Documents reveal special relationship between the NSA and AT&T

New documents reveal that the NSA has had a "unique and especially productive" relationship with AT&T, the New York Times reported on Saturday.

From 2003 to 2013, AT&T gave the NSA access to "billions of emails," the Times says, and even helped wiretap all of the Internet communications at the United Nations. The NSA documents characterize the relationship as being "highly collaborative."

Most major US telecommunications companies have aided the NSA in the past.

NSA surveillance equipment has been installed in at least 17 AT&T Internet hubs in the U.S., "far more than its similarly sized competitor, Verizon," the Times reports. It's unclear where AT&T and the NSA stand today, as the documents cover a span of time that ended two years ago.

These revelations were reviewed by both the Times and ProPublica and are part of a leak from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. Read the full New York Times report here.

AT&T did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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