US Government attempts to block EFF privacy case against AT&T

Lemming

Taken from PC Pro magazine

Tuesday 16th May 2006
US gov bids to halt EFF's privacy case
12:03PM

The US government has waded in to the EFF's privacy case against US telco AT&T with a cloak and dagger secret motion to have it dismissed.

The EFF launched a class-action suit against AT&T over its involvement in handing over the communications data of millions of its customers to the US government's National Security Agency (NSA).

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) says the US government on Saturday filed a legal brief and two affidavits to the court that are classified and unavailable even to the parties in the case, except in a public redacted form.

This public version, with all classified information extracted, claims that the case should be dismissed because a judicial enquiry

into whether AT&T broke the law by its actions might reveal state secrets to the detriment of national security.

Even more perverse, this week lawyers at the Department of Justice investigating any involvement of that department in the case were unable to proceed with their enquiries after they were refused security clearance by the NSA.

'The government is trying to lock out any judicial inquiry into AT&T and the NSA's illegal spying operation,' said EFF Staff Attorney Kurt Opsahl. 'It is illegal for major telecommunications companies to simply hand over private customer information to the government. They should not be allowed to hide their illegal activity behind government assertions of "state secrets" to prevent the judiciary from stepping in to expose and punish the illegal behavior. If the government's motion is granted, it will have undermined the freedoms our country has fought so hard to protect.'

On Wednesday, at a hearing at a US District Court in San Francisco, the EFF will petition to unseal information that it believes support its case, including internal AT&T documents and a declaration by a retired AT&T technician.

Matt Whipp

I read that and was struck by a comment I heard from the film "Independance Day" (oh the irony ... ) which goes something like this:

"There's a fine line behind following policy and hiding behind it", made by Bill Pullman playing the US President.

And here I see the US government attempting to hide behind the mantra of "national security". It's been done before, but I don't think ever so blatantly as this. The implications for this particular little epsiode are particularly frightening since they have "legally" perverted the judicial system on very, very dubious grounds.

Further, this possibly flies straight in the face of the US government claiming they were not spying on their own citizens. Whilst it cannot be proved or disproved, other than to show that relevant government agencies are being not only behaving in a beligerent manner but aggresively attempting to halt any probes, it really doesn't give any confidence to their integrity and gives weight to the notion that they are indeed trying to conceal something that they will get roasted for.