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Conspiracy theorists never imagined it was this bad.

In an extraordinary - but little reported - court case, it emerges that US telecomms giant AT&T has been systematically monitoring e-mails across the US and the rest of the world. Unsurprisingly, the firm was working on this warrant-less wiretapping on behalf of the US Government.

A whistleblower's evidence of this activity was taken up by Wired News, which now faces legal action for its brave journalism.

AT&T are claiming commercial confidentiality as a defence to suppress further information coming out. The US Government's National Security Agency has a legal defence straight out Catch-22:

The government told the judge that the surveillance is lawful, but "the evidence we need to demonstrate to you that it is lawful cannot be disclosed without that process itself causing grave harm to United States national security," according to The New York Times. The American Civil Liberties' Union argued that the judge needs no extra classified evidence to find the administration's warrantless wiretapping of Americans illegal.

For more information see http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,71146-0.html