For at least six years, US anti-drug agents have used subpoenas to routinely gain access to an enormous AT&T database. It’s an intrusion greater in scale and longevity than the NSA’s collection of phone calls, revealed by Edward Snowden’s leaks.

1. DEA has More Extensive Domestic
Phone Surveillance Op than NSA
For at least six years, US anti-drug agents have used subpoenas to routinely gain access to an
enormous AT&T database. It’s an intrusion greater in scale and longevity than the NSA’s collection
of phone calls, revealed by Edward Snowden’s leaks.
As part of the secret Hemisphere Project the government has been paying AT&T to place its
employees in drug-fighting units around the country, the New York Times reports.
The US’s largest telecoms operator has been supplying phone data to the Drug Enforcement
Administration since 1987.
The project coverFor at least six years, US anti-drug agents have used subpoenas to routinely gain
access to an enormous AT&T database. It’s an intrusion greater in scale and longevity than the
NSA’s collection of phone calls, revealed by Edward Snowden’s leaks.
As part of the secret Hemisphere Project the government has been paying AT&T to place its
employees in drug-fighting units around the country, the New York Times reports.
The US’s largest telecoms operator has been supplying phone data to the Drug Enforcement
Administration since 1987.
The project covers every call that passes through an AT&T switch, including those made by clients
of other operators, with some four billion call records added to the database on a daily basis.
And, unlike the much debated NSA data, the Hemisphere data includes information on the location
of those, making the calls.
The New York Times found out about the surveillance program after it received slides, describing
the Hemisphere Project, from peace activist, Drew Hendricks.
The activist said he was sent the PowerPoint presentation – which is unclassified, but marked “Law

2. enforcement sensitive” – in response to a series of public information requests to West Coast police
agencies.
The slides revealed that the program was launched back in 2007 and has been carried out in great
secrecy since then.
“All requestors are instructed to never refer to Hemisphere in any official document,” one of the
slides said.
The paper performed a search of the Nexis database, but found no reference to the program in news
reports or Congressional hearings.
The US administration has acknowledged that Hemisphere is operational in three states, adding that
the project employed routine investigative procedures used in criminal cases for decades and posed
no novel privacy issues.
Justice Department spokesman, Brian Fallon, stressed that it’s crucial that the phone data is stored
by AT&T, and not by the government like in the NSA case. It has requested phone numbers of
interest mainly using what are called “administrative subpoenas,” those issued not by a grand jury
or a judge, but by a federal agency, the DEA.
According to the spokesman, Hemisphere proved especially effective in finding criminals, who
frequently discard their cellphones in order to avoid being tracked by polices.
“Subpoenaing drug dealers’ phone records is a bread-and-butter tactic in the course of criminal
investigations,” he said in a statement.
The 27-slide PowerPoint presentation highlights several cases, in which Hemisphere solved big
crimes, with not all of them being drug-related.
For example, this March it found the new phone number and location of a man, who impersonated a
general at a San Diego Navy base and then ran over a Navy intelligence agent.
In 2011, Hemisphere tracked Seattle drug dealers, who were rotating prepaid phones, leading to the
seizure of 136 kilos of cocaine and $2.2 million.
AT&T spokesman, Mark A. Siegel, declined to answer detailed questions on Hemisphere, only
saying that AT&T “like all other companies, must respond to valid subpoenas issued by law
enforcement.”
Representatives from Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile all declined to comment when asked by the
New York Times whether their companies participated in Hemisphere or any other similar
programs.
An undisclosed federal law enforcement official told the paper the Hemisphere Project was
“singular” and that he knew of no comparable program involving other phone companies.
It’s not the first time AT&T has been involved in federal surveillance programs, the company
operated a telecommunication interception facility for the NSA between 2003 and 2006.
s every call that passes through an AT&T switch, including those made by clients of other operators,
with some four billion call records added to the database on a daily basis.

3. And, unlike the much debated NSA data, the Hemisphere data includes information on the location
of those, making the calls.
The New York Times found out about the surveillance program after it received slides, describing
the Hemisphere Project, from peace activist, Drew Hendricks.
The activist said he was sent the PowerPoint presentation – which is unclassified, but marked “Law
enforcement sensitive” – in response to a series of public information requests to West Coast police
agencies.
The slides revealed that the program was launched back in 2007 and has been carried out in great
secrecy since then.
“All requestors are instructed to never refer to Hemisphere in any official document,” one of the
slides said.
The paper performed a search of the Nexis database, but found no reference to the program in news
reports or Congressional hearings.
The US administration has acknowledged that Hemisphere is operational in three states, adding that
the project employed routine investigative procedures used in criminal cases for decades and posed
no novel privacy issues.
Justice Department spokesman, Brian Fallon, stressed that it’s crucial that the phone data is stored
by AT&T, and not by the government like in the NSA case. It has requested phone numbers of
interest mainly using what are called “administrative subpoenas,” those issued not by a grand jury
or a judge, but by a federal agency, the DEA.
According to the spokesman, Hemisphere proved especially effective in finding criminals, who
frequently discard their cellphones in order to avoid being tracked by polices.
“Subpoenaing drug dealers’ phone records is a bread-and-butter tactic in the course of criminal
investigations,” he said in a statement.
The 27-slide PowerPoint presentation highlights several cases, in which Hemisphere solved big
crimes, with not all of them being drug-related.
For example, this March it found the new phone number and location of a man, who impersonated a
general at a San Diego Navy base and then ran over a Navy intelligence agent.
In 2011, Hemisphere tracked Seattle drug dealers, who were rotating prepaid phones, leading to the
seizure of 136 kilos of cocaine and $2.2 million.
AT&T spokesman, Mark A. Siegel, declined to answer detailed questions on Hemisphere, only
saying that AT&T “like all other companies, must respond to valid subpoenas issued by law
enforcement.”
Representatives from Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile all declined to comment when asked by the
New York Times whether their companies participated in Hemisphere or any other similar
programs.
An undisclosed federal law enforcement official told the paper the Hemisphere Project was

4. “singular” and that he knew of no comparable program involving other phone companies.
It’s not the first time AT&T has been involved in federal surveillance programs, the company
operated a telecommunication interception facility for the NSA between 2003 and 2006.