Mark Klein

There are few heroes in the battle against the Bush administration in the fight over civil liberties than AT&T whistleblower Mark Klein. Klein's courageous actions are the reason why we know that the NSA has installed direct taps into the backbone of the internet, allowing them to receive all internet traffic and content that crosses hubs. Klein knows because he has seen the physical rooms in AT&T buildings in San Francisco and the documents that prove these rooms exist in AT&T facilities around the country.

Wired's Threat Level blogger Ryan Singel reports that Klein is not only continuing to blow the whistle on AT&T and the NSA, he's putting public political pressure on the Senate on FISA:

[Wednesday]'s vote by Congress effectively gives retroactive immunity to the telecom companies and endorses an all-powerful president. It’s a Congressional coup against the Constitution.

The Democratic leadership is touting the deal as a "compromise," but in fact they have endorsed the infamous Nuremberg defense: "Just following orders." The judge can only check their paperwork. This cynical deal is a Democratic exercise in deceit and cowardice.

Congress has made the FISA law a dead letter--such a law is useless if the president can break it with impunity. Thus the Democrats have surreptitiously repudiated the main reform of the post-Watergate era and adopted Nixon’s line: "When the president does it that means that it is not illegal." This is the judicial logic of a dictatorship.

The surveillance system now approved by Congress provides the physical apparatus for the government to collect and store a huge database on virtually the entire population, available for data mining whenever the government wants to target its political opponents at any given moment—all in the hands of an unrestrained executive power. It is the infrastructure for a police state.

Singel notes that, "Neither the House nor the Senate has had Klein testify, nor have telecom executives testified in open session about their participation."

Here's a short video of Klein talking about what he knows and his efforts to lobby against telecom immunity:

If there is anyone whose presence would better strengthen the constitution of the Senate and make the return to the rule of law more likely, I don't know who it would be. Klein is a true patriot and the Democratic caucus (let alone Republicans) could learn a great deal from his example.

If this man were to ever seek elected office, I would energetically support his campaign.