USA Today alleges that 3 major phone companies turned over the records of ten millions of their customers to the NSA after 9/11.
BellSouth, AT&T and Verizon Communications turned over billions of call logs to the NSA. The information is said to have been stored in a massive database.
Last week I reported that the EFF was suing AT&T over their willingness to share private information with the NSA. It now turns out, this was just the tip of the iceberg.
President Bush said yesterday in an effort to downplay the scandal, “The privacy of ordinary Americans is fiercely protected in all our activities.”
“We’re not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans. Our efforts are focused on links to al-Qaeda and their known affiliates. So far we’ve been very successful in preventing another attack on our soil.”
According to Gen. Michael Hayden, everything that the NSA does is lawful and the appropriate members of the Congress are briefed on all NSA activities.
Both Republican and Democratic legislators have reacted with dismay and disbelieve. Some have called for an investigation into the matter.
A few weeks ago, when the Feds sought to dismiss the case against AT&T, the Justice Department said that it should not be taken as a confirmation or denial of the allegations.
We now seem to have the confirmation.
