The Why Files: Operation Podcast - 532: DEEP DIVE: Titanpointe: NYC's Windowless Monster Monitoring You

Episode Date: February 21, 2024

This ominous windowless skyscraper looms over Tribeca, defying all architectural norms.   The Brutalist facade conceals a mysterious purpose - why are there no windows? Behind the heavy concrete walls, an even darker truth lurks. For decades, New Yorkers scratched their heads about the building's function. Rumors swirled about government secrets and espionage hidden within.   Thanks to brave whistleblowers, we now know the truth. This impenetrable fortress covertly houses a sophisticated NSA surveillance operation.  AT&T willingly partners with the spy agency, jeopardizing American privacy. Together, they analyze mountains of data - your phone calls, emails, internet history. No warrant needed. The NSA analyzes communications from all over the world, searching for suspicious activity. But they capture way more than they should. Tour the NSA's covert listening post with us. Learn the full, chilling backstory behind New York's most secure skyscraper. Question if "national security" still warrants unchecked spying on Americans.

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and one building that's not really like the others, and it's located at 33 Thomas Street in Tribeca. 33 Thomas is different. This style is called Brutalism. This design trend started in the 1950s and lasted until the 1970s, only 20 years. It's not the prettiest to look at. This style is known for focusing on

function over form and for minimalism. We're talking blocky, heavy material. It's monochromatic, no frills, nothing extra. Think of raw, exposed concrete slabs. Brutalist buildings are commonly used in films and TV shows to depict an urban dystopia. It's featured heavily in movies like Clockwork Orange or The Hunger Games. In short, brutalism buildings are spooky. So back to the building on 33 Thomas Street. It turns out that this building is even more disturbing than anything you've seen in the movies. It's so minimalist that it's been called the most mysterious building in New York City. This skyscraper stands 500 feet tall and has no windows, literally zero windows. It's solid concrete.

Nobody can see in and nobody can see out. At night, there are no lights on it. The only way you'd know the building was there is because it obscures the stars and the sky behind it. For years, people have wondered what exactly is going on inside this building. Security is extremely tight. Is this building hiding secrets? Well, thanks to whistleblowers and leaked documents, the truth about 33 Thomas Street is worse than

you think. Let me introduce you to Titan Point. and point. In 1974, AT&T needed a place to house tons of machines, equipment, electronics, and miles and miles of telephone wires. For the Gen Zers listening, the telephone lines were for these weird things called landlines. Before cell phones, people couldn't make and receive calls anywhere they pleased. You couldn't just walk down the street chatting with your BFF. Now, side note, the writer who wrote this script is younger than me, so I had to look up BFF. Apparently, it means best friends forever. Anyway, not that long ago, phones worked very differently.

Phones were literally plugged into a wall. Landlines were connected via wires running all throughout the country. It took miles of a network of wires to call your mom and just forget texting. It was a simpler time. I'm old enough to remember when you had to literally dial a phone to make a call. You hated people who had nines or zeros in their numbers. If your phone had more than three nines or zeros, you were lonely. It took too long to dial you. Touchtone phones came next. No more dialing. Each number would emit a unique

tone that initiates the phone call. Once the call was initiated, you were connected to the recipient automatically. Computers routed the calls where they needed to go. But before computers, there were actual people sitting at switchboards who had to manually move the wires. You've probably seen these rooms on TV or in the movies. They're usually closet-sized rooms full of women wearing headphones and impeccable makeup. A call would come in, and one of these women would actually ask you, how can I direct your call? You'd then say something like Cleveland 343 or New York 637. My great-grandparents remembered their first phone number. It was GE 433.

