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roachboy · 05-12-2006, 12:27 PM

qwest determined the request to be illegal, the jazz.
but it is nice to see that some among us have their thumb on the pulse of unfolding, insofar as this newest in the seemingly endless chain of bushscandals is concerned.

Quote:

Qwest's Refusal of N.S.A. Query Is Explained
By JOHN O'NEIL and ERIC LICHTBLAU

WASHINGTON, May 12 ? The telecommunications company Qwest turned down requests by the National Security Agency for private telephone records because it concluded that doing so would violate federal privacy laws, a lawyer for the telephone company's former chief executive said today.

In a statement released this morning, the lawyer said that the former chief executive, Joseph N. Nacchio, made the decision after asking whether "a warrant or other legal process had been secured in support of that request."

Mr. Nacchio learned that no warrant had been granted and that there was a "disinclination on the part of the authorities to use any legal process," said the lawyer, Herbert J. Stern. As a result, the statement said, Mr. Nacchio concluded that "the requests violated the privacy requirements of the Telecommunications Act."

A Qwest spokesman, Robert Toevs, declined to discuss anything to do with security issues or the statement by Mr. Nacchio's lawyer.

Qwest was the only phone company to turn down requests from the security agency for phone records as part of a program to compile a vast database of numbers and other information on virtually all domestic calls. The program's scope was first described in an article published on Thursday by USA Today that led to an outpouring of demands for information from Congressional Republicans and Democrats. The article said that AT&T, BellSouth and Verizon had agreed to provide the information to the security agency.

The lawyer's statement came as Gen. Michael V. Hayden, who was the head of the National Security Agency at the time the program began, continued to seek support today for his nomination as C.I.A. director in meetings with senators on Capitol Hill.

Speaking to reporters with Senator Chuck Hagel, Republican of Nebraska, General Hayden declined to comment on the article about the National Security Agency program.

"Everything that the agency has done has been lawful," he said. "It's been briefed to the appropriate members of Congress."

Mr. Hagel, a member of the Intelligence Committee, which will conduct General Hayden's confirmation hearings, said that General Hayden was "the right choice" for the C.I.A.'s top post.

But he also said he supported plans announced Thursday by Senator Arlen Specter, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, to hold separate hearings into the collection of phone records.

Mr. Hagel called that "appropriate."

"I think this issue needs to be clearly aired," he said. "I think people need to have confidence in their government."

Mr. Hagel said the confirmation hearings would certainly involve "tough questions" for General Hayden. Members of Congress have said they want information both about the collection of phone records and about a program of warrantless wiretaps on calls between people in the United States and people overseas suspected of having ties to terrorism.

The White House continued to express its support of General Hayden today and to sidestep questions about the program to collect telephone records.

Tony Snow, the White House press secretary, told reporters that "we're 100 percent behind Michael Hayden."

Mr. Snow also said that the White House was "confident that he is going to comport himself well and answer all the questions and concerns that members of the United States Senate may have in the process of confirmation."

On Tuesday, President Bush responded to an outcry over the article by assuring the country that "we're not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans."

One senior government official, who was granted anonymity to speak publicly about the classified program, confirmed that the N.S.A. had access to records of most telephone calls in the United States. But the official said the call records were used for the limited purpose of tracing regular contacts of "known bad guys."

"To perform such traces," the official said, "you'd have to have all the calls or most of them. But you wouldn't be interested in the vast majority of them."

The New York Times first reported in December that the president had authorized the N.S.A. to conduct eavesdropping without warrants.

The Times also reported in December that the agency had gained the cooperation of American telecommunications companies to get access to records of vast amounts of domestic and international phone calls and e-mail messages.

The agency analyzes communications patterns, the report said, and looks for evidence of terrorist activity at home and abroad.

The USA Today article on Thursday went further, saying that the N.S.A. had created an enormous database of all calls made by customers of the three phone companies in an effort to compile a log of "every call ever made" within this country.

Mr. Nacchio's statement today made a point of saying that the N.S.A. requests occurred "at a time when there was no investigation of Qwest or Mr. Nacchio." Mr. Nacchio, who left Qwest in 2002 amid allegations of fraud at the company, was indicted in December on 42 charges of insider selling.

