Electronic Frontier Foundation Sues Government For Participation in Illegal Wiretapping

This image is about as subtle as a political cartoon.

One of the main reasons lately to back away from AT&T has been their complicity with the government for participation in illegal wiretapping. I realize that the neoconservatives have never been about small government, but they certainly pretend to bring it up quite often. Let's see how they'll react when their precious "private sector" steps in to enforce the Bill of Rights for them:

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a lawsuit against the National Security Agency (NSA) and other government agencies today on behalf of AT&T customers to stop the illegal, unconstitutional, and ongoing dragnet surveillance of their communications and communications records. The five individual plaintiffs are also suing President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Cheney's chief of staff David Addington, former Attorney General and White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales and other individuals who ordered or participated in the warrantless domestic surveillance.

The lawsuit, Jewel v. NSA, is aimed at ending the NSA's dragnet surveillance of millions of ordinary Americans and holding accountable the government officials who illegally authorized it. Evidence in the case includes undisputed documents provided by former AT&T telecommunications technician Mark Klein showing AT&T has routed copies of Internet traffic to a secret room in San Francisco controlled by the NSA.

The Fourth Amendment, for the record (thus the term illegal wiretapping):

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

(BoingBoing quoting the EFF press release)