The Government has Secret Listening Posts in Every Major City

[Music]. new york city has skyscrapers of all. shapes and sizes. but why does this 500 foot tall 29 story. building have no windows. no lights and no markings at all well. because it's a top secret nsa spy. station. built to withstand nuclear war let's. find out why.

[Applause]. [Music]. new york city architecture covers. everything art deco gothic art nouveau. renaissance revival in the 1950s. a style emerged called brutalism and. brutalist architecture is known for. focusing on function over form and. minimalism but there's one brutalist. building in new york that's so. minimalist. that has been called the most mysterious. building in new york it's 33 thomas. street. and it's a 500 foot tall skyscraper with.

no exterior lighting. and has no windows what 33 thomas street. does have. is secrets officially this is an att. telecommunications building. but thanks to leaked documents we now. know that 33 thomas street is actually a. top secret nsa mass surveillance hub. its code name is titan point and right. now as we speak. titan point is listening the 1960s was. the height of the cold war. everyone thought nuclear war was.

imminent so the us. desperate to protect its infrastructure. launched a secret project called. project x project x you're kidding right. no that's what it was called. they're usually more creative the goal. of project x. was to build a skyscraper in the middle. of new york city capable of withstanding. a nuclear blast. the building would be 29 floors have no. windows. three basement levels and enough food to. last. 1500 people two weeks but its primary. purpose was not to protect humans.

this would be a fortress designed to. protect computers and telecommunications. equipment. operated by at t for two years secret. documents leaked by former national. security contractor edward snowden. have yielded a steady stream of news. reports about u.s. government spying on terrorism suspects. foreign leaders. and american citizens now another. chapter has been revealed how. telecommunications giant a t. demonstrated a quote extreme willingness. to help the nsa.

the building was designed by john karl. warnicky and construction began in 1969. and was completed in 1974. the gray granite tower is located at 33. thomas street in lower manhattan. and locals know the building as the long. lines building and it's been a source of. mystery for years. what jumps out is that the building has. no windows and no exterior lighting. so during the day it kind of fades into. the background of the new york city. skyline. at night it becomes an invisible shadow. now thanks to nsa documents leaked by.

edward snowden. we now know that creating an invisible. building wasn't an accident. it was absolutely by design. it's not unusual to keep locations. containing vital telecommunications. equipment a secret. hundreds of millions of phone calls and. faxes go through 33 thomas street. every day but 33 thomas street has. another level of secrecy.

it also appears to be one of the most. important national security agency. surveillance sites. on u.s soil a secret monitoring hub that. is used to tap into phone calls. faxes and internet data 33 thomas street. operates under nsa code name titan point. and titan point is a core location used. for controversial. and possibly illegal nsa sponsored mass. surveillance. according to leaked documents this. program has targeted the communications. of the un. the world bank the imf it's been used to.

spy on at least 38 countries. including u.s allies like france germany. and japan. now it's common knowledge that att is. very cooperative with the nsa. if you're using an att cell phone you. might want to rethink that. the depth of cooperation between the. agency and telecommunications company at. t the documents reveal the company. allowed the nsa access. to billions of client emails as well as. phone call metadata the emails were. accessible to analysts on a keyword. search basis. i use a burner nice but because of the.

snowden documents. we can now see just how much the nsa and. att have been. integrated any phone call fax or piece. of data that comes through the network. the nsa can easily capture it the. government knows who you're calling and. when. they know how long you talk and what. keywords you say now. legally the nsa can only target the. communications of foreign nationals. but all the equipment is there it's. already working. so do you think the nsa really stops. listening when it determines that you're.

a us citizen. exactly if you could give me a yes or no. answer to the question. does the nsa collect any type of data. at all on millions or hundreds of. millions of americans. no sir it does not. not wittingly there are cases where. they could inadvertently perhaps. uh collect but not not wittingly.

the code name titan point is all over. the nsa documents. usually found in classified reports. about surveillance ops. nsa uses code names to conceal. information that it considers. especially sensitive and there are. secret nsa travel guides that reveal. that titan point is actually 33 thomas. street. but you have to kind of piece it. together one guide was written to help. nsa employees visiting facilities around.

the country. this guide discloses that titan point is. in new york city. another travel guide written a little. later states that an nsa corporate. partner code name. lithium supervises the site and lithium. we know now. is nsa's code name for at t another. document. reveals that titan point is a short walk. away from the fbi field office. in fact from the front steps of 33. thomas you can see the fbi building it's. about two blocks away. so yeah this is the place now when.

visiting titan point. protocol is to arrange your visit. through the fbi field office. you should then hire a cover vehicle. through the fbi especially if you're. bringing in equipment. the nsa would like you to remain in. cover during your visit so please do not. display any nsa badge or insignia. simply ring the buzzer sign in have a. seat and wait. someone will be right down but what's. actually going on inside. well if you're a fan of privacy freedom. and the constitution. you're not going to like it no no.

in 1975 just a year after 33 thomas. street was completed. the nsa found themselves in hot water a. congressional inquiry showed that the. nsa. was spying on anti-vietnam war activists. that's not legal is it. it's not according to the fourth. amendment the government can't gather. data on you without a warrant. signed by a judge a judge isn't going to. sign a warrant without the suspicion of. a crime. being against a war isn't a crime so. rather than bother a judge. they just started collecting data on all.

