I think they may be using the "Communications Act of 1934"
anarcissie@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote:
> They might have mentioned the Fourth Amendment, as well.
>
>
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/12/washington/12cnd-phone.html?ei=5094&en=eb85158452eae01a&hp=&ex=1147492800&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
>
> May 12, 2006
> Qwest Explains Why It Refused N.S.A. Query
> 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."
>
> 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 for his nomination as C.I.A. director in
> meetings with Senators on Capitol Hill today.
>
> Speaking to reporters with Senator Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican,
> 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."
>
> Senator 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 that 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."
>
> Senator Hagel said that 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 a tie 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 new 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 had 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. The report said one large phone
> company, Qwest, had refused to cooperate with the N.S.A. because it
> was uneasy about the legal implications of handing over customer
> information to the government without warrants.
>
> 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." She 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.
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