Prosecutors say Mr. Nacchio did not make investors aware of warnings from his managers that the company's revenue and profit forecasts were too optimistic. They say Mr. Nacchio kept this information to himself yet also sold 2.5 million shares of Qwest stock over five months in 2001 that netted $100 million. The case could go to trial later this year.

On Thursday, some Republicans, including Representative Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, defended the N.S.A.'s activities and denounced the disclosure. Mr. Hoekstra said the report "threatens to undermine our nation's safety."

"Rather than allow our intelligence professionals to maintain a laser focus on the terrorists, we are once again mired in a debate about what our intelligence community may or may not be doing," he said.

But many Democrats and civil liberties advocates said they were disturbed by the report, invoking images of Big Brother and announcing legislation aimed at reining in the N.S.A.'s domestic operations. Fifty-two members of Congress asked the president to name a special counsel to investigate the N.S.A.'s domestic surveillance programs.

Senator Arlen Specter, the Pennsylvania Republican who heads the Judiciary Committee, said the reported data-mining activities raised serious constitutional questions. He said he planned to seek the testimony of telephone company executives.

The House majority leader, John A. Boehner of Ohio, said he wanted more information on the program because "I am not sure why it would be necessary to keep and have that kind of information."

Mr. Bush did not directly confirm or deny the existence of the N.S.A. operation but said that "as a general matter, every time sensitive intelligence is leaked it hurts our ability to defeat this enemy."

Seeking to distinguish call-tracing operations from eavesdropping, the president said that "the government does not listen to domestic phone calls without court approval."

The phone records include numbers called; time, date and direction of calls; and other details, but not the words spoken, telecommunications experts said. Customers' names and addresses are not included in the companies' call records, though they could be cross-referenced to obtain personal data.

The law on data-mining activities is murky, and legal analysts were divided Thursday on the question of whether the N.S.A.'s tracing and analysis of huge streams of American communications data would require the agency to use subpoenas or court warrants.

Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies, said, "If they don't get a court order, it's a crime." Ms. Martin said that while the F.B.I. might be able to get access to phone collection databases by using an administrative subpoena, her reading of federal law was that the N.S.A. would be banned from doing so without court approval.

But another expert on the law of electronic surveillance, Kenneth C. Bass III, said that if access to the call database was granted in response to a national security letter issued by the government, "it would probably not be illegal, but it would be very troubling."

"The concept of the N.S.A. having near-real-time access to information about every call made in the country is chilling," said Mr. Bass, former counsel for intelligence policy at the Justice Department. He said the phone records program resembled Total Information Awareness, a Pentagon data-mining program shut down by Congress in 2003 after a public outcry.

The N.S.A. refused to discuss the report, but said in a statement that it "takes its legal responsibilities seriously and operates within the law."

AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth all issued statements saying they had followed the law in protecting customers' privacy but would not discuss details of the report.

"AT&T has a long history of vigorously protecting customer privacy," said Selim Bingol, a company spokesman. "We also have an obligation to assist law enforcement and other government agencies responsible for protecting the public welfare."

Mr. Specter said in an interview that he would press for information on the operations of the N.S.A. program to determine its legality.

"I don't think we can really make a judgment on whether warrants would be necessary until we know a lot more about the program," he said.

One central question is whether the N.S.A. uses its analysis of phone call patterns to select people in the United States whose phone calls and e-mail messages are monitored without warrants. The Times has reported that the agency is believed to have eavesdropped on the international communications of about 400 to 500 people at a time within the United States and of thousands of people since the Sept. 11 attacks.

Democrats said they would use the new disclosures to push for more answers from General Hayden at his confirmation hearing, set for May 18.

Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, predicted "a major Constitutional confrontation on Fourth Amendment guarantees of unreasonable search and seizure" and said the new disclosures presented "a growing impediment to the confirmation of General Hayden."

Scott Shane contributed reporting from Washington for this articlE.

source: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/12/wa...rtner=homepage