Whistle-blower says AT&T gave spy agency access to network
SAN FRANCISCO — AT&T Inc. and an Internet advocacy group are waging in federal court a privacy battle that could expose the reach of the Bush administration’s secretive domestic wiretapping program.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation said it obtained documents from a former AT&T technician showing that the National Security Agency is capable of monitoring all communications on AT&T’s network.
"It appears the NSA is capable of 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,” whistle-blower Mark Klein, who worked for the company for 22 years, said in a statement released by his lawyers.
U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker is considering whether to unseal documents that Klein provided and AT&T wants kept secret. EFF filed the documents under seal as a courtesy to the phone company, but is seeking to unseal them.
The EFF lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, seeks to stop the surveillance program that started shortly after the 2001 terror attacks. The suit is based in large part on the Klein documents, which detail secret spying rooms and electronic surveillance equipment in AT&T facilities.
The suit claims AT&T company not only provided direct access to its network that carries voice and data but also to its massive databases of stored telephone and Internet records that are updated constantly.
Disney reopens ‘Mission: Space’ after woman’s death
ORLANDO, Fla. — Walt Disney World reopened its "Mission: Space” attraction Thursday, a day after a woman who became ill after leaving the ride died at a hospital.
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It was the second death in less than a year related to the Epcot Center ride, which spins riders in a centrifuge that subjects them to twice the normal force of gravity. It is considered so intense it has motion sickness bags and signs warning people with heart, back and neck problems not to board it.
The 49-year-old German woman who died Wednesday had reported dizziness and nausea after stepping off the ride on Tuesday, Disney officials said.
Sen. Hillary Clinton raises cash like a presidential candidate
WASHINGTON — Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is raising money like a presidential candidate even though she’s only running against poorly funded Senate opponents. The New York lawmaker, a potential 2008 presidential candidate, raised more than $6 million in the first three months of the year, according to papers filed Thursday with the Federal Election Commission.
The $2 million-a-month fundraising pace gave her $19.7 million cash on hand at the end of March for her Senate re-election.
"It’s mind-blowing. She is raising money at a presidential level,” said Doug Muzzio, a professor at Baruch College in New York.
The two main challengers to Clinton's bid for a second term each reported less than $500,000 as they vie for the Republican nomination.
Former Yonkers mayor John Spencer raised $1.1 million during the first quarter of this year and had $340,000 on hand, while Kathleen Troia "KT" McFarland, a former Reagan-era Pentagon official, raised about $200,000 and has $430,000 on hand.
The Clinton campaign trumpeted how much of its money came from the small-level, Internet-driven donations. More than 250,000 individuals donated to her 2006 campaign, and only one out of every 20 donations she received this quarter were larger than $100, the campaign said.<

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