So once you told the operator who you wanted to talk to, she took the wire that was holding your signal and punched it into a hole on the pegboard to connect you to the receiver. Now, this all sounds very quaint compared to today's technology, but believe me, the switchboard system was genius. It was mind-blowing. And telephone tech moved fast. By 1974, the human switchboard operator was obsolete. Computers could switch calls much more efficiently, and they didn't need smoke breaks. However, even though fewer humans were involved in telecommunications, the wiring was still incredibly complicated for routing, switching, and completing calls. The American Telephone and

Telegraph Company, better known as AT&T, was ready to modernize. They were drawing up plans for a state-of-the-art building to store the equipment and keep their clients connected. So the first thing you do when you need to build a building is you hire an architect. It's AT&T. Money is no object. They can afford to hire the best of the best. At the time, there were a number of architects making large skyscrapers and big names for themselves. Bruce Graham had just finished the John Hancock Center. And Minoru Yamasaki was working on the World Trade Center. But AT&T set its eyes on someone else.

They contacted John Carl Warnecke, who at that point in his career had designed a big portion of the United States Naval Academy. He also designed the Howard T. Markey National Courts Building in Washington, D.C., and the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis. Now, those buildings all sound rather official. Governmental, you might say. Which makes you wonder, why would a phone company hire an architect who specializes in government buildings?

In 1969, John Carl Warnecke got to work designing 33 Thomas Street. AT&T told him they needed more than a building to hold machines and wires. They told him they needed security. They wanted him to design the most secure building in the world, a pretty tall order. AT&T's biggest fear, scratch that, the world's biggest fear was nuclear war. This was the height of the Cold War. People feared that a nuclear bomb could be dropped on any U.S. city at any given moment. If that were to happen, AT&T needed to make sure that the phone lines would remain operable. If there's one scenario where you need your communications to work perfectly, it's during a nuclear emergency.

Warnicke titled his design Project X, a fitting name for a building with no name. Warnicke drew up the schematics for Project X and described it. A skyscraper to be inhabited by machines, designed to house long lines of telephone equipment, and to protect it and its operating personnel. With this in mind, Warnicke turned to brutalism. The style was perfect. The building would be solid.

The blocky concrete and red granite facade could withstand a massive attack. The building would include three basement levels. These would be used to store enough food to feed 1,500 people for two weeks. Warnecke wasn't just designing a building for a phone company. He was designing a bunker. A bunker that could survive a nuclear attack. Perhaps the lack of windows makes sense now. Safety.

There's no broken glass from an explosion. But there's another reason why there are no windows. The building is impenetrable to outside conditions like the sun, wind, and snow. AT&T would have full control over the building's internal climate. They'd be able to regulate the air temperature, humidity, even air pressure and flow speed could be controlled. This type of precision was necessary to protect the expensive, important machinery. A solid windowless structure would

prevent extreme conditions from causing any damage to anything inside. That means the phones keep working, no matter what. The design was perfect. Construction began in 1969 and was completed in 1974. When New Yorkers saw the building, they weren't very impressed. The average New Yorker understood why the building was built this way. AT&T was very open about the construction. They were proud that they were safeguarding America's

communications network. The building was a great achievement. But the true purpose of 33 Thomas Street was something very different, and very secret, and very illegal. If it's a flat or a squeal, a wobble or peel, your tread's worn down or you need a new wheel, wherever you go, you can get a pro at Tread Experts.

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You sailed beyond the horizon in search of an island scrubbed from every map. You battled krakens and navigated through storms. Your spade struck the lid of a long-lost treasure chest. While you cooked a lasagna. There's more to imagine when you listen. Discover best-selling adventure stories on Audible. Sure, 33 Thomas Street is a major telecommunications hub for AT&T. That's what it was designed to be, and that's what it still is. But its true purpose is so much more. When Warnicke worked with AT&T on the design,

the project had another contributor, the United States government. And what was the government contributing? Requests, requirements, demands. The demands came from the NSA. Then 33 Thomas Street got its official codename, Titan Point. The National Security Agency is an intelligence agency. It was formed under President Harry S. Truman in 1952 to decipher codes during World War II. Today, its main job is protecting the U.S.'s communication and information networks. However, the NSA has been scrutinized for using clandestine and not-so-legal ways of securing this information.

