[Infowarrior] - Phone Companies Refuse to Provide Data on Spy Program

[Richard Forno]

Phone Companies Refuse to Provide Data on Spy Program (Update1)

By Neil Roland
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=aayJQwEy8Xw4&refer=polit
ics

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Three of the largest U.S. telephone companies
declined to answer lawmakers' questions about Bush administration efforts to
spy on Americans' phone calls and e- mails, saying the government forbade
them from doing so.

``Our company essentially finds itself caught in the middle of an oversight
dispute between the Congress and the executive relating to government
surveillance activities,'' AT&T Inc. General Counsel Wayne Watts said in a
letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee that was released today by
the panel.

Verizon Communications Inc., the second largest U.S. phone company after
AT&T, and Qwest Communications International Inc., the fourth largest, also
declined to answer many of the committee's questions.

Among the questions, posed by the committee on Oct. 2, were what information
the carriers gave the administration without a court warrant, whether they
were paid for any of it and whether the administration asked them to install
equipment to intercept e-mails.

John Dingell, a Michigan Democrat who heads the Energy and Commerce
Committee, and other Democrats called on the administration to answer
questions about the spying.

``The water is as murky as ever on this issue, and it's past time for the
administration to come clean,'' Representative Ed Markey, a Massachusetts
Democrat who leads the panel's telecommunications subcommittee, said in a
statement.

State Secrets

Verizon and Qwest said the Justice Department prohibited them from offering
any substantive comment on their roles in the spy program. AT&T said
Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell invoked the
state-secrets privilege to prevent the carrier from commenting.

McConnell's spokesman, Ross Feinstein, said in an interview today that the
House and Senate Intelligence committees have the authority to oversee
intelligence activities under the 1947 National Security Act.

White House spokesman Scott Stanzel declined immediate comment. Justice
Department spokesman Dean Boyd declined to comment.

Verizon did answer a question from lawmakers about whether the
administration asked it to provide ``communities of interest,'' the network
of people with whom particular phone customers were in contact. The New York
Times reported last month that the FBI had sought details on these networks.

`Calling Circle'

Verizon said the administration asked it to identify a `calling circle' for
some telephone numbers. The carrier told the committee: ``Because Verizon
does not maintain such `calling circle' records, we have not provided this
information in response to these requests.''

Congress approved a temporary measure in July allowing spy agencies to
continue intercepting, without a court warrant, phone calls and e-mails of
foreign-based terrorists that are routed through the U.S. Lawmakers
currently are working on new surveillance legislation.

McConnell acknowledged the existence of the program in August and said
telecommunications companies should be given immunity from lawsuits claiming
privacy violations. AT&T, Verizon and other carriers are being sued for
providing customer information to the government.

Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, the Democrats' No. 2 Senate leader, said
last week he will resist the administration's demand for immunity for the
carriers.

To contact the reporter on this story: Neil Roland in Washington at
nroland at bloomberg.net .