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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, Offtopic) by requerdanos on Tuesday June 26 2018, @06:34PM (2 children)
A couple days ago I took the wrong exit off the Washington-Baltimore parkway (295) at Fort Meade, MD and instead of getting onto Maryland highway (31? 29? I forget) as I expected, the exit ramp instead gave me two lane choices, "NSA Employees Only" and "NSA Deliveries."
It was a dark, rainy midnight, and I was totally not expecting that. This was sort of a panic choice, as there way no way to turn around (one-way exit ramp). I picked deliveries, wandered through a few traffic circles, and found my way straight back to the parkway as directly and quickly as possible--those NSA people make me very nervous. We had joked earlier about getting into nearby NASA Goddard Space Flight Center ("What a great way that would be to get arrested!" I had said.) This completely turned it around. "This would NOT be a good way to get arrested."
My lovely* girlfriend, aware of the tension, waved out the window and said "Hello NSA! We're here!" and started joking about "don't say bomb or president or allahu akbar."
I told her to shush--they can hear you. She does not believe me (paranoid conspiracy theory and all that), but her cell phone is an unmodified AT&T Samsung Galaxy with the "Hey Google, Always Listen For The Wake Word" feature. Her daughter was in the back seat on an AT&T iphone talking to her friend "Siri."
So I am pretty sure it's just a matter-of-fact thing to acknowledge that the NSA can hear you at a given random moment if they so choose, and not a paranoid conspiracy theory. Heck, they had a couple cell phone GPS receivers, the data from which to track our precise location, which was "their deliveries entrance."
This article kind of reinforces that matter-of-fact knowledge. There is some awesome, inspiring stuff in Washington DC, but some pretty overwhelmingly depressing stuff, too.
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* Quite true literally, but used in this case sarcastically.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 26 2018, @10:38PM (1 child)
Truly First World problems if your biggest nightmare is to accidentally take the wrong exit at Ft. Meade. OMG, you might have had to TALK TO A GUARD about how to get back to the highway!
Don't get out of the basement much?
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Tuesday June 26 2018, @10:46PM
My biggest nightmares are bigger than this one.
If someone leaves his basement and goes to NSA headquarters, does that count as getting out? It seems weak.