Dragnet Surveillance

Citing the state secrets privilege and other legal claims, the Obama administration urged a federal judge here Wednesday to dismiss a lawsuit claiming Americans’ electronic communications are being siphoned to the National Security Agency without warrants.

According to Threat Level, the lawsuit began in 2006, originally targeting the nation’s telecommunication companies, shortly after President George W. Bush publicly acknowledged the so-called Terror Surveillance Program. Under that plan, adopted following the 2001 terror attacks, Bush conceded that the government was eavesdropping on Americans’ electronic communications without warrants or congressional authorization.

The lawsuit is based on a former AT&T technician's documentation of a secret room in AT&T’s Folsom Street central office in San Francisco that allegedly siphoned internet backbone traffic to the National Security Agency.