Another person has stepped forward to allege that a “major wireless carrier” may have aided the FBI’s warrantless wiretapping program. He claims he was brought in to work with the company on something called the Quantico Circuit, “a high-speed line from the wireless carrier to an unnamed third party. Quantico, Va., is the site of a U.S. intelligence and military base.”

“The circuit was tied to the organization’s core network,” Pasdar stated in the affidavit. “It had access to the billing system, text messaging, fraud detection, Web site, and pretty much all the systems in the data center without restrictions.”

House Commerce Committee leaders said Pasdar’s allegations echo those previously made by Mark Klein, a retired AT&T technician, in the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s lawsuit against AT&T Inc. More than three dozen lawsuits have been filed against top telecom firms, including parent companies of national mobile-phone operators AT&T Mobility and Verizon Wireless.

“When you put Mr. Pasdar’s information together with that of AT&T whistleblower Mark Klein, there is troubling evidence of telecom misconduct in massive domestic surveillance of ordinary Americans,” said Cindy Cohn, legal director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “Congress needs to have hearings and get some answers about whether American telecommunications companies are helping the government to illegally spy on millions of us. Retroactive immunity for telecom companies now ought to be off the table in the ongoing FISA [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] debate.”

Unlike the Senate, the House of Representatives hasn’t (yet) granted retroactive immunity to any wireless carriers who may have released customers’ private data without permission.

“Whistleblower links wireless carrier to warrantless wiretaps” [RCRWireless News]
(Photo: Getty)

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