Phone giants mum on spying

[sabra]

http://www.nynewsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-chi-0512290166dec29,0,1089966.story?coll=ny-leadnationalnews-headlines

Phone giants mum on spying
In past, industry has cooperated with U.S.


In the days following revelations that the Bush administration ordered the National Security Agency to spy on domestic telephone and Internet communications without a court order, one involved party has remained silent.

The nation's telephone giants--which control the data pipelines--have neither commented on nor denied their reported participation, nor have they reacted to the charge that they may have been complicit in violating privacy rights.

But historically the telecom companies have cooperated with the government on wholesale wiretapping, and the Bush administration's anti-terrorism programs appear to be no exception.

...

"Our members have worked for years with law enforcement with an objective to preserve lawfully authorized surveillance," said Tom Amontree, a spokesman for the US Telecom Association, the industry group representing most phone companies. "We have no comment on national security matters."

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

1. and silent they shall remain, until the legal

winds show which way they will blow.

until then, only the sound of shredders will issue forth

[HereSince1628]

2. They'll plead the Nuremburg defense...they were only following orders

[DRoseDARs]

3. Thts good you dnt cmnt on Nat Sec matter, but thts not wht we're asking..

..we're asking about your role in blatantly illegal activities.

[Orsino]

5. Knowing that *legal* snooping is now done without warrants...

...I'm inclined to be forgiving when it comes to the phone companies. One of the consequences of FISA is that they no longer have any grounds to deny the would-be snoopers, and can't tell the legal from the illegal. We can ask all we want, but they won't know whether any of the "requests" they received were out of bounds.

Full disclosure: I work for a telecom giant, but as far as I know I have absolutely nothing to do with any government monitoring.

[HuffleClaw]

4. well, in all fairness

its not like they had any choice. and there would, of course, been some sort of rather strict gag order in place too. they would have had no clue that what they'd been asked to do was unlawful. its only thanks to the new york times that anyone knows.

[TexasProgresive]

6. I don't believe that the phone companies have any control

I think that the feds years ago connected to our networks and have no need of getting the telcos cooperation. Some agent sitting at a keyboard in DC or elsewhere can access any land line and probably any cell line in the US.

[Selteri]

7. So we need to make them not-giants - This has become unacceptable.

[librechik]

8. wait, so I see a wedge of light under the door? ( class action)

against the Phone Company perhaps?

I remember soon after 9/11 the Justice Dept moved in on them and forced them to do this using the PATRIOT act. They didn't fight it.

[Straight Shooter]

9. "lawfully authorized surveillance"

"Our members have worked for years with law enforcement with an objective to preserve lawfully authorized surveillance," said Tom Amontree, a spokesman for the US Telecom Association, the industry group representing most phone companies. "We have no comment on national security matters."

I wonder how long it took their Legal Department to come up with that carefully crafted choice of words.