance checks.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 26 2018, @07:10PM
I remember a documentary about the crisis in Iceland. Someone told something like this:
"The lawyers, economists etc of a corporation go to a high government servant and try to convince him of passing a bill against people interests or some other absolutely unacceptable action. They are four, or five, or seven high rank men pushing a single man and usually they succeed. But if they don't, they haven't wasted their time, if the civil servant has shown that he is intelligent, defenses with good arguments... then they hire him for fifty fold what he earns. They want the best ones in their crew".
No, government doesn't have the resources, corporation. have. The reason why corporations and government work together is not because government is bad, but because corporations own the government. They have had the resources to buy it more or less. Corporations are so close in resources to government, that both think better collaboration than war.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 27 2018, @05:43AM
As someone who has worked at one of the Baby Bells (before AT&T, like Cronus, swallowed them all again), I had to laugh at the idea that they have imagination. They don't.
I've worked in (state) government as well. Some individuals within agencies have imagination, but it's mostly spent on getting bigger budgets.
One of the reasons such companies work so well together with government is that they're both very similar in culture. The government agencies have laws and rules they have to operate under, and these type of companies like being regulated so they also have not just the general laws, but industry specific laws and rules to operate under. The government in turn acts as their protector and pimp.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 26 2018, @03:12PM (1 child)
The fact that someone else will likely help the government do evil if you don't is no excuse to become a willing accomplice yourself. So let's blame both the business and the government.
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by khallow on Tuesday June 26 2018, @03:14PM
But it does indicate which party is more to blame - the indispensable party without which the scheme couldn't happen in the first place.
(Score: 4, Funny) by realDonaldTrump on Wednesday June 27 2018, @01:08AM
AT&T has a couple of HUGE buildings in NYC. But the Verizon building is HUGE too! And so many folks have Verizon for phone. For the land line, fax & cell phone.
Obama's FBI got a Fake Warrant based on a Fake Dossier. And put a wiretapp on me. But they put the bite on Verizon before that. With a court order. It wasn't wiretapps. But they got the records for MILLIONS of folks. Who called who. And when. How long. A guy calls a lady at 2AM. And 6 weeks later the lady calls the abortion doctor. She calls the guy. The guy calls his lawyer. And the lawyer calls the lady. You know what happened, right? Without listening to the calls!!!