Kevin Bankston Quotations

AT&T is breaking the law and invading the privacy of its customers.

AT&T aided the NSA in intercepting all or a substantial part of communications going over their network. We don't exactly know what the NSA is doing with that data.

Our goal is to go after the people who are making the government's illegal surveillance possible. They could not do what they are doing without the help of companies like AT&T. We want to make it clear to AT&T that it is not in their legal or economic interests to violate the law whenever the president asks them to.

We're alleging the violation of multiple federal statutes regarding wiretapping and privacy of communications records. We're saying that by giving direct access to key telecom facilities in the U.S., AT&T gave the NSA access to nearly all of the communications going over the AT&T network.

I think now they're just realizing the scales are tilting against them, and (appeals are) going to be unavoidable.

But, it's at least wearing a grey hat.

I think we are going to definitely have a fight on state-secret issues. I would also point out that the state-secret privilege has never come up in a case where the rights of so many have been at issue.

There are rules prohibiting wiretapping and when companies can release this kind of information. And since AT&T is acting as an agent of the government, we're also alleging constitutional violations of First- and Fourth-amendment rights to privacy.

Based on the published reports and after a reasonable investigation, we think that discovery is going to show that AT&T has opened up its network to direct access by the NSA.

The NSA program is apparently the biggest fishing expedition ever devised, scanning millions of ordinary Americans' phone calls and emails for 'suspicious' patterns, and it's the collaboration of US telecom companies like AT&T that makes it possible.