The Whistleblower Who Uncovered the NSA’s ‘Big Brother Machine’

Key Points:

• In January 2006, Mark Klein, a retired AT&T technician, unexpectedly visited the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) with concrete evidence that the NSA was conducting mass, untargeted wiretapping of internet communications from an AT&T facility in San Francisco.
• Klein revealed that a secret room (641A) in the AT&T Folsom Street building housed equipment allowing the NSA to split and copy fiber-optic internet traffic, enabling covert surveillance on millions of Americans without slowing or altering the data flow.
• This disclosure confirmed longstanding suspicions about illegal domestic surveillance programs that violated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and the Patriot Act, providing EFF with key evidence to pursue legal action against mass government spying.
• EFF coordinated legal representation for Klein and filed a motion for a preliminary injunction in March 2006, submitting Klein’s declaration and AT&T documents to the court, while navigating concerns over potential classification and legal risks related to the sensitive evidence.
• Despite fears about possession of possibly classified information, EFF maintained that exposing the unconstitutional surveillance program was essential, emphasizing that classification should not shield illegal government activities from judicial review.