They're wasting no time trying to quash this. As you may know, the EFF has filed suit against AT&T for allowing the NSA to wiretap its customers and those going through its switches without a warrant. Now, Reuters is reporting...
The U.S. government filed a motion on Saturday to intervene and seek dismissal of a lawsuit by a civil liberties group against AT&T Inc. over a federal program to monitor U.S. communications.
And of course, there's more....
The government is asserting the "states secrets" privilege, basically saying that if AT&T defends itself in court, it would release 'state secrets." And...
"Only the United States is in a position to protect against the disclosure of information over which it has asserted the state secrets privilege, and the United States is the only entity properly positioned to explain why continued litigation of the matter threatens the national security," said the motion, dated May 12.
emphasis mine
Of course, Reuters helpfully explains that the NSA is only doing this in its "...surveillance program to intercept telephone and e-mail communications between the United States and people linked to al Qaeda and affiliated organizations," and it was the "revelation in December that the NSA was eavesdropping inside the United States without warrants on international calls and e-mails of terrorism suspects sparked an uproar."
Nothing to see here. Move along. That's why they did it on Saturday morning when the court supposedly isn't in session.
Reuters: Motion filed to intervene in AT&T secrets case
NSA Afraid to Go To FISA - diary by Vyan, so you won't miss it because pertinent to this.