May 19, 2006
There’s no time like the last minute to cover those tracks
It’s kind of funny that the big phone companies waited an entire week before attacking the story about their alleged complicity with the NSA in the driftnet to track domestic calling patterns. When USA Today published their report about how the NSA was collecting data related to every phone call inside the United States, alleged co-conspirators BellSouth, Verizon and AT&T were somewhat tightlipped. The first two denied providing the information and the last one declined to “comment on national security matters.”
Now, a week after the news hit the streets, BellSouth is demanding a retraction of the claims with a letter that disputes highly specific details about the USA Today’s article including it’s mention of a contract with the NSA to provide the data. I think it will be very interesting to see how voraciously BellSouth pursues this angle about there being no contract. Thanks to Salon for publicizing the work over at Think Progress there’s a deviously sensible explanation for this sudden surge of denial.
Our Fine President recently issued a Presidential Memorandum that allows Director of National Intelligence, John Negroponte, to let companies conceal any transactions related to national security. If these transactions are off the books, the phone giants have no record of the alleged contracts and thus the USA Today story gets a few holes punched through it. I’m really not sure what legal authority is granted from an edict issued via Presidential Memorandum, but I’m sure this administration would give it the same weight as a Signing Statement, Executive Order or Vice Presidential Scowl or Presidential doodle. I believe one of those doodles was the template for the successful and popular Shock & Awe stratagem.
The Presidential Memorandum was dated May 5. USA Today said they first contact the phone giants more than five weeks ago. That seems to be enough time for the phone companies to let the administration know the media are closing in and devise a plan to cover their tracks. I find it very interesting that the executive branch can just issue directive allowing corporations to ignore financial reporting laws with no oversight from anywhere outside of the White House.
It all leads me to wonder just what this administration is not allowed to authorize themselves to do.
good point.
Cover Those Tracks
More on the NSA, BellSouth, and phone data collection….
Nice research. I hadn’t heard of the presidential memo.
What do you think of the well-timed public disclosure of the FBI’s apprehension of a “terrorist group” in Florida, the implication that we have super-secret unauthorized NSA-phone conglom collaborations to thank for their success, and the possibility that FBI agents entrapped this group of hairdressing would-be militants? (I think of a dog’s tail…)
When you imagine the political and other spoils the administration might gain from having this kind of unfettered access to communications, it becomes impossible to believe that corruption wouldn’t take root, that in fact corrupt ends weren’t the primary motivator. For example, why hire goons to burgle Democratic National Headquarters a la CREEP, or pay informants for bribery information to tighten the control over political enemies, when this information is already at your fingertips?