1) What are your sources of information?

2) You say "if there is any hope". Hope of what? While I strongly doubt that AT&T, IBM, or the other companies you mention are interested in building what you describe, if they wish to that is up to them (and their stockholders), except as described below. They do not have the ability to misuse the information obtained in the manner that the government does. The U.S. Government is supposed to represent the people, and is required to follow the Constitution. What is dangerous about Echelon is that the Government can target people for abuse by agencies like the IRS, any number of licensing agencies, or by the criminal justice system. Private companies do not have that power and do not pose the same threat.

Anyway, if AT&T is part of this project, would they need to "spy" on themselves? They already carry much of the communications traffic of the nation, so why bother picking it up again with giant dishes? The only reason might be legal - there is a legal requirement that they not profit from eavesdropping on the information they carry. But if the project is as supersecret and clandestine as you suggest, then legal requirements wouldn't stop them. And it must be secret since you say they killed to protect the information (and since the budget for the project is not in their annual reports).

Finally, can you produce photos of the antennas used by this project? The antennas used by the real (government) Echelon project (at Memwith Hill, England, and I expect others too) have been photographed and those photos have been published on the web.