EFF is making some progress in their lawsuit against AT&T for handing over logs to NSA for wiretapping:

AT&T has set up a secret, secure room for the NSA in at least one of the company’s facilities — a room into which AT&T has been diverting its customers’ emails and other Internet communications in bulk — according to evidence in key documents partially unsealed today in the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s (EFF’s) class-action lawsuit against the telecom giant.

"Now the public can see firsthand the testimony of Mark Klein, a former AT&T employee who was brave enough to step forward and provide evidence of the company’s illegal collaboration with the NSA," said EFF Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston. "Today we have released some of the evidence supporting our allegation that AT&T has given the NSA direct access to its fiber-optic network, such that the NSA can read the email of anyone and everyone it chooses — all without a warrant or any court supervision, and in clear violation of the law."

The Klein declaration and EFF’s motion for a preliminary injunction against AT&T’s ongoing illegal surveillance were filed under seal last month. But last week, U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker instructed AT&T to work with EFF to narrowly redact the documents and make them available to the public.

Key Portions of Critical Documents Unsealed in AT&T Surveillance Case Technician Describes Secret NSA Room at AT&T Facility, Rebecca Jeschke, EFF, May 25, 2006

For some reason I thought "we" were better than "them" because we had the rule of law. And that without the rule of law it’s hard to have contracts and capitalism, so this sort of law breaking could be considered a risk to business.

-jsq

PS: Seen on  Fergie’s Tech Blog.