The NSA has been embroiled in a number of scandals. Titan Point is one of them. Thanks to Edward Snowden, the famous whistleblower currently residing in Russia, we have confidential reports that tie 33 Thomas to the NSA. The NSA uses the codename Titan Point to refer to the building in these documents. But after combing over the leaked documents, the public figured out what's happening at 33 Thomas Street, and it didn't take much to solve this puzzle.

Many of the pieces came together through the NSA's internal travel guides. They were printed for employees between 2011 and 2013. In them, the NSA refers to a place called Titan Point 33 times. In the 2011 guide, it refers to Titan Point being located in New York City. The 2013 guide says that the partner facility codenamed Lithium supervises the site. Well, people quickly figured out from other documents that the codename lithium is AT&T. There's no doubt. Titan Point is in New York City and AT&T supervises it. Still, documents don't

specifically say 33 Thomas. So how do we know 33 Thomas is really Titan Point? Well, the 2011 travel guide also instructs its employees on going from Titan Point to the FBI's New York City field office at the Federal Plaza. The FBI's field office is only about a block away from 33 Thomas. You can see the building from the front steps. So yeah, the NSA definitely doesn't want people to know where Titan Point is. And now that you know, I wouldn't suggest dropping by. Titan Point, aka 33 Thomas Street, is a fortress. It's nearly impenetrable. Per the same travel documents, there is a protocol when visiting Titan Point,

and you need very high clearance. An NSA operative going to Titan Point makes arrangements through the FBI field office. They must arrange for and arrive in a cover vehicle. That means an unmarked car or van that says Mario and Luigi's plumbing services, or better yet, a vehicle with no markings at all. The NSA's point is, keep your head down, keep a low profile, and don't attract attention. They would want a van that conveys the message, we aren't delivering top secret equipment, we're just here to fix the toilet. The guide also tells their employees

how to dress upon visiting Titan Point. They can't wear anything that would indicate they work for the NSA. It states that the employee should not display any NSA badge or insignia upon visiting. No military uniforms. They need to ring the buzzer, sign in, have a seat, and wait.

Someone will be right down. Oh, and guess what? Curious people have gone to look, and 33 Thomas has a buzzer, just like the guide says. So if you were still uncertain if Titan Point and 33 Thomas are the same place, you shouldn't be by now. It's spelled out clear as day. But now that we've established the NSA is operating out of an AT&T building, we have to ask, why? Well, if you're a fan of privacy, freedom, and the Constitution, you won't like the answer. Snowden leaked more than just travel guides. He leaked documents that show how the NSA set up a top-secret mass surveillance hub on U.S. soil. This secret monitoring hub was instructed to tap into phone calls, faxes, and Internet data. And that's exactly what it did. This operation infiltrated the communications of the United Nations, the World Bank, and the IMF.

It spied on at least 38 countries, including U.S. allies like France, Germany, and Japan. Okay, the NSA has tapped into large corporations and foreign countries, but it would never spy on an American citizen, would it? It can't. That's illegal. 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. Oh boy, that reporter just said client emails, phone calls, and metadata, right? Well, AT&T's clients are you and me, us, Americans. Now look, the NSA does use spy technology. That's why the organization was founded. They started deciphering codes during wartime and still work to protect the U.S., ensuring no attacks are being plotted. They're watching everything happening internationally.

They protect us by targeting the communication of foreign nationals. So we know for a fact they have the means to spy. They have the ability to tap phones and monitor the internet. The equipment is there and working. This means the government can see who you are calling and when. They can even track how long you talk and what you say. They then cross-reference your dialogue against a database of keywords. An algorithm then determines if you're a threat and require further investigation. So do you really think the NSA stops listening when it determines you're a U.S. citizen? You aren't the only one wondering. Listen to this congressional

hearing from 2013. Senator Ron Wyden is asking the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, to give some insight into what the NSA is doing here in the United States. 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, collect, but not wittingly. Inadvertently? Not wittingly? That sounds like they are collecting data on U.S. citizens. And even if it's, as James Clapper says, by accident, well, that's a big problem. You sailed beyond the horizon in search of an island scrubbed from every map. You battled krakens and navigated through storms. Your spade struck the lid of a long-lost treasure chest.

