I'd hold off on the Internet rage for a bit and realize that Att has been required by law for many years now to assist in telecom surveillance. CALEA. Look it up.
Substantive change occurs only when people get pissed off.
And how does your answer "Probably because..." address my question "What is the name of the law...". I am asking you for an actual objective fact, the name of the law, not for you to take a wild guess about "Why" anybody is doing anything.
Are you even replying to the right posting, or just constructing a coatrack on which to hang your off-base raging accusations? Care to try again and cite the name of the law that I asked for?
Dragnet surveillance in cooperation with the NSA is a whole other thing. It might use some LI facilities, but, in many cases, LI specs for telecom equipment would not cut it for NSA purposes. Hence all the switches having LI capability and the NSA having their own cable taps and backhaul.