Context of 'January 10, 2003: New Generation of Nuclear Weapons Discussed at Conference'

The NSA’s secret room in the AT&T switching center. [Source: PBS]AT&T communications technician Mark Klein observes a room being built in AT&T’s switching center in San Francisco that will allow NSA technicians to monitor the domestic and international phone conversations by customers of the telecommunications firm. Klein will later submit an affidavit to this effect as part of the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s lawsuit against AT&T (see January 31, 2006). According to Klein’s affidavit, the NSA interviewed an AT&T technician in 2002, and the firm assigned that technician to install equipment in that secret room. “The regular technician work force was not allowed in the room.” Klein helps connect Internet circuitry to a splitting cabinet that leads into the secret room. Klein also learns that similar cabinets are being installed in AT&T centers in other cities, including Seattle, San Jose, Los Angeles, and San Diego. Klein will state, “While doing my job, I learned that fiber optic cables from the secret room were tapping into the Worldnet (AT&T’s internet service) circuits by splitting off a portion of the light signal.” The circuitry allows AT&T to divert traffic to and from its network from other domestic and international providers to the NSA monitoring equipment, meaning that even citizens who do not use AT&T as their provider can be monitored. Klein will note that the secret room contains, among other equipment, a sophisticated data-mining computer called a Narus STA 6400, a “Semantic Traffic Analyzer… known to be used particularly by government intelligence agencies because of its ability to sift through large amounts of data looking for preprogrammed targets.” Narus sells software that assists Internet service providers (ISPs) and telecoms such as AT&T in monitoring and managing their networks, find intrusions, and wiretap phone calls when ordered to do so by the federal government. Klein will state that he does not believe the Bush administration’s claims that the government is only monitoring international conversations, and then only when direct evidence shows links to terrorist groups or operations. “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,” Klein will write. “And unlike the controversy over targeted wiretaps of individuals’ phone calls, this potential spying appears to be applied wholesale to all sorts of internet communications of countless citizens.” [Wired News, 4/7/2006; Wired News, 4/7/2006; Democracy Now!, 5/12/2006] The San Francisco facility is apparently connected to a more central surveillance facility operated out of one of AT&T’s main command centers in Missouri (see Late 2002).

Entity Tags: Bush administration, AT&T, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Mark Klein, Terrorist Surveillance Program, National Security Agency

Timeline Tags: Civil Liberties

Defense Department officials and representatives from the Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos laboratories attend the “Stockpile Stewardship Conference Planning Meeting” called by Dale Klein, the assistant to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, to prepare for a secret conference on nuclear weapons during the week of August 4, 2003 (see Early August 2003). The purpose of the conference will be to discuss the construction of a new generation of nuclear weapons, including “low-yield” neutron bombs designed to destroy chemical or biological agents and “mini-nukes,” or “bunker-busters,” which could be used to destroy underground targets. Another purpose of the meeting will be to consider restarting nuclear testing and to discuss how the American public can be convinced that the new weapons are necessary. [San Francisco Chronicle, 2/15/2003; Guardian, 2/19/2003; Washington Post, 2/20/2003]

Entity Tags: Dale Klein

Timeline Tags: US Military

During the week marking the 48th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 150 people attend a secret conference at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska to discuss plans to develop a new generation of nuclear weapons, including the so-called “mini-nukes” and “bunker busters,” that could be used against rogue states and terrorist organizations. The B-29 planes that dropped the atomic bombs on the two Japanese cities, Enola Gay and Bock’s Car, were both built at Offutt. Another topic to be discussed is whether the development of nuclear weapons would require a repeal of the 1992 “Spratt-Furse restriction,” which banned such weapons. Though the exact identities of the attendees are not known, unnamed sources tell the Guardian of London that the meeting is attended by scientists and administrators from the three main nuclear weapons laboratories, Los Alamos, Sandia and Livermore; senior officers from the air force and strategic command; weapons contractors; and civilian defense officials. No representatives from Congress, however, are at the meeting. According to the Guardian, “Requests by Congress to send observers were rejected, and an oversight committee which included academic nuclear experts was disbanded only a few weeks earlier.” One congressional weapons expert tells the London newspaper, “I was specifically told I couldn’t come.” [Guardian, 8/7/2003] According to the January meeting that had planned for this event (see January 10, 2003), other issues to be addressed include the possible recommencement of nuclear testing and how to convince the American public the new nuclear weapons are necessary.

Entity Tags: US Congress

Timeline Tags: US Military