SAN FRANCISCO, May 14 (UPI) -- Federal lawyers have asked a San Francisco judge to dismiss a lawsuit claiming AT&T broke federal and state laws by cooperating with warrantless wiretapping.
The Justice Department filed the motion Saturday, arguing that the lawsuit would expose matters too sensitive for public discussion, The Los Angeles Times reported. The filing was supported by statements from Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte and National Security Agency Director Lt. Gen. Keith B. Alexander.
Negroponte and Alexander said they could neither confirm nor deny specific allegations in the lawsuit without risking disclosure of secret methods. Longer versions of the documents were put under seal, where opposing attorneys said they would be unable to read them.
The suit, filed in January by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties organization, is intended to make public the extent of the Bush administration's monitoring of electronic communications without a warrant.
Retired AT&T technician Mark Klein has said in an affidavit the company provided the NSA with facilities to monitor telephone and Internet traffic. Klein said he helped set up equipment for the NSA, and got involved in the lawsuit because he does not believe the Bush administration is being honest about its surveillance, Wired magazine reported.
