| Krypton |
These terrorist sons a bitches are spying on us for the neocon fraud of the Bush administration...
3 stories below...
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http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-10-16-voa34.cfm
US Phone Company: Turned Over Records to Feds Without Court Order
By VOA News
16 October 2007
A published report in Washington says one major U.S. telecommunications company has acknowledged providing intelligence agencies with the telephone records of American citizens without court orders.
The Washington Post reports that Verizon Communications made that acknowledgment in a letter to congressional investigators last week. The newspaper says that in the letter, Verizon acknowledges providing customer information to federal authorities more than 700 times, on an emergency basis, between January 2005 and September 2007.
Two other major telecommunication companies, AT&T and Qwest, have refused to answer questions about whether they provided U.S. intelligence agencies with customer records.
Verizon's letter, as quoted by the Post, says that during the two-year period, it provided records to federal authorities possessing a subpoena or court order 94,000 times. Verizon says the information was used in a range of criminal investigations and counter-terrorism efforts.
Lawmakers are debating an update to the law that regulates surveillance activities within the borders of the United States.
President Bush has demanded that the law include retroactive immunity from liability for telecommunications firms that participated in warrantless surveillance programs.
Opposition Democrats have said they want to know what the companies did before they consider granting immunity.
The domestic surveillance program allows for warrantless eavesdropping on international phone calls and E-mails between people in the United States and suspected terrorists overseas. Some lawmakers say the programming infringes on Americans' privacy by not requiring court approval to monitor communications.
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They also refuse to give details on their eavesdropping...
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/16/w...?ref=technology
Phone Utilities Won’t Give Details About Eavesdropping
By ERIC LICHTBLAU
Published: October 16, 2007
WASHINGTON, Oct. 15 — The three biggest phone carriers have refused to tell members of Congress what role, if any, they had in the National Security Agency’s domestic eavesdropping program. The utilities said it would be illegal to divulge classified information.
“Given the focus of your questions,” a lawyer for AT&T wrote to members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee in a letter released on Monday, “our company essentially finds itself caught in the middle of an oversight dispute between the Congress and the executive relating to government surveillance activities.”
The role of the carriers will be central to the debate in Congress this week over limiting the eavesdropping. The Bush administration has pressed Congress to give the carriers immunity for their cooperation, but House Democrats are balking.
Democrats on the panel had asked AT&T, Verizon and Qwest for detailed responses on the roles. Like AT&T, Verizon and Qwest declined to answer specific questions.
Some Democrats on the House committee were not mollified. Representative John D. Dingell, the Michigan Democrat who leads the panel, said he would continue to press the administration for answers.
Representative Bart Stupak, a Michigan Democrat who leads the subcommittee on oversight, said, “While I recognize the unique legal constraints the telecommunications companies face regarding what information they may disclose, important questions remain unanswered about how the administration induced or compelled them to participate in the N.S.A.’s eavesdropping program.”
The carriers face a barrage of suits. The administration has sought to thwart the cases by invoking the “state secrets” privilege, and the utilities have said little because of the suits. Letters by the companies released Monday broadly defended the cooperation with law enforcement officials.
The companies also spoke of the damage they said has been done by the controversy.
As a result of the litigation, AT&T said in its letter, “carriers who are alleged to have cooperated with intelligence activities are faced with years of litigation, at great financial and reputational cost, and are forced to remain mute in the face of extreme allegations, no matter how false.”
Verizon said in its response that the burden should be on the government, not the phone companies, to establish that a request was proper and lawful.
“Such an approach is vital to ensure that providers are able to respond quickly to request for assistance,” Verizon said. “Placing the onus on the provider to determine whether the government is acting within the scope of its authority would inevitably slow lawful efforts to protect the public.”
Verizon and the other companies have acknowledged that they routinely comply with what Verizon called “lawful demands” for call records and access to phone lines. In 2006, the Verizon letter said, it received 88,000 such requests, about 34,000 from federal officials and 54,000 from state and local officials. Through September of this year, it received 24,000 federal requests and 37,000 state and local requests.
Verizon also acknowledged that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had asked for records to identify what it termed “a calling circle” but said it had not been able to provide them.
Verizon indicated that the F.B.I. had sought records for a broader network of callers than the bureau itself had previously acknowledged by requesting records not just on original targets and the people they had called, but on everyone that those people in turn had called.
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http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.co...ives/13251.html
Commentary from the corporate bagger blog...
Verizon to feds: no warrant, no problem
Posted October 16th, 2007 at 10:40 am
Last week, three Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee contacted telecommunications companies, inquiring about their participation in government surveillance programs. Apparently, Verizon participated quite a bit, even when the administration didn’t get any of those pesky warrants.
Verizon Communications, the nation’s second-largest telecom company, told congressional investigators that it has provided customers’ telephone records to federal authorities in emergency cases without court orders hundreds of times since 2005. […]
From January 2005 to September 2007, Verizon provided data to federal authorities on an emergency basis 720 times, it said in the letter. The records included Internet protocol addresses as well as phone data. In that period, Verizon turned over information a total of 94,000 times to federal authorities armed with a subpoena or court order, the letter said. The information was used for a range of criminal investigations, including kidnapping and child-predator cases and counter-terrorism investigations.
Verizon and AT&T said it was not their role to second-guess the legitimacy of emergency government requests.
That’s not particularly persuasive. The telecoms have very able legal counsel, who no doubt understand legal limits, privacy rights, and how best to cooperate with government inquiries. It seems Verizon’s standard seemed to be, “If the Bush administration wants caller records, it probably has a good reason.” No questions, no warrant, no problem.
The WaPo report noted that Verizon complied with subpoenas and court orders 94,000 times over the last three years, but given the company’s laissez faire attitude, it’s not clear why federal officials even bothered to get legal permission in the first place. After all, it’s not Verizon’s job to “second-guess” Bush administration requests; it’s Verizon’s job to hand over customer records, and then just hope the Bush gang acts responsibly.
Just as interesting, however, was the information the administration requested but couldn’t have.
Verizon also disclosed that the FBI, using administrative subpoenas, sought information identifying not just a person making a call, but all the people that customer called, as well as the people those people called. Verizon does not keep data on this “two-generation community of interest” for customers, but the request highlights the broad reach of the government’s quest for data.
It does, indeed. Bush has repeatedly emphasized the “limited” nature of the surveillance efforts, but in this case, the FBI asked Verizon for the records on one suspect, then everyone the suspect called, and then everyone those people called.
And the only reason Verizon declined the request is because the company didn’t have the information. In other words, the safeguard for privacy rights sometimes rests on incomplete corporate files.
For that matter, this is just Verizon. AT&T and Qwest told the committee members it would not provide the requested information at all, leaving one to wonder just how many records they’ve turned over without warrants.
It’s a good week to be discussing telecom immunity, isn’t it? |
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