The U.S. government is apparently spying on all Internet traffic and voice calls going through AT&T's backbones, according to a former employee of the company who testified before the Congress. Mark Klein, a former AT&T technician, says that the National Security Agency (NSA) installed special equipment which splits communication backbones and sends an exact copy to the government. Indiscriminately, and without any warrant.

The U.S. government could peek at any e-mail, Web search, phone call or data transfer sent trough AT&T which also serves more than a dozen global and regional telecom providers. Contrary to the government's version which claims the surveillance program as aimed at overseas terrorists, Mark Klein said the large majority of the data sent by AT&T to the NSA was purely domestic.

Mr. Klein saw wiring diagrams for an AT&T office in San Francisco, where he worked, which showed special optic splitters were installed to send the entire traffic to a secret room built by the NSA. "That was my 'aha' moment," Klein said. "They're sending the entire Internet to the secret room."

"This splitter was sweeping up everything, vacuum-cleaner-style," he said. "The NSA is getting everything. These are major pipes that carry not just AT&T's customers but everybody's."

"I flipped out," he further said. "They're copying the whole Internet. There's no selection going on here. Maybe they select out later, but at the point of handoff to the government, they get everything."

Apparently, there are 15 to 20 such sites throughout AT&T network across the nation. AT&T actions are illegal under the 1986 Stored Communications Act. The law forbids telephone companies and computer-service providers from giving the government records showing who customers had dialed or e-mailed without a warrant or court order.

Klein is thus urging the United States Congress to reject a bid from the White House to block a class-action suit pending in federal court in San Francisco, and 37 other lawsuits charging carriers with illegally collaborating with the NSA program.

"If they've done something massively illegal and unconstitutional - well, they should suffer the consequences," Klein said. "It's not my place to feel bad for them. They made their bed. They have to lie in it."

AT&T has been a part in other scandals related with its support of the Bush administration. In August 2007, they cut off a webcast by band Pearl Jam because they started playing a version of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall" but with altered lyrics critical of president George Bush. Later on, spokesman Michael Coe said that the silencing was a mistake.