kinds of people. like prominent leaders of the civil. rights movement like dr king muhammad. ali was targeted. anti-war journalists and columnists. working at the washington post and new. york times. were targeted surveilled spied on after. this scandal. congress created the foreign. intelligence surveillance act which you. might have heard referred to as fisa. now fisa limits surveillance to foreign. nationals and agents of foreign powers. and under fisa the executive branch must. request. warrants from a newly formed fisa court. i bet the nsa hated these new rules.

they did did they at least follow the. rules oh man. law didn't seem to have stopped the nsa. according to an annual report released. recently despite having fisa warrants to. spy on only 42 specific terrorism. suspects. last year the national security agency. managed to collect. 151 million american phone call records. what is the nsa doing and does it. justify the massive violation of your. privacy. the leaked nsa documents exposed an nsa.

surveillance program. codenamed blarney blarney was. established in the early 1970s. and as far as we know it's still. operating blarney specifically leverages. commercial. partnerships like the one with a t that. allows the nsa to gain access to global. networks. blarney is what's called a full take. surveillance program. meaning it collects not just metadata. like who you're calling and when. but full content like what you're saying. and what you're doing online now as of. the time of the leak. the nsa had obtained at least 40 fisa.

court orders for spying under project. blarney. now targets were major banks around the. world all kinds of companies. and 38 countries they also targeted the. united nations. did the u.n find out of course they did. and they weren't pleased about it but. what's the us going to say. the data coming from blarney was landing. in the president's daily briefing. both republicans and democrats there's. not much of a difference between those. two. there's not but if there's one thing all. presidents can agree on. is that they love spying on their.

enemies both foreign and domestic. no more illegal wiretapping of american. citizens. no more national security letters to spy. on citizens who are not suspected of a. crime. no more tracking citizens who do nothing. more than protest. a misguided war so instead let's track. every citizen the project blarney. running out of titan point in new york. is one of three key nsa locations that. actually captures data from software. like skype and zoom. and 33 thomas street is one of only a. few att.

buildings with an fcc satellite license. so the nsa not only captures data coming. through landlines. but also vacuums up data from space this. type of expansive surveillance creates a. ton of data that has to go somewhere. so enter project skid row. [Applause]. skid row is a program that allows nsa. employees to search through huge. quantities of user data like. actual emails online chat message boards. texts. passwords even people's browser history. this data is all being collected.

right now and how much of that data is. legally collected well there's no way to. know for sure there's really not a lot. of oversight. but an agency like the nsa needs to be. watched. i mean remember how the nsa hacked. google and yahoo and we're secretly. capturing all the data inside those. private. clouds what oh you don't know that one. well that's another video but always. assume that if you're online. you're being watched any intelligence. service in the world can own that phone. the minute it connects to their network.

as soon as you turn it on. it can be theirs they can turn it into a. microphone they can take pictures from. it. they can take the data off now at. t is far from the only corporate. relationship the nsa has. the agency has established at least 80. corporate partnerships that we're aware. of. but some companies are more cooperative. than others att. is notorious for being on very friendly. terms with the government the new york. times and others have reported that at. t has given billions of emails to the.

nsa. a range of evidence including technical. terms specific to at t. points to the company being the nsa's. partner the documents refer to the. company being. highly collaborative and commend its. extreme willingness to help. and this has been corroborated by a. whistleblower who's part of a. class-action lawsuit against the nsa. but george bush simply disregarded the. face of law. and approved it all on his own signature. which was totally illegal. i might add that while there are a few. dissidents in both parties like.

rand paul in the republican side and. ron wyden on the democratic side is that. both parties. approve this when they passed the. immunity bill for the phone companies. in 2008 with the help of barack obama i. might add. um and that killed the lawsuit the case. is joule v nsa which was filed almost 15. years ago. and still going on in 2017 a judge. ordered the nsa to provide evidence. proving or denying that it spied on at t. customers. did they provide it nah they appealed.

still in court. still well it's taking so long ah you. know. all of it i'm getting tired of that as. an excuse. titan point is just one location. according to the snowden documents. at t has installed surveillance. equipment in at least 59 u.s locations. and on any given day nsa employees are. on site. gathering data now what's crazy is that. until this leak. most att employees probably weren't.

aware of the nsa's presence. nsa operatives are instructed to blend. in with other workers. they would simply show up go into an. office or a server room and go to work. just like everybody else all of this. should be pretty chilling. america's secret agencies firmly. subscribe to. it's better to ask forgiveness than. permission and the nsa. cia the fbi and others are very willing. to bend the rules. interpret and even break laws to suit. their purposes. all in the name of national security now.

to paraphrase ben franklin. when you trade liberty for security you. end up with neither. and there are many other companies like. att google facebook. that cooperate with the government with. such a lack of friction. that any american citizen should be. concerned those long agreements that you. sign online without reading them. every once in a while read one take note. of how many of your rights you're. surrendering. for the convenience of being able to. post pictures of your cat or leave a. mean comment on a video.

as we willingly surrender more of our. privacy to digital conglomerates. we're also surrendering freedoms like. the freedom from illegal searches and. spying. like the freedom to criticize the. government the freedom to publicly. disagree with popular ideas. we are guilty of being complicit in this. erosion of our freedoms. and once freedoms are fully eroded well. that's called slavery. i can't promise we're not already there. thanks for hanging out with us today my. name is aj that's hecklefish this has.

been the y-files. if you had fun or learned anything today. do me a favor and like subscribe. comment and share the algorithm is. probably part of an nsa surveillance. program. but with your help we can defeat it i. can't wait though. probably not but until next time be safe. be kind. and know that you are appreciated. [Music].

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