AT&T Establishes Mass Internet Surveillance Infrastructure for NSA

In the weeks following the 9/11 attacks, AT&T began developing a comprehensive infrastructure to provide the NSA direct access to internet backbone traffic. This involved installing sophisticated fiber-optic splitters at key network switching centers in eight major U.S. cities, enabling the NSA to create real-time duplicates of internet traffic. The infrastructure represented a watershed moment in mass surveillance, creating a systematic method for collecting digital communications without traditional warrant processes.