AT&T SUED FOR ALLEGED HELP
TO U.S. SPYING PROGRAM

By Julia Cheever, Bay City News Service

January 31, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) - Two San Jose residents and a Los Angeles man sued AT&T Corp. in federal court in San Francisco today, accusing the company of aiding in the U.S. government's secret spying on Americans' telephone and Internet communications.

The National Security Agency program, carried out without court authorization, was revealed in December. The Bush administration has contended that the program is within its executive authority.

The lawsuit contends that the New York-based telecommunications company's alleged help to the National Security Agency violates the constitutional ban on unreasonable searches as well as several federal and state laws.

The plaintiffs, Tash Hepting and Gregory Hicks of San Jose and Erik Knutzen of Los Angeles, are represented by lawyers from the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation.

The lawsuit seeks to be certified as a class action lawsuit on behalf of all present and former customers who have used AT&T's telephone or Internet services since September 2001.

Electronic Frontier Foundation attorney Kevin Bankston said, "The NSA program is apparently the biggest fishing expedition ever devised, scanning millions of ordinary Americans' phone calls and e-mails for 'suspicious' patterns."

Bankston alleged, "It's the collaboration of U.S. telecom companies like AT&T that makes it possible."

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