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Israeli art students, DEA, phone numbers, reverse wire tapping? |
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Weekly Planet, Mar 3, 2002, |
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| NeuStar
internetwork call origination and termination
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Washington Monthly, curiouser and curiouser
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| Notes top | ||
| PROGRESSIVE | REFERENCE | CONSERVATIVE* |
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Notes:
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....and go to:Domestic Spying News
| Wired News, Mark Klein, AT&T secret room diclosure. | |
| Former AT&T technician Mark
Klein is the key witness in the Electronic Frontier Foundation's
class-action lawsuit against the telecommunications company, which alleges
that AT&T cooperated in an illegal National Security Agency domestic
surveillance program.
Excerpts from the full report: Here we present Klein's statement in its entirety, with inline links to all of the document excerpts where he cited them. You can also download the complete file here (pdf). The full AT&T documents are filed under seal in federal court in San Francisco. --------------------------------------------------- AT&T's Implementation of NSA Spying on American Citizens 31 December 2005 I wrote the following document in 2004 when it became clear to me that AT&T, at the behest of the National Security Agency, had illegally installed secret computer gear designed to spy on internet traffic. At the time I thought this was an outgrowth of the notorious Total Information Awareness program, which was attacked by defenders of civil liberties. But now it's been revealed by The New York Times that the spying program is vastly bigger and was directly authorized by President Bush, as he himself has now admitted, in flagrant violation of specific statutes and constitutional protections for civil liberties. I am presenting this information to facilitate the dismantling of this dangerous Orwellian project. ---------------------------------- AT&T Deploys Government Spy Gear on WorldNet Network -- 16 January, 2004 In 2003 AT&T built "secret rooms" hidden deep in the bowels of its central offices in various cities, housing computer gear for a government spy operation which taps into the company's popular WorldNet service and the entire internet. These installations enable the government to look at every individual message on the internet and analyze exactly what people are doing. Documents showing the hardwire installation in San Francisco suggest that there are similar locations being installed in numerous other cities. The physical arrangement, the timing of its construction, the government-imposed secrecy surrounding it and other factors all strongly suggest that its origins are rooted in the Defense Department's Total Information Awareness (TIA) program which brought forth vigorous protests from defenders of constitutionally protected civil liberties last year: "As the director of the effort, Vice Adm. John M. Poindexter, has described the system in Pentagon documents and in speeches, it will provide intelligence analysts and law enforcement officials with instant access to information from internet mail and calling records to credit card and banking transactions and travel documents, without a search warrant." The New York Times, 9 November 2002 To mollify critics, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) spokesmen have repeatedly asserted that they are only conducting "research" using "artificial synthetic data" or information from "normal DOD intelligence channels" and hence there are "no U.S. citizen privacy implications" (Department of Defense, Office of the Inspector General report on TIA, December 12, 2003). They also changed the name of the program to "Terrorism Information Awareness" to make it more politically palatable. But feeling the heat, Congress made a big show of allegedly cutting off funding for TIA in late 2003, and the political fallout resulted in Adm. Poindexter's abrupt resignation last August. However, the fine print reveals that Congress eliminated funding only for "the majority of the TIA components," allowing several "components" to continue (DOD, ibid). The essential hardware elements of a TIA-type spy program are being surreptitiously slipped into "real world" telecommunications offices. page 2 In San Francisco the "secret room" ... is roughly 24-by-48 feet, containing perhaps a dozen cabinets including such equipment as Sun servers and two Juniper routers, plus an industrial-size air conditioner. The normal work force of unionized technicians in the office are forbidden to enter the "secret room," which has a special combination lock on the main door. The telltale sign of an illicit government spy operation is the fact that only people with security clearance from the National Security Agency can enter this room. In practice this has meant that only one management-level technician works in there. Ironically, the one who set up the room was laid off in late 2003 in one of the company's endless "downsizings," but he was quickly replaced by another. Plans for the "secret room" were fully drawn up by December 2002, curiously only four months after Darpa started awarding contracts for TIA. One 60-page document, identified as coming from "AT&T Labs Connectivity & Net Services" and authored by the labs' consultant Mathew F. Casamassima, is titled Study Group 3, LGX/Splitter Wiring, San Francisco and dated 12/10/02. This document addresses the special problem of trying to spy on fiber-optic circuits. Unlike copper wire circuits which emit electromagnetic fields that can be tapped into without disturbing the circuits, fiber-optic circuits do not "leak" their light signals. In order to monitor such communications, one has to physically cut into the fiber somehow and divert a portion of the light signal to see the information. |
This problem is solved with
"splitters" which literally split off a percentage of the light
signal so it can be examined. This is the purpose of the special cabinet
referred to above: Circuits are connected into it, the light signal is
split into two signals, one of which is diverted to the "secret
room." The cabinet is totally unnecessary for the circuit to perform
-- in fact it introduces problems since the signal level is reduced by the
splitter -- its only purpose is to enable a third party to examine the
data flowing between sender and recipient on the internet.
