US asks court to drop eavesdropping suit

The government argued the suit by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) was groundless and that its hearing could threaten national security by revealing how authorities gather intelligence.

AT and T has neither confirmed nor denied sharing its customers' phone, e-mail and Internet records with authorities. It said such a suit should be brought against the government itself and that the existing case was based on unsubstantiated media reports.

US District Court Judge Vaughn Walker said before adjourning the hearings that secret privilege "is not unlimited" and promised to weigh the US request.

The high-profile eavesdropping suit hearing came as Washington was forced on the defense on yet another privacy issue Friday amid revelations that authorities have been secretly monitoring international banking transaction since the September 2001 attacks.

In both cases, the US administration has argued that revealing details of how it tries to track down terror suspects would only assist the enemy and hurt Washington's efforts to counter terrorist threats.

But EFF argued Friday that authorities had badly trampled on Americans' privacy rights.

The suit accuses AT and T of letting the National Security Agency (NSA) to install call and data interception and "trap-and-trace" equipment in a transmission center room.

Only workers with NSA clearance could get into the room while AT and T embarked on the "wholesale acquistion" of telephone and e-mail activity of millions of US residents for the spy agency, EFF lawyers argued in court.

"It was illegal collusion with the government and reckless disregard," said EFF attorney Kevin Bankston.

While refusing to confirm or deny tracking AT and T records, federal attorneys argued that EFF was basing its information on speculative public reports.

But to "clarify the muddy picture" over intelligence gathering would only assist the enemy, Assistant US Attorney Peter Keisler told the court.

Spying sources and methods are "the crown jewels of what you do in intelligence" and the case had to be thrown out in the interest of national security, Keisler said.

"We are not saying that the allegations are true or that they are false," Keisler told the judge. "Just that it would expose national secrets to figure that out."

Meanwhile the phone company itself told the court Friday that it was "a passive instrument of the government, a tool that the government is using" and should be immune from this type of lawsuit, company attorney Brad Berenson told Walker.

"The action should be against the government, not AT and T," Berenson said.