Apparently, of the four largest telecoms approached by the Bush junta to participate in the illegal warrantless surveillance, only Qwest said no.
The statement on behalf of the former Qwest executive, Joseph P. Nacchio, says:
“When he learned that no such authority had been granted, and that there was a disinclination on the part of the authorities to use any legal process,” Mr. Nacchio concluded that the requests violated federal privacy requirements “and issued instructions to refuse to comply.”
If Qwest had full services available in Kansas, I’d dump AT&T in a fucking second.
I’m not one for conspiracy theories, but am I the only one that finds this line interesting?
The statement said the requests continued until Mr. Nacchio left in June 2002. His departure came amid accusations of fraud at the company, and he now faces federal charges of insider trading.
Kinda makes one wonder.
I’m in deep with Qwest by circumstance but I’m not going to sing their praises too fervently. They’re still a largely red company that makes big fat donations to Rebublicans (2/3rds of their political giving). I’m counting myself fortunate in this circumstance but I don’t fool myself that it was because the company is particularly aligned with my principles or are “good” guys.
If I didn’t have a contract I can’t afford to dump, I’d be with Working Assets (who now offer cell plans!) in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, I can’t afford the penalties for getting out from under my current agreement.
Before you go waving the Qwest flag. Qwest could say no because they are barred from government contracts for Enronesque accounting.
I for one want to know what kind of records they were sending, and if it was ANI records, recordings, or just trending. Also, it just proves