Wired News has taken a bold step by publishing documents produced by a whistleblower in the suit brought by EFF against AT&T for cooperating with a warrantless wiretapping program instigated by the NSA. While the judge in that case has ordered documents produced by former AT&T technician Mark Klein to be sealed, Wired News has somehow managed to get some of Klein’s documents and has published them. (PDF download of Klein’s evidence here.)
The documents back up Klein’s statement that he suspected AT&T was secretly cooperating with the NSA in wiretapping activities and even include photos of a “secret room” at AT&T’s facilities which only government officials or those with top secret government clearance could enter.
In an accompanying note, Wired News Editor Evan Hansen explains why the online magazine chose to publish the documents.
AT&T claims information in the file is proprietary and that it would suffer severe harm if it were released.
Based on what we’ve seen, Wired News disagrees. In addition, we believe the public’s right to know the full facts in this case outweighs AT&T’s claims to secrecy.
As a result, we are publishing the complete text of a set of documents from the EFF’s primary witness in the case, former AT&T employee and whistle-blower Mark Klein — information obtained by investigative reporter Ryan Singel through an anonymous source close to the litigation. The documents, available on Wired News as of Monday, consist of 30 pages, with an affidavit attributed to Klein, eight pages of AT&T documents marked “proprietary,” and several pages of news clippings and other public information related to government-surveillance issues.
Although the documents are sealed by the court, a gag order in place apparently only bars EFF from discussing and disseminating the information, so Wired News feels that it is not violating this part of the court’s decision. Wired News also claims that independent technical experts reviewed the documents and did not find any material that could be harmful to AT&T or its network security.
In part because it’s hard to judge the nature of the material handed to Wired News, the organization is joining in a press motion requesting that the court unseal the evidence.
The AT&T documents appear to be excerpted from material that was later filed in the lawsuit under seal. But we can’t be entirely sure, because the protective order prevents us from comparing the two sets of documents.
This week, we are joining in efforts to bring this evidence to light in its entirety.
We are filing a motion to intervene in the case in order to request that the court unseal the evidence, joining other news and civil rights organizations that have already done so, including the EFF, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Los Angeles Times, the San Jose Mercury News, the Associated Press and Bloomberg.
Cynthia Brumfield at 6:31 PM|Comments(0)
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