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[infowar.de] NSA wollte schon vor 9/11 an die Telefondaten
... und wird auch bei heise gleich gemeldet, siehe
<http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/74984>.
Die Meldung dürfte allerdings eine Ente sein: "Groundbreaker" ist ein
längst bekanntes Programm der NSA, mit dem sie alle nicht-geheimen
Aufgaben outsourcen wollen, um ihr Geld effektiver einzusetzen. Das stand
schon 2001 in telepolis
(<http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/6/6839/1.html>) - schaut bei heise
eigentlich keiner ins Archiv, bevor er bei Bloomberg abschreibt?
Das Outsourcing scheint aber auch nicht recht zu funktionieren:
<http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/custom/attack/bal-te.nsa26feb26,0,6311175.story>
AT&T hatte sich damals als Subunternehmer beworben, aber der größte
Brocken (2 Mrd. USD) waren an CSC gegangen
(<http://archiv.infopeace.de/msg00192.html>).
Dass die NSA schon vor dem 11. September 2001 einiges abgehört hat von dem
ihre Juristen nicht gerne in der Zeitung lesen würden, ist eine andere
Geschichte, hat aber mit Groundbreaker nichts zu tun.
Oder liege ich hier falsch? Ist "Project Groundbreaker" etwas komplett
anderes als "Pioneer Groundbreaker"?
RB
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=abIV0cO64zJE
Spy Agency Sought U.S. Call Records Before 9/11, Lawyers Say
June 30 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. National Security Agency asked AT&T Inc.
to help it set up a domestic call monitoring site seven months before the
Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, lawyers claimed June 23 in court papers filed in
New York federal court.
The allegation is part of a court filing adding AT&T, the nation's largest
telephone company, as a defendant in a breach of privacy case filed
earlier this month on behalf of Verizon Communications Inc. and BellSouth
Corp. customers. The suit alleges that the three carriers, the NSA and
President George W. Bush violated the Telecommunications Act of 1934 and
the U.S. Constitution, and seeks money damages.
``The Bush Administration asserted this became necessary after 9/11,''
plaintiff's lawyer Carl Mayer said in a telephone interview. ``This
undermines that assertion.''
The lawsuit is related to an alleged NSA program to record and store data
on calls placed by subscribers. More than 30 suits have been filed over
claims that the carriers, the three biggest U.S. telephone companies,
violated the privacy rights of their customers by cooperating with the NSA
in an effort to track alleged terrorists.
``The U.S. Department of Justice has stated that AT&T may neither confirm
nor deny AT&T's participation in the alleged NSA program because doing so
would cause `exceptionally grave harm to national security' and would
violate both civil and criminal statutes,'' AT&T spokesman Dave Pacholczyk
said in an e-mail.
U.S. Department of Justice spokesman Charles Miller and NSA spokesman Don
Weber declined to comment.
Pioneer Groundbreaker
The NSA initiative, code-named ``Pioneer Groundbreaker,'' asked AT&T unit
AT&T Solutions to build exclusively for NSA use a network operations
center which duplicated AT&T's Bedminster, New Jersey facility, the court
papers claimed. That plan was abandoned in favor of the NSA acquiring the
monitoring technology itself, plaintiffs' lawyers Bruce Afran said.
The NSA says on its Web site that in June 2000, the agency was seeking
bids for a project to ``modernize and improve its information technology
infrastructure.'' The plan, which included the privatization of its
``non-mission related'' systems support, was said to be part of Project
Groundbreaker.
Mayer said the Pioneer project is ``a different component'' of that
initiative.
Mayer and Afran said an unnamed former employee of the AT&T unit provided
them with evidence that the NSA approached the carrier with the proposed
plan. Afran said he has seen the worker's log book and independently
confirmed the source's participation in the project. He declined to
identify the employee.
Stop Suit
On June 9, U.S. District Court Judge P. Kevin Castel in New York stopped
the lawsuit from moving forward while the Federal Judicial Panel on
Multidistrict Litigation in Washington rules on a U.S. request to assign
all related telephone records lawsuits to a single judge.
Robert Varettoni, a spokesman for Verizon, said he was unaware of the
allegations against AT&T and declined to comment.
Earlier this week, he issued a statement on behalf of the company that
Verizon had not been asked by the NSA to provide customer phone records
from either its hard-wired or wireless networks. Verizon also said that it
couldn't confirm or deny ``whether it has any relationship to the
classified NSA program.''