...... Since the San Francisco "secret room" is numbered 3, the implication is that there are at least several more in other cities (Seattle, San Jose, Los Angeles and San Diego are some of the rumored locations), which likely are spread across the United States. One of the devices in the "Cabinet Naming" list is particularly revealing as to the purpose of the "secret room": a Narus STA 6400. Narus is a 7-year-old company which, because of its particular niche, appeals not only to businessmen (it is backed by AT&T, JP Morgan and Intel, among others) but also to police, military and intelligence officials. Last November 13-14, for instance, Narus was the "Lead Sponsor" for a technical conference held in McLean, Virginia, titled "Intelligence Support Systems for Lawful Interception and Internet Surveillance." Police officials, FBI and DEA agents, and major telecommunications companies eager to cash in on the "war on terror" had gathered in the hometown of the CIA to discuss their special problems. Among the attendees were AT&T, BellSouth, MCI, Sprint and Verizon. Narus founder, Dr. Ori Cohen, gave a keynote speech. So what does the Narus STA 6400 do? "The (Narus) STA Platform consists of standalone traffic analyzers that collect network and customer usage information in real time directly from the message.... These analyzers sit on the message pipe into the ISP (internet service provider) cloud rather than tap into each router or ISP device" (Telecommunications magazine, April 2000). A Narus press release (1 Dec., 1999) also boasts that its Semantic Traffic Analysis (STA) technology "captures comprehensive customer usage data ... and transforms it into actionable information.... (It) is the only technology that provides complete visibility for all internet applications." To implement this scheme, WorldNet's high-speed data circuits already in service had to be rerouted to go through the special "splitter" cabinet. "A WMS (work) Ticket will be issued by the AT&T Bridgeton Network Operation Center (NOC) to charge time for performing the work described in this procedure document.... "This procedure covers the steps required to insert optical splitters into select live Common Backbone (CBB) OC3, OC12 and OC48 optical circuits." The NOC referred to is in Bridgeton, Missouri, and controls WorldNet operations. (As a sign that government spying goes hand-in-hand with union-busting, the entire (Communication Workers of America) Local 6377 which had jurisdiction over the Bridgeton NOC was wiped out in early 2002 when AT&T fired the union work force and later rehired them as nonunion "management" employees.) The cut-in work was performed in 2003, and since then new circuits are connected through the "splitter" cabinet. Another Cut-In and Test Procedure document dated January 24, 2003, provides diagrams of how AT&T Core Network circuits were to be run through the "splitter" cabinet. One page lists the circuit IDs of key Peering Links which were "cut-in" in February 2003, including ConXion, Verio, XO, Genuity, Qwest, PAIX, Allegiance, AboveNet, Global Crossing, C&W, UUNET, Level 3, Sprint, Telia, PSINet and Mae West. By the way, Mae West is one of two key internet nodal points in the United States (the other, Mae East, is in Vienna, Virginia). It's not just WorldNet customers who are being spied on -- it's the entire internet. The next logical question is, what central command is collecting the data sent by the various "secret rooms"? One can only make educated guesses, but perhaps the answer was inadvertently given in the DOD Inspector General's report (cited above): "For testing TIA capabilities, Darpa and the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM) created an operational research and development environment that uses real-time feedback. The main node of TIA is located at INSCOM (in Fort Belvoir, Virginia)…." ........ This is the infrastructure for an Orwellian police state. It must be shut down!
