I work for a telecommunications company

[dave29]

if I find out it has been participating with the NSA in these unlawful activities against Americans, what are my options? Can we file a class action lawsuit?

[RB TexLa]

1. What are you going to sue for?

[guruoo]

3. Here's a case in the works...

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/12/23/nsa/index_np.html
Lawsuit against Bush?

The attorney for the only known target of NSA eavesdropping
says his client would be happy to sue the president.

By Michael Scherer

AP Photo

Iyman Faris

Iyman Faris, the only named American target of the National Security Agency's secret warrantless wiretap program, will consider a lawsuit against the president of the United States, according to his criminal defense attorney, David Smith.

"I am sure he would be delighted to sue President Bush," said Smith, of the law firm English & Smith in Alexandria, Va., who is representing Faris in his criminal appeals. "He may be the only person in the country who can."

To accomplish this goal, Smith has issued an all points bulletin for civil liberties attorneys and constitutional scholars interested in taking up his client's case. "If some lawyer would like to sue on behalf of Faris, I would be happy to introduce them," Smith told Salon Thursday evening. "I've got the man here."

[RB TexLa]

4. Well yeah, that person

I was wondering who or what the OP wanted to sue for.

[guruoo]

5. There's a provision for it in Patriot Act...

http://www.ncsl.org/programs/press/2002/issues/surveillance.htm

The USA PATRIOT Act also allows federal officials to obtain a
wiretapping order that allows them to follow a suspect to any
telephone the person uses. Previous law permitted wiretaps only
on specified telephone lines. The act also permits people to sue
if the federal government discloses information gained through
surveillance and wiretapping powers. Because most state electronic
surveillance laws are modeled on federal acts, state legislators
now may need to consider whether to amend their own state laws to
include these additional provisions.

[RB TexLa]

7. Sorry, read the OP

The OP is rightfully upset at the idea that the company they work for might be involved in the spying, not that the OP has been spied on.

[guruoo]

17. Yes, but the OP can find out who has been spied upon n/t

[aquart]

9. Was it Paula Jones who gave Faris the right to sue Bush?

Or can't he be sued for anything done as president?

[Silverhair]

11. The POTUS can't be sued for official acts done as POTUS.

But he can be sued for private actions done as an ordinary person.

[aquart]

16. So I can sue him for tinkling on my lawn, but not treason?

[guruoo]

19. Can * be sued as an individual for actions taken outside POTUS authority?

[dave29]

6. I don't know

I just know I have no desire to allow my company to unlawfully spy on the citizens of this country, without my knowledge. To think I may have assisted just by being employed makes me sick to my stomach.

[RB TexLa]

8. Hopefully they weren't n/t

[guruoo]

20. But you wouldn't have been able to do anything about it had you

not found yourself in this position.
And isn't that what's most important?

[DesEtoiles]

2. FOIA

[TexasProgresive]

10. Hey, Dave

I work for a telecommunications company in the central office. Years ago (early 90's?)equipment was installed in our switch rooms that belonged to the FBI. What this stuff does is anyones guess. But I suspect it allows software wire taps from a remote location, say DC.

[lpbk2713]

15. I know what you mean ..... And without naming names

an international business machine :eyes: company was involved in the I&M of that particular switch in the area where I worked at about the same time. It was located in a separate locked room all by itself in the CO.

[chat_noir]

12. ACLU Files Challenge to Online Wiretapping Power Grab

The American Civil Liberties Union today filed a legal challenge to an order from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that would dramatically increase the government’s surveillance powers on the Internet.

“The FCC has unilaterally granted the FBI a sweeping expansion of its surveillance powers on the Internet, far in excess of what Congress authorized or intended,” said Chris Calabrese, Program Counsel for the ACLU’s Technology and Liberty Project. “If the Justice Department or the FCC want to expand surveillance powers, they need to go back and ask Congress to vote on it. In the meantime, we are asking the Court to rein the Commission back in.”

At issue is the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), a controversial 1994 law that allows the FBI to force the telecommunications industry to build its technology in particular ways in order to make wiretapping easier. When Congress approved the statute, it restricted its application to traditional telephone companies, while explicitly exempting “information services” such as the Internet. But, at the prompting of the Department of Justice, the FCC ruled in September that CALEA does apply to companies that provide software allowing Internet users to talk to each other and users of regular telephones – so-called “Voice Over Internet Protocol” applications, or VOIP.

http://www.aclu.org/privacy/internet/22053prs20051201.html

[baldguy]

13. Steal all the info you can about it

Send it to Greg Palast, Will Pitt, The Guardian in the UK, Randi Rhodes and every other media outlet that still cares about the truth.

[chat_noir]

14. DU Media List

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_oet&address=358x1903

[ThomWV]

18. You Could Sue If You Were Instructed To Perform An Illegal Act

And either there had to be coercion because you knew it to be a legal act or there had to be subterfuge, in that you did not know it was an illegal act, assuming it was a normal work duty, but your company did know it was illegal. In either case you could sue. Otherwise you are just a spectator, just like the rest of us.

[guruoo]

21. Did you see this NYT story?

NYT: NSA Spying Broader Than Bush Admitted


NEW YORK (AP) - The National Security Agency has conducted much broader surveillance of e-mails and phone calls - without court orders - than the Bush administration has acknowledged, The New York Times reported on its Web site.

The NSA, with help from American telecommunications companies, obtained access to streams of domestic and international communications, said the Times in the report late Friday, citing unidentified current and former government officials.

The story did not name the companies.
<snip>

The story quoted a former technology manager at a major telecommunications firm as saying that companies have been storing information on calling patterns since the Sept. 11 attacks, and giving it to the federal government. Neither the manager nor the company he worked for was identified.

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp?idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20051224%2F0700426712.htm