BellSouth denies it has ever given any information to the NSA, directly contradicting the USA Today report from last week.
A report Thursday by USA Today identified BellSouth Corp., along with AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc., as companies that had complied with an NSA request for tens of millions of customer phone records after the 2001 terror attacks. Experts said the agency was likely seeking to detect calling patterns in the mountain of data.
"Based on our review to date, we have confirmed no such contract exists and we have not provided bulk customer calling records to the NSA," the company said in a statement.
BellSouth spokesman Jeff Battcher said in a telephone interview, "we cannot find anyone within BellSouth who has ever been approached by the NSA."
Fascinating development.
UPDATE: USA Today on the same report.
They’re probably just hoping to stave off a lawsuiit, which could cost them many millions of dollars.
I believe there are laws against phone companies divulging call information without customers’ consent.
Sorry, doesn’t wash. If they have exposure and are lying they would be damaging their chances in a lawsuit.
BellSouth denies they handed over the information, Verizon has also denied handing over the information.
Yet Republican lawmakers have said they were briefed about the program.
So, apparently we’re to believe that they were briefed on a program that doesn’t exist.
Maybe the program isn’t exactly what USA Today reported, either.
The main point is that history shows that domestic spying does get used against those perceived as political enemies. You may think that won’t ever mean you, but William Safire had his phones tapped while he was a speechwriter for Richard Nixon.
It can also be used as a tool to make sure that friends continue to be friends.