(Newswire.net — August 16, 2015) — New York – US telecom giant AT&T had a key role in helping the National Security Agency (NSA) intercept and monitor Internet traffic the New York Times reported.
Among many instances of close cooperation, AT&T helped the NSA tap communications at UN headquarters in New York. according to a report based on documents leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. The report showed AT&T was more than cooperative, describing the company’s “extreme willingness to help.”
Being “highly cooperative” AT&T provided technical assistance in wiretapping complete IP communications in UN headquarters, which is an AT&T customer. The American telecom giant provided to NSA access to all mails between UN offices and the third parties, regardless on rank and status.
According to the report, AT&T was, under its own initiative, engaged in finding the loopholes in the law that enable them to deliver the NSA the documents they requested.
From 2011 onward, the company provided NSA with billions of telephone recordings and e-mail messages intercepting international and foreign-to-foreign communications.
The files revealed that AT&T technicians were the first to get the latest spying technologyfrom the NSA to install on their hubs. Reportedly, the company installed surveillance equipment in at least 17 of its major US internet hubs, thought to be a lot more than Verizon installed.
“This is a partnership, not a contractual relationship,” one document said, warning NSA officials to be polite and professional. “[AT&T’s] corporate relationships provide unique accesses to other telecoms and ISPs [Internet service providers],” said another.
Due the vast world’s communication passes through US cables and servers, AT&T gave access NSA to foreign-to-foreign internet traffic.
When the scandal broke out, the AT&T’s representative Brad Burns told Reuters the company unwillingly had to comply to NSA and FBI helping with the crucial information, “for example, in kidnapping situations.“
In June 2013, Snowden, a former NSA contractor, blew the whistle on the agency’s mass surveillance of Americans, handing over an archive of documents to journalist Glenn Greenwald and selected media organizations around the world.
After the US government revoked his passport, he was stranded in a Moscow airport, reportedly on his way to Latin America. Snowden then applied for temporary asylum in Russia, where he has been living and working since.