Telecom giant pulled into domestic eavesdropping controversy

"AT&T, which provides phone and Internet service to millions of Americans, is ensnared in the widening controversy over the Bush administration's domestic eavesdropping: A former employee claims firsthand knowledge of AT&T's cooperation in "wholesale" monitoring of Americans' communications."

"Mark Klein, who says he was an AT&T technician for more than 20 years, says that the company aids the National Security Agency in "conducting what amounts to vacuum-cleaner surveillance of all the data crossing the Internet -- whether that be people's e-mail, Web surfing, or any other data," according to a statement Klein released. AT&T has given the NSA extraordinary access to its central switching offices, the nerve centers of its digital networks, Klein contends."