STFU! NSA approached phone companies about domestic spying BEFORE 9-11.

[ourbluenation]

I've been super busy this week and so maybe I'm the only one who missed this...


A former Qwest Communications International executive, appealing a conviction for insider trading, has alleged that the government withdrew opportunities for contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars after Qwest refused to participate in an unidentified National Security Agency program that the company thought might be illegal.

Former chief executive Joseph P. Nacchio, convicted in April of 19 counts of insider trading, said the NSA approached Qwest more than six months before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to court documents unsealed in Denver this week.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/12/AR2007101202485.html?nav=rss_email/components

[ourbluenation]

1. it goes on...

Nacchio's account, which places the NSA proposal at a meeting on Feb. 27, 2001, suggests that the Bush administration was seeking to enlist telecommunications firms in programs without court oversight before the terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon. The Sept. 11 attacks have been cited by the government as the main impetus for its warrantless surveillance efforts.

The allegations could affect the debate on Capitol Hill over whether telecoms sued for disclosing customers' phone records and other data to the government after the Sept. 11 attacks should be given legal immunity, even if they did not have court authorization to do so.

Spokesmen for the Justice Department, the NSA, the White House and the director of national intelligence declined to comment, citing the ongoing legal case against Nacchio and the classified nature of the NSA's activities. Federal filings in the appeal have not yet been disclosed.

In May 2006, USA Today reported that the NSA had been secretly collecting the phone-call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by major telecom firms. Qwest, it reported, declined to participate because of fears that the program lacked legal standing.

In a statement released after the story was published, Nacchio attorney Herbert Stern said that in fall 2001, Qwest was approached to give the government access to the private phone records of Qwest customers. At the time, Nacchio was chairman of the president's National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee.

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i want my country back. this is outrageous.

[EFerrari]

2. It's worth repeating. BushCo was illegally spying on us

since shortly after he took office. Looks like he was paying more attention to us than to al Qaida.

[Deja Q]

3. Does anybody know the cell phone carrier Osama used at the time?

:hide:

(okay, there may be a just explanation for what the NSA was doing. OTOH, maybe not. Either way, I'm going to crack a joke because I'm on break and deserve a mild chuckle.)