Mayer's lawsuit was filed following a May 11 USA Today report that the
U.S. government was using the NSA to monitor domestic telephone calls.
Earlier today, USA Today said it couldn't confirm its contention that
BellSouth or Verizon had contracts with the NSA to provide a database of
domestic customer phone call records.
Jeff Battcher, a spokesman for Atlanta-based BellSouth, said that
vindicated the company.
``We never turned over any records to the NSA,'' he said in a telephone
interview. ``We've been clear all along that they've never contacted us.
Nobody in our company has ever had any contact with the NSA.''
The case is McMurray v. Verizon Communications Inc., 06cv3650, in the
Southern District of New York.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Andrew Harris in Chicago at aharris16 -!
- bloomberg -
net
Last Updated: June 30, 2006 18:46 EDT
June 30 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. National Security Agency asked AT&T Inc.
to help it set up a domestic call monitoring site seven months before the
Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, lawyers claimed June 23 in court papers filed in
New York federal court.
The allegation is part of a court filing adding AT&T, the nation's largest
telephone company, as a defendant in a breach of privacy case filed
earlier this month on behalf of Verizon Communications Inc. and BellSouth
Corp. customers. The suit alleges that the three carriers, the NSA and
President George W. Bush violated the Telecommunications Act of 1934 and
the U.S. Constitution, and seeks money damages.
``The Bush Administration asserted this became necessary after 9/11,''
plaintiff's lawyer Carl Mayer said in a telephone interview. ``This
undermines that assertion.''
The lawsuit is related to an alleged NSA program to record and store data
on calls placed by subscribers. More than 30 suits have been filed over
claims that the carriers, the three biggest U.S. telephone companies,
violated the privacy rights of their customers by cooperating with the NSA
in an effort to track alleged terrorists.
``The U.S. Department of Justice has stated that AT&T may neither confirm
nor deny AT&T's participation in the alleged NSA program because doing so
would cause `exceptionally grave harm to national security' and would
violate both civil and criminal statutes,'' AT&T spokesman Dave Pacholczyk
said in an e-mail.
U.S. Department of Justice spokesman Charles Miller and NSA spokesman Don
Weber declined to comment.
Pioneer Groundbreaker
The NSA initiative, code-named ``Pioneer Groundbreaker,'' asked AT&T unit
AT&T Solutions to build exclusively for NSA use a network operations
center which duplicated AT&T's Bedminster, New Jersey facility, the court
papers claimed. That plan was abandoned in favor of the NSA acquiring the
monitoring technology itself, plaintiffs' lawyers Bruce Afran said.
The NSA says on its Web site that in June 2000, the agency was seeking
bids for a project to ``modernize and improve its information technology
infrastructure.'' The plan, which included the privatization of its
``non-mission related'' systems support, was said to be part of Project
Groundbreaker.
Mayer said the Pioneer project is ``a different component'' of that
initiative.
Mayer and Afran said an unnamed former employee of the AT&T unit provided
them with evidence that the NSA approached the carrier with the proposed
plan. Afran said he has seen the worker's log book and independently
confirmed the source's participation in the project. He declined to
identify the employee.
Stop Suit
On June 9, U.S. District Court Judge P. Kevin Castel in New York stopped
the lawsuit from moving forward while the Federal Judicial Panel on
Multidistrict Litigation in Washington rules on a U.S. request to assign
all related telephone records lawsuits to a single judge.
Robert Varettoni, a spokesman for Verizon, said he was unaware of the
allegations against AT&T and declined to comment.
Earlier this week, he issued a statement on behalf of the company that
Verizon had not been asked by the NSA to provide customer phone records
from either its hard-wired or wireless networks. Verizon also said that it
couldn't confirm or deny ``whether it has any relationship to the
classified NSA program.''
Mayer's lawsuit was filed following a May 11 USA Today report that the
U.S. government was using the NSA to monitor domestic telephone calls.
Earlier today, USA Today said it couldn't confirm its contention that
BellSouth or Verizon had contracts with the NSA to provide a database of
domestic customer phone call records.
Jeff Battcher, a spokesman for Atlanta-based BellSouth, said that
vindicated the company.
``We never turned over any records to the NSA,'' he said in a telephone
interview. ``We've been clear all along that they've never contacted us.
Nobody in our company has ever had any contact with the NSA.''
The case is McMurray v. Verizon Communications Inc., 06cv3650, in the
Southern District of New York.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Andrew Harris in Chicago at aharris16 -!
- bloomberg -
net
Last Updated: June 30, 2006 18:46 EDT
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