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| WayneMadsenReport |
| January 30-February 1, 2009 -- Stellar Wind blows Democratic governors
out of office
WMR has previously reported on the malfeasance of the U.S. Attorney for Northern Illinois, Patrick Fitzgerald, in his investigation of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the outing of CIA covert agent Valerie Plame Wilson. In the case of the 1993 attack, Fitzgerald sat on critical signals intelligence (SIGINT) evidence that would have tied the bombing to Osama bin Laden in exile in Sudan. Bin Laden remained a U.S. intelligence asset at the time of the World Trade Center bombing so Fitzgerald, following orders from Langley, simply failed to enter into evidence wiretaps communications between the Sudanese Mission to the United Nations in New York and the Sudanese Foreign Ministry in Khartoum that contained references to Bin Laden. In the outing of Plame, Fitzgerald refused to enter as evidence tapped phone calls of Vice President Dick Cheney's Chief of Staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby and others that would have proven the severe damage of Libby's actions to the covert counter-proliferation operation involving Plame and her Brewster Jennings & Associates cover firm. Fitzgerald's actions in covering up the World Trade Center link to Sudan and Bin Laden was so significant that Libby's New York Times interlocutor, Judith Miller, once asked this editor for my sources on the Sudanese wiretap story. I told her that one was well known, the late ABC News reporter John McWethy had reported on the Sudan UN mission wiretaps by the National Security Agency (NSA) in 1993. The other, a confidential source in Khartoum, remains confidential. McWethy died in a February 2008 skiing accident in Colorado. On January 29, the Illinois Senate voted unanimously to remove from office Democratic Governor Rod Blagojevich. This was based on the selective release of recorded wiretaps of Blagojevich's conversations to the Senate by Fitzgerald. It appears that Fitzgerald only likes to use wiretaps when it benefits him and his patrons politically. Fitzgerald had Blagojevich arrested based on a criminal complaint but the U.S. Attorney, who grandstanded at a press conference about Blagojevich causing Abraham Lincoln to "roll over in his grave." Fitzgerald could not get a grand jury to indict Blagojevich last October and he has asked for an extension for the grand jury because he still lacks the evidence to convict. However, Fitzgerald was able to use selected wiretaps to convince the Illinois Senate to remove Blagojevich from office in a political, not a criminal, action. Blagojevich is also barred from ever runing for political office again in Illinois. WMR has been discussing the Blagojevich impeachment with some individuals close to some other Democratic governors. It is becoming clear that what Fitzgerald has in his dossier of evidence on Blagojevich may be wiretaps that were conducted without a court order as part of the Bush White House's super-secret STELLAR WIND program that even then-Attorney General John Ashcroft refused to re-authorize from his hospital bed in Washington. If Fitzgerald's evidence is from illegal government wiretaps, including the drift net surveillance of the communications of Americans, including their credit card transactions, that was recently revealed by former NSA employee Russell Tice, as well as the surveillance extent of STELLAR WIND revealed by former Department of Justice prosecutor Thomas Tamm, there is a reason to believe that Fitzgerald does not have legal evidence and leaked selected wiretaps to the Senate in Illinois to have Blagojevich removed in a political process. Blagojevich wanted to call Barack Obama's Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett as witnesses in the alleged "sale" of Obama's U.S. Senate seat matter but was rebuffed. Emanuel has decided to back the previous Bush administration in trying to stay a lawsuit in the 9th U.S. Circuit involving the Bush administration's warrantless wiretap program. This is an indication that Emanuel and his Israeli intelligence interlocutors do not want to see the program go away. Why would Emanuel and Obama want to keep STELLAR WIND in place and deny plaintiffs the right to know how extensive the program was? First, it keeps technical details of the operation secret, including the involvement of Israeli telecommunications firms. Second, it gives the Obama administration to same power of blackmail over political enemies as was enjoyed by Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, and others in the Bush White House. It is now known that STELLAR WIND, or a precursor variation of it, was in place before 9/11. Since that time, five Democratic governors, including the governors of three large states, have been forced from office. The first victim was California Governor Gray Davis. Davis was accused of colluding with campaign contributors from the energy industry which resulted in California's sky-rocketing energy rates in 2001. It was none other than George Soros' maven, Arianna Huffington, who made the charge that Davis was too cozy with power company executives. It was a false charge but Davis was put on the political ropes. Davis was recalled as Governor in October 7, 2003, 10 months after he won re-election by a wide margin, and was replaced by Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger. Davis' connections with energy industry lobbyists were plastered all over the web and were talked about on right-wing radio talk shows. How would this information been known? We now know that the Bush administration began its warrantless wiretapping operation shortly after coming to office in January 2001. In the next few months, California's energy rates began to shoot skyward, with the assistance of Bush's pals at Enron, including Ken Lay. Davis was the first victim of "pay-to-play" allegations involving Democratic governors. The next was Alabama Democratic Governor Don Siegelman, who after being ejected from office in a dubious election rife with voting machine and vote counting fraud, was indicted