American telecommunications giant AT&T Inc. has recognized that it helped the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) to spy on Internet communications going through the U.S. The spy agency has conducted surveillance on large volumes of Internet traffic going through the United States, according to a New York Times report published on Saturday. New York Times is proving these claims by directly citing some newly disclosed NSA documents.
According to the newspaper, AT&T gave technical assistance to the NSA in carrying out a secret wiretapping of all Internet communications at the United Nations' headquarters. This is a serious offense, and if would happen against the embassy of a foreign country might be considered as an aggression with serious diplomatic consequences. It is also a breach of trust from AT&T corporation towards its customer, AT&T.
According to the New York Times, the secret documents revealed are dated between the years 2003 and 2013 and they were provided by a former NSA contractor, no else than the already famous Edward Snowden. According to the sensational revelations, AT&T helped the American spy agency in a broad range of classified activities.
The documents made public by the NSA fugitive contractor describe in details how the NSA's relationship with the AT&T telecom company has been particularly important. The telecommunication service provider has enabled the NSA federal agency to conduct surveillance, under dubious and highly contested legal rules. According to the documents cited by the newspaper, it seems that the surveillance did not limit only to the United Nations. headquarters but it also included numerous international and foreign-to-foreign Internet communications passing through AT&T network hubs in the U.S.
AT&T is not the only American telecom company involved in such spying scandals. However, according to sources cited, the company installed equipment for surveillance in at least 17 of its U.S. Internet hubs. That number is by far more than the number previously revealed for its competitor Verizon Communications Inc., according to the Times report. The newspaper also reported that the AT&T engineers were the first to use some new spying technologies invented by the NSA.
According to one of the NSA documents, the link between the telecom company and the spy agency it was a partnership, rather than a contractual relationship. According to another document, AT&T was chosen for this partnership because its corporate relationships provided unique accesses to other I.S.P.s and telecoms. Since the year 2011, AT&T started to provide the NSA more than 1.1 billion daily domestic cellphone calling records. It is also reported by the Times that the company was aiming to get this flow operational prior to the 10th anniversary of 9/11 attacks on the United States.
In a comment for Reuters on the Times report, AT&T spokesman Brad Burns told by email that the company did not voluntarily provide information to any investigating agencies other than if times is of the essence and a person's life is in danger. We wonder whose life was in danger to grant moral rights to spy on the United Nations.
