INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
A new report from The Intercept sheds light on the NSA close relationship with communications provider ATT.
The Intercept identified eight
facilities across the U.S
that function as hubs for ATT efforts to collaborate with the intelligence agency
The site first identified one potential hub of this kind in 2017 in lower Manhattan.
The report reveals that eight ATT data facilities in
are regarded as high-value sites to the NSA for giving the agency direct &backbone& access to raw data that passes through, including
emails, web browsing, social media and any other form of unencrypted online activity
The NSA uses the web of eight ATT hubs for a surveillance operation code-named FAIRVIEW, a program previously reported by The New York Times
The program, first established in 1985, &involves tapping into international telecommunications cables, routers, and switches& and only
coordinates directly with ATT and not the other major U.S
mobile carriers.
ATT deep involvement with the NSA monitoring program operated under the code name SAGUARO
Messaging, email and other web traffic accessed through the program was made searchable through XKEYSCORE, one of the NSA more infamous
search-powered surveillance tools.
The Intercept explains how those sites give the NSA access to data beyond just ATT subscribers:
The data
exchange between ATT and other networks initially takes place outside ATT control, sources said, at third-party data centers that are owned
and operated by companies such as California Equinix
But the data is then routed & in whole or in part & through the eight ATT buildings, where the NSA taps into it
By monitoring what it calls the &peering circuits& at the eight sites, the spy agency can collect ¬ only ATT data, they get all the data
that interchanged between ATT network and other companies,& according to Mark Klein, a former ATT technician who worked with the company for
22 years.
The NSA describes these locations as &peering link router complex& sites while ATT calls them &Service Node Routing Complexes&
The eight complexes are spread across the nation major cities, with locations in Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York City, San
Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C
The Intercept report identifies these facilities:
Among the pinpointed buildings, there is a nuclear blast-resistant, windowless facility in
New York City Hell Kitchen neighborhood; in Washington, D.C., a fortress-like, concrete structure less than half a mile south of the U.S
Capitol; in Chicago, an earthquake-resistant skyscraper in the West Loop Gate area; in Atlanta, a 429-foot art deco structure in the heart
of the city downtown district; and in Dallas, a cube-like building with narrow windows and large vents on its exterior, located in the Old
East district.
… in downtown Los Angeles, a striking concrete tower near the Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Staples Center, two blocks
from the most important internet exchange in the region; in Seattle, a 15-story building with blacked-out windows and reinforced concrete
foundations, near the city waterfront; and in San Francisco South of Market neighborhood, a building where it was previously claimed that
the NSA was monitoring internet traffic from a secure room on the sixth floor.
While these facilities could allow for the monitoring of
traffic, they also process vast quantities of international traffic as it moves across the globe — a fact that likely explains why the NSA
would view these ATT nodes as such high-value sites
The original documents, part of the leaked files provided by Edward Snowden, are available in the original report.
