-----Original Message-----
From: David Farber [mailto:dave@xxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Sunday, May 14, 2006 17:15
To: ip@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [IP] more on "Whistleblower" is not a mere neologism
Begin forwarded message:
From: Paul Saffo <paul@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: May 14, 2006 5:10:24 PM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: "Whistleblower" is not a mere neologism
Actually, Whistleblower is hardly a neologism. According to
wordorigins.org and several other sources, the word was first used
back in 1970, and the phrase "blow the whistle" dates to 1934.
Neologisms are objectionable when they simply express a
concept more poorly than a pre-existing word -- "detrain" is
thus a poor substitute for "disembark."
But "whistleblower" neatly captures a concept for which there was no
prior word. Your dislike of the word in this instance only
confirms
that "whistleblower" is no mere neologism, but a euphonious
and descriptive word with the power to persuade. Your
argument would be clearer if you restated it as follows:
"Mr. Klein is not a whistleblower, but a traitor."
-p
On May 14, at , David Farber wrote:
Begin forwarded message:
From: Joe Pistritto <jcp@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: May 14, 2006 4:22:32 PM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx, EEkid@xxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [IP] Whistleblower outs NSA's secret spy room at AT&T
You know, its just deplorable how people are inventing new
words where
old ones are perfectly usable. You know, like "detrain"
and "deplane"
instead
of "disembark". Its really too bad we don't have an
equivalent of
the
French Academy to regulate the use of English the way they do in
French.
In this case, the word you are looking for isn't
"whistleblower", but
rather "traitor".
Best regards,
-jcp-
-----Original Message-----
From: David Farber [mailto:dave@xxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Sunday, May 14, 2006 3:38 AM
To: ip@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [IP] Whistleblower outs NSA's secret spy room at AT&T
Begin forwarded message:
From: EEkid@xxxxxxx
Date: May 13, 2006 8:01:24 PM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Whistleblower outs NSA's secret spy room at AT&T
Whistleblower outs NSA's secret spy room at AT&T
April 08, 2006
Mark Klein, a retired AT&T communications technician, said
the company
shunted all Internet traffic--including traffic from peering links
connecting to other Internet backbone providers-- to
semantic traffic
analyzers, installed in a secret room inside the AT&T
central office
on Folsom Street in San Francisco. Similar rooms were built in
Seattle, San Jose, Los Angeles and San Diego.
"Based on my understanding of the connections and equipment
at issue,
it appears the NSA (National Security Agency) is capable of
conducting
what amounts to vacuum-cleaner surveillance of all the data
crossing
the Internet," Klein said. "This potential spying appears to be
applied wholesale to all sorts of Internet communications
of countless
citizens."
In 2003, the National Security Agency set up a secret room
inside the
phone company's San Francisco office building that was not
accessible
to AT&T technicians, Klein said.
The former employee's statement, as well as several
documents saved by
him after he left the company in 2004, shows further evidence of
domestic spying initiatives by the federal government.
Klein's statement is being incorporated into a class action
filed in
San Francisco federal court, in which lawyers with the Electronic
Frontier Foundation (EFF), Lerach Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman &
Robbins, and Traber & Voorhees in Pasadena claim that AT&T
illegally
allowed the NSA taps.
"Despite what we are hearing, and considering the public
track record
of this administration, I simply do not believe their
claims that the
NSA's spying program is really limited to foreign
communications or is
otherwise consistent with the NSA's charter or with FISA
[the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act]," Klein said.
News that the NSA was working with major telecommunications
companies
first surfaced shortly before Christmas. The Bush
administration has
acknowledged the existence of a domestic spying program, but claims
the executive order was limited to those individuals with known
terrorist ties.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a class-action lawsuit
against AT&T on January 31, 2006, accusing the telecom giant of
violating the law and the privacy of its customers by collaborating
with the National Security Agency in its massive program to wiretap
and data-mine Americans' communications.
"The evidence that we are filing supports our claim that AT&T is
diverting Internet traffic into the hands of the NSA wholesale, in
violation of federal wiretapping laws and the Fourth
Amendment," EFF
Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston said in a statement.
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