BellSouth Denies Involvement in NSA Spying Program

When USA Today broke the story last week about the NSA spying program that's resulted in the world's largest database of ordinary citizens' phone records, the newspaper named BellSouth as one of the major telecom companies involved. Today, some 6 days after that accusation was made, Bell South executives deny any such cooperation:

"As a result of media reports that BellSouth provided massive amounts of customer calling information under a contract with the NSA," it said Monday, "the company conducted an internal review to determine the facts. Based on our review to date, we have confirmed no such contract exists and we have not provided bulk customer calling records to the NSA."

That wording is very different from their original response to USA Today:

USA TODAY first contacted BellSouth five weeks ago in reporting the story on the NSA's program. The night before the story was published, USA TODAY described the story in detail to BellSouth, and the company did not challenge the newspaper's account. The company did issue a statement, saying: "BellSouth does not provide any confidential customer information to the NSA or any governmental agency without proper legal authority."

In an interview Monday, BellSouth spokesman Jeff Battcher said the company was not asking for a correction from USA TODAY.

First of all, BellSouth's carefully worded statement that denies the existence of a "contract" with the NSA offers no proof that the company is not actually cooperating with the government. Any lawyer would parse that non-denial denial in two seconds flat. BellSouth's original statement to USA Today that it does not provide information "without proper legal authority" is probably closer to the actual truth of the situation ie. that the company had been assured by government lawyers about the leaglity of the program. Finally, one has to ask why the company would not have asked that an official correction be printed by the newspaper. That's SOP when mistakes are made, especially when they affect a major corporation's bottom line.

There's also this tidbit that goes to whether BellSouth is actually being up front with its customers and the public:

Asked to define "bulk customer calling records," Battcher said: "We are not providing any information to the NSA, period." He said he did not know whether BellSouth had a contract with the Department of Defense, which oversees the NSA.

So, they've spent the last 6 days looking for any contract they might have had with the NSA and reportedly didn't find one.But, BellSouth said absolutely nothing about whether it also looked for a similar contract with the DoD or if one exists.

Who's telling the truth here? USA Today's reporters or BellSouth? You decide.

You'll also notice that the compromise Specter reached with his Republican buddies on the Judiciary committee, which I wrote about in my previous post, practically guarantees that any person who seeks to challenge the telecom companies involved in this NSA program will now be legally covered by the fact that the legality of that program would not be decided in an open, federal court where it could be properly scrutinized or appealed.

So, not only did the committee provide cover for Bush, it's also pratically shielded the telecom companies from any possible lawsuits because if a secret court decides the NSA spying program is legal and hides behind the 'national security' implications defense, there really is no legal recourse left for anyone who would want to further pursue a lawsuit.