The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has filed a lawsuit against
President George W. Bush and others in his administration for the
illegal surveillance of emails and telephone calls without a warrant.
The suit also names the National Security Agency (NSA), Vice
President Dick Cheney, Cheney's chief of staff David Addington, and
former Attorney General and White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales.
The lawsuit, Jewel v. NSA, is aimed at ending what the EFF says is
"the NSA's dragnet surveillance of millions of ordinary Americans
and holding accountable the government officials who illegally
authorized it."
Evidence in the case includes undisputed documents provided by
former AT&T employee Mark Klein showing AT&T has routed copies
of Internet traffic to a secret room in San Francisco controlled
by the NSA.
EFF attorneys filed a suit against AT&T in 2006 alleging that US
telecoms giants had opened its network to the NSA without warrants.
This year Congress passed legislation giving telecommunications
firms immunity from spying lawsuits. The case is now stalled in
federal court.
"In addition to suing AT&T, we've now opened a second front in
the battle to stop the NSA's illegal surveillance of millions of
ordinary Americans and hold personally responsible those who
authorized or participated in the spying program," said Senior
Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston.
"For years, the NSA has been engaged in a massive and massively
illegal fishing expedition through AT&T's domestic networks and
databases of customer records. Our goal in this new case against
the government, as in our case against AT&T, is to dismantle this
dragnet surveillance program as soon as possible."
President George W. Bush and others in his administration for the
illegal surveillance of emails and telephone calls without a warrant.
The suit also names the National Security Agency (NSA), Vice
President Dick Cheney, Cheney's chief of staff David Addington, and
former Attorney General and White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales.
The lawsuit, Jewel v. NSA, is aimed at ending what the EFF says is
"the NSA's dragnet surveillance of millions of ordinary Americans
and holding accountable the government officials who illegally
authorized it."
Evidence in the case includes undisputed documents provided by
former AT&T employee Mark Klein showing AT&T has routed copies
of Internet traffic to a secret room in San Francisco controlled
by the NSA.
EFF attorneys filed a suit against AT&T in 2006 alleging that US
telecoms giants had opened its network to the NSA without warrants.
This year Congress passed legislation giving telecommunications
firms immunity from spying lawsuits. The case is now stalled in
federal court.
"In addition to suing AT&T, we've now opened a second front in
the battle to stop the NSA's illegal surveillance of millions of
ordinary Americans and hold personally responsible those who
authorized or participated in the spying program," said Senior
Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston.
"For years, the NSA has been engaged in a massive and massively
illegal fishing expedition through AT&T's domestic networks and
databases of customer records. Our goal in this new case against
the government, as in our case against AT&T, is to dismantle this
dragnet surveillance program as soon as possible."
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