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) by khallow on Tuesday June 26 2018, @10:21PM
Bullshit. I agree there's a con, but it's not perpetrated by Big Oil who has spent and exerted remarkably little on their supposed con. Let us note that the "rise hugely" of sea level is projected to happen over centuries. That means that not only will those trillions of USD in infrastructure be abandoned, they'll be abandoned multiple times just due to the aging of the infrastructure. Guess what will happen during one of those times? The parties threatened by rising sea levels will buy property that's further uphill or they'll add some dirt to the current space. Either way, we'll easily keep up with rising sea levels. That's why I've said all along that we won't even notice rising sea levels.
Moving on,
The thing is, the NSA is the organization with the power. It wouldn't happen without them. They write the checks. They make the plans. They protect the various guilty parties.
I'd say gullibility is the worse threat, as demonstrated by your rant about sea level rise. Someone spins a pretty fairy tale about Big Oil making the seas rise, and you're all over it.
That's what happens when you have a huge system that no one can monitor. Corrupt shit happens. My suggestion is to greatly reduce the scope of the problem. That's why I'm a government minimalist.