Following my Facebook post noting the passing of one of my personal heroes, loyal listener and superfan Terry Clark of Eureka got in touch, and shared his personal archive of recordings from my syndicated radio show dating back to 2008. Many thanks, Terry!Mark Klein was the retired AT&T technician who was among the first to confirm the massive domestic wiretapping program initiated during the George W. Bush administration. Klein worked at the facility at 611 Folsom Street in San Francisco, and witnessed the buildout of the NSA’s secret room where sophisticated equipment was installed that diverted all West Coast phone and internet traffic to an NSA server farm, believed to be in Bluffdale, Utah.
Mark “went through channels” to expose this huge violation of our Fourth Amendment rights. When he notified Senator Dianne Feinstein, she reported him to the FBI for prosecution. Since Klein had no security clearance, he was not subject to any legal action.
In this appearance on my program, Mark talks about the legislation that was pending at the time–July 3, 2008–that legalized the illegal surveillance that had led top NSA officials like Bill Binney, Tom Drake and Russ Tice to resign in protest. Mark self-published the book Wiring Up the Big Brother Machine–and Fighting It and was supported by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Not only did Mark have working knowledge of the technology that was deployed, he had a deep understanding of the Fourth Amendment and how it was subverted. Your humble host is grateful he got to know Mark Klein, and help share his information and knowledge.