[Infowarrior] - FBI Confirms Contracts with AT&T, Verizon and MCI

[Richard Forno]

FBI Confirms Contracts with AT&T, Verizon and MCI

The FBI's general counsel, Valerie Caproni, testified today on Capitol Hill
that the FBI entered into contracts with AT&T, Verizon and MCI to harvest
phone records on American citizens under a national security letter program
that has come under fire from Congress and the Justice Department's Office
of Inspector General for circumventing privacy laws.

Caproni confirmed during a House Judiciary hearing that AT&T and Verizon,
which bought MCI in 2005, had and continue to have contracts with the FBI
that compensate phone companies for turning over the toll records of
customers connected to counterterroism investigations. The telecoms entered
into the contracts in May 2003, according to the report issued last week by
the DoJ Inspector General.

"The contract essentially pays for the man hours or the personnel cost for
the people who have to do the work," said FBI Assistant Director John Miller
in an interview with Wired News last night. "We want dedicated people who
handle our requests or do nothing else."

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/03/fbi_confirms_co.html