by a U.S. Attorneys office with strong connections to Rove and ultimately convicted and immediately jailed. Siegelman was accused of cutting a favoritism deal with Healthouth CEO Richard Scrushy. STELLAR WIND was in full operation when he was convicted in his second trial in 2006. His first trial was thrown out by the federal judge based on "disallowed evidence." Was it perhaps illegally obtained wiretaps? Siegelman was convicted in his second trial presided over by the GOP operative and Pentagon and CIA contractor, U.S. Judge Mark Fuller. Democratic Governor victim number three was anti-Wall Street fraud crusading New York Governor Eliot Spitzer. Spitzer was forced to resign in March 2008 after it was revealed by GOP dirty tricks operatives that Spitzer had used the services of an escort service that was later found to be connected to Israeli government elements. Spitzer's bank account information had been turned over by HSBC to the Internal Revenue Service and FBI. Victim number four was Blagojevich, the governor of Illinois. Fitzgerald seems to be having problems with presenting valid evidence against Blagojevich to a grand jury. Why? The fifth to fall victim to "pay-to-play" allegations was New Mexico Democratic Governor Bill Richardson, who is apparently the subject of a current grand jury. Richardson was forced to withdraw his name from consideration as Secretary of Commerce in the Obama administration. Republican Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire is now being considered for the post. WMR has learned that there is bad blood between Richardson and Emanuel. This begs the question: STELLAR WIND was used by Rove to go after Democratic enemies of the Bush White House, so might Rahm now be using it to attack foes of the Obama White House, both Democrats and Republicans? Richardson's phones in Santa Fe have long been wiretapped by NSA, a fact previously reported by WMR and confirmed twice to this editor, first by Richardson's press secretary and then by Richardson himself. There may be additional victims of STELLAR WIND hanging in the wind. On January 9, 2009, Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon was indicted in a case involving her alleged use of pre-paid gift cards. The case was brought by a Maryland state prosecutor. The evidence against Dixon included wiretaps of her cell phone and Blackberry. Dixon's predecessor, current Maryland Democratic Governor Martin O'Malley was a victim of a Spitzer-like GOP smear campaign about O'Malley's alleged "marital infidelity" in 2005 that originated from a aide to then-Republican Governor Bob Ehrlich. New Jersey Democratic Governor Jim McGreevey was forced to resign after word leaked to the press that an Israeli intelligence honeytrap named Golan Cipel was involved in a homosexual relationship with McGreevey. McGreevey's successor, Democrat Jon Corzine, was the subject of "pay-to-play" allegations involving his romantic relationship with Carla Katz, a union president. Republicans appeared to have been tipped off about incriminating evidence against Corzine in email exchanges between him and Katz. Wisconsin Democratic Governor Jim Doyle was enmeshed in the political prosecution by the Bush Justice Department of Georgia Thompson, a state employee. The implication aganst Doyle was yet another "pay-to-play" allegation involving a state contract. Thompson's conviction was overturned on appeal. Massachusetts Democratic Governor Deval Patrick is the subject of a criminal investigation that also involves a corruption investigation of Democratic House Speaker Salvatore DiMassi. The probe was launched in December 2008. Just a few days before Bush left office, Ohio Democratic Governor Ted Strickland's former director of faith-based initiatives, Robert McFadden, was indicted for involvement in on-line prostitution. McFadden's email and other on-line transactions were used as evidence. Aside from Connecticut Republican Governor John Rowland, who was indicted anf jailed for corruption for a Ted Stevens-like deal involving home repairs in return for state contracts, no other incumbent Republican Governor was investigated or indicted by what is now known to have been a political Justice Department and cadre of U.S. Attorneys under Bush. Although there have been serious corruption allegations brought against current and former Republican governors Rick Perry of Texas, Jeb Bush of Florida, Matt Blunt of Missouri, Linda Lingle of Hawaii, Jim Gibbons of Nevada, Sarah Palin of Alaska, Bob Ehrlich of Maryland (who was linked to the Pamela Martin & Associates escort service that also involved Cheney), Sonny Perdue of Georgia, Bob Riley of Alabama, and Mitch Daniels of Indiana no indictments were ever brought by the Bush Justice Department. Republican Governor Bob Taft of Ohio and Ernie Fletcher of Kentucky were indicted on state criminal misdemeanor charges for corruption but were never the subject of federal corruption charges by Republican U.S. attorneys. The fear at NSA was always that its vast surveillance capabilities could always be used as a political weapon. It appears that STELLAR WIND turned NSA's capabilities into such a weapon, one that may continue to be used by the the new "Rove," Rahm Emanuel, is meting out punishment to his political enemies. Blagojevich and Richardson have already fallen. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, and others who have been shut out by the Obama administration may want to keep checking their rear view mirrors. It is no secret that in Pelosi's case, Emanuel would like to see her replaced by House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland, whose sister once served as the executive director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Readers are solely responsible for the content of the comments they post on this web site. Comments are subject to the site's terms and conditions of use and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or approval of Wayne Madsen Report.com. Readers whose comments violate the terms of use may have their comments removed or all of their content blocked from viewing by other users without notification. |