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This new piece by @rj_gallagher and I has been underway for a long time. I I'm immensely happy to share it with you: https://theintercept.com/2018/06/25/att-internet-nsa-spy-hubs/
Some background: In 2005 NYT first reported on the NSAs warrantless wiretapping program https://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/16/politics/bush-lets-us-spy-on-callers-without-courts.html
This report motivated AT&T technician and whistleblower Mark Klein to come forward. In 2006 Klein alleged, in a sworn court declaration https://www.eff.org/files/filenode/att/ser_klein_decl.pdf, that the NSA was tapping into internet traffic from a secure room inside AT&Ts 611 Folsom Street S.F. facility.
Fast forward to 2015. Using Snowden documents, I and a team from @ProPublica and @nytimes documented AT&T “decades-long” partnership - codenamed FAIRVIEW - with the NSA: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/us/politics/att-helped-nsa-spy-on-an-array-of-internet-traffic.html
In the documents published with that story there was a map showing the FAIRVIEW surveillance architecture. In this new report, we focused on eight blue dots on that map, described as “Service Node Routing Complexes,” or SNRCs, by both NSA and AT&T.
Using open sources, we found the locations of the SNRCs. It was not easy. Starting with this 2009 (found here https://www.business.att.com/content/productbrochures/MIS_15906.pdf we found the eight cities:
Another AT&T map gave us the first pointer, as to how to locate the buildings. The NYC building was labelled "NY54" which a source confirmed to us was 811 10th Street, the NYC SNRC. It also helped find the other locations.
Using these partial location codes I found vector map nested inside presentations by several AT&T Labs researchers ( http://www.knom.or.kr/NOMS2010Keynote-Belanger.pdf) The map contained location codes revealing the locations of the eight SNRCs:
For example, WASHDCSW ( https://www.telcodata.us/search-switches-by-clli-code?cllicode=WASHDCSW) translates to WASHINGTON SOUTHWEST located at 30 E St SW in Washington DC https://goo.gl/maps/P4MCLnEEnQv:
During our reporting we realized these locations perform a function that is of key importance to the FAIRVIEW program:
This is how, according to Mark Klein, NSA gets “all the data that’s interchanged between AT&T’s network and other companies”. Here’s Mark Klein in 1983
Please read, enjoy, and share this story. Huge thanks to everybody who contributed, in particular everybody @theintercept for their patience and help. I'll share more later in the day.
