[Infowarrior] - US files motion to intervene in AT&T secrets case

[Richard Forno]

US files motion to intervene in AT&T secrets case
Sat May 13, 2006 10:18 AM ET
http://tinyurl.com/n7o8s

WASHINGTON, May 13 (Reuters) - The U.S. government filed a motion on
Saturday to intervene and seek dismissal of a lawsuit by a civil liberties
group against AT&T Inc. (T.N: Quote, Profile, Research) over a federal
program to monitor U.S. communications.

The suit filed in the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of
California accuses AT&T of unlawful collaboration with the National Security
Agency in its surveillance program to intercept telephone and e-mail
communications between the United States and people linked to al Qaeda and
affiliated organizations.

The class-action suit was filed by San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier
Foundation on behalf of AT&T customers in January -- before reports this
week that AT&T and two other phone companies were secretly helping the
government compile a massive database of phone calls made in the United
States.

In its motion seeking intervention, posted on the court's Web site, the
government said the interests of the parties in the lawsuit "may well be in
the disclosure of state secrets" in their effort to present their claims or
defenses.

"Only the United States is in a position to protect against the disclosure
of information over which it has asserted the state secrets privilege, and
the United States is the only entity properly positioned to explain why
continued litigation of the matter threatens the national security," said
the motion, dated May 12.

A hearing is scheduled for June 21 before federal Judge Vaughn Walker.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has said in court filings that a former
AT&T technician had approached the group in January to share details of the
company's role in the surveillance program.

The revelation in December that the NSA was eavesdropping inside the United
States without warrants on international calls and e-mails of terrorism
suspects sparked an uproar.

On Thursday, USA Today reported that the NSA, helped by AT&T, Verizon
Communications Inc. (VZ.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and BellSouth Corp.
(BLS.N: Quote, Profile, Research), was secretly collecting phone records of
tens of millions of people, and using the data to analyze calling patterns
in an effort to detect terrorist activity.

U.S. President George W. Bush denied the government was "mining and trolling
through" the personal lives of Americans.
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.