On Jan 29, 2008, at 8:19 PM, Eric S. Sande wrote:
Whether this was in response to a National Security Letter or not is
unspecified. What is clear is that, assuming the source is accurate,
the apparent violations of normal practice may have occurred on
a small scale.
One claim that you can probably look up yourself, since you may
know the proper words to search on, is that Verizon provided access
to the NSA so that agency could install a "splitter" within one or
more of Verizon's own buildings, thereby enabling telephone calls to
be routed straight to the NSA as well as to pass through via their
normal routes. I am pretty sure that this was established as being a
fact in Congressional testimony some months ago. Again, this was
done without the required court orders, and if I am not mistaken,
provides the basis for most of the pending or proposed lawsuits.
That eavesdropping that took place is what is now being referred to
in numerous press reports as well as in Congress as the "illegal
wiretapping." Of course, it was all of that, in great part, that led
to the resignation of Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General.
The fact that Verizon and AT&T sent the letters in the first place
seems
to argue that the telcos believed they were acting in good faith
and within
the law.
I think it was more of a PR stunt in preparation for what they
knew would be testimony under oath.
But I agree that "just following orders" is not an excuse.
So you have my permission to take me out and shoot me, .0078 is
.0078 too much, and as long as I take their gold I am responsible.
No need for that. As said earlier, none of this was undertaken by
the "front line" employees. It was all approved and ordered by the
big muckety-mucks, the same ones who wine, dine, contribute to and
play golf with administration bigwigs.
Steve
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