While you cooked a lasagna. There's more to imagine when you listen. Discover best-selling adventure stories on Audible. You searched for your informant who disappeared without a trace. You knew there were witnesses, but lips were sealed. You swept the city, driving closer to the truth while curled up on the couch with your cat. There's more to imagine when you listen.

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Discover best-selling adventure stories on Audible. The NSA isn't allowed to spy on American citizens without cause. They've gotten in trouble for doing this in the past. In 1975, just a year after 33 Thomas Street was completed, the NSA was under scrutiny. A congressional inquiry showed that the NSA was spying on anti-Vietnam War activists. They spied on civil rights activists like Dr. King. They spied on Muhammad Ali. They targeted anti-war journalists and columnists working at the Washington Post and New York Times. As you know, being against a war isn't a crime. And the Fourth Amendment says you can't search or spy on a U.S. citizen without cause. You need a warrant signed by a judge.

So the NSA was in big trouble for these illegal tappings. In response to the scandal, Congress created the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA. Here's what FISA does. It allows surveillance of foreign nationals and agents of foreign powers, and only if they're suspected of espionage and terrorism. Methods of investigation include electronic surveillance, physical searches, and other actions. Under FISA, the executive branch must request warrants from a FISA court. So no more spying on U.S. citizens without cause.

That must have stopped the NSA dead in its tracks, didn't it? Nope. international companies and 38 countries. They also targeted foreign diplomats at the United Nations. But getting a court order is just the first step. The NSA needed a way to carry out these operations. They needed to tap into their targets' phones, computers, and online activity. That's a lot of data. Who would have access to all that? You guessed it. Phone and internet companies like AT&T. To move this operation forward, the NSA needed to make deals with the providers. Meet Codename Blarney. Blarney started in the early 1970s, and as far as we know, it's still operating.

Through Codename Blarney, the NSA makes deals and leverages commercial partnerships. AT&T was more than happy to work out an agreement. They gave the NSA access to their massive databases and global networks. Through this access, the NSA went to work surveilling the terrorists that they had court orders for. But here's the rub. They did it by carrying out a full-take surveillance program. Full-take means they collected everything coming through AT&T's worldwide infrastructure. All the calls, all the emails, all the metadata, every word, every bit, every byte. So they got way more intel than they were supposed to.

They got surveillance on you, on me, on everyone. They know who you were calling and when. than they were supposed to. They got surveillance on you, on me, on everyone. They know who you were calling and when. They got full content data, which is what you were saying and doing online. The NSA was able to capture video data if you were using Skype and Zoom. Law didn't seem to have stopped the NSA, according to an annual report released recently,

despite having FISA warns 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? Tucker is asking an important question. The NSA is targeting terrorists, and that could potentially save lives. By the way they're doing it, it's allowing them to spy on innocent United States citizens.

So yeah, does the good outweigh the bad? Should the NSA be above the law? What do you think? The presidents of the United States don't seem to have a problem with Blarney and how it's spying on Americans. And yes, I said presidents. The data coming in from Blarney was landing in the president's daily briefing, both Republicans and Democrats. Doesn't matter what side of the aisle.

We all know that Republicans and Democrats might not agree on much. But if there's one thing all presidents can agree on, it's that they love spying on their enemies, both foreign and domestic. And now we know that the NSA was combing through the data that they were collecting on you, me, and every other US citizen. Thanks to their partnership with AT&T, the NSA had the access to a gold mine of information

at several of these hubs. And there were three key locations and Titan Point was one of them. The AT&T building at 33 Thomas Street mine of information at several of these hubs and there were three key locations and titan point was one of them the at t building at 33 thomas street has an fcc satellite license and the roof is covered with huge satellites through these the nsa not only captures data coming over wires and landlines now keep in mind there's an average of 175 million phone calls routed through that building. But that building also vacuums up data from space. This is a lot of information coming in.

So now the NSA has the information, it needs a way of sorting it. Enter Project Skid Row. Through Project Skid Row, NSA employees can search through huge quantities of user data like actual emails, online chat, message boards, texts, passwords, even people's browser history. I bet you're thinking about the last website you went to. Now, I hope it wasn't howtoevadeyourtaxes.com because the NSA could see that. Look, we don't know how much data is being monitored and stored, but the capability is there. The NSA can search and find anything they want on you. Also, the NSA doesn't have much oversight, but they need it. An agency like the NSA should be and needs to be watched. We heard James Clapper lying to Congress just a few minutes ago.

Also, let's remember the NSA isn't doing this alone. There are big companies playing along. You know the NSA hacked Google and Yahoo and were secretly capturing all the data inside their private clouds? You knew that, right? Well, that's another episode. And when it comes out, it will be a doozy.

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, that's scary. Edward Snowden is saying that the NSA can access our phones and take full control of our devices. AT&T is notorious for being on very friendly terms with the government.

We've already established that they built a building in New York City with the NSA. The New York Times and other sources have reported that AT&T has given billions of emails to the NSA. One of the leaked documents reminds NSA officials to be on their best behavior when visiting an AT&T facility like Titan Point. It explains, quote, this is a partnership, not a contractual relationship. A range of evidence, including technical terms specific to AT&T, points to theating, according to one whistleblower. A retired employee of AT&T named Mark Klein came forward in 2006. This was way before Snowden released all of the confidential documents. Mark gave details on how the NSA worked very closely with AT&T. This whistleblower revealed how the NSA built a secure room in the San Francisco office.

Even though Mark was a technician and could fix almost anything, he wasn't allowed to set foot in this room. Only one person in the entire facility had clearance. And most other employees had no clue that this room was even there. The NSA operatives were instructed to blend in with other workers. They would simply show up in nondescript clothing and go into an office or a server room and just go to work like everybody else. But Mark had his suspicions. He was asked to hook up some fiber optic cables which were connected to the secret room. Then he realized the capabilities of what was in there. He eventually got hold of some documents that spelled it out.

The docs said that AT&T gave the NSA peering links. These links allowed the NSA to sweep up all of AT&T's electronic communications, all of it. So that's more proof that the NSA was engaging in domestic U.S. citizen surveillance. They were receiving way more than they had warrants for. So that's more proof that the NSA was engaging in domestic U.S. citizen surveillance. They were collecting lots of data. And they didn't have warrants for any of it.

Mark's claims form the basis for the lawsuit, Juul v. NSA. This class action lawsuit filed in 2011 against the NSA was on behalf of American citizens who believed the NSA had surveilled them without a warrant. This fight went on in court until 2022. After 11 years of fighting and trying to prove that the NSA was spying illegally and

breaking the Fourth Amendment, the case was finally submitted to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court flat out rejected the request. They would not hear the case. That means that the NSA won and that their mass surveillance program is above the Fourth Amendment. So when you hear people say nobody is above the law, that's not true. The NSA is. Remember, the 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 everyday NSA employees are on-site gathering data. All of this should be pretty chilling. America's secret agencies firmly subscribe to it's better to ask forgiveness than permission. The NSA, CIA, 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. Now, before you cut ties with AT&T, you got to realize that the NSA has established at least 80 corporate partnerships, including Verizon. Those are the ones that we're aware of. And some companies are more cooperative than others. Google and Facebook cooperate with the government with such a lack of friction

that any American citizen should be concerned. You know 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. The erosion of freedom is the path to slavery.

And I can't promise we're not already there. Thank you so much for hanging out with me today. My name is AJ. This has been the Y-Files. If you had fun or learned anything, do me a favor. leave the podcast a nice review. That lets me know to keep making these things for you. And like most topics I cover on the Y-Files, today's was recommended by you. So if there's a story you'd like to learn more about, go to the Y-Files.com slash tips. And special thanks to our patrons who make the Y-Files possible. I dedicate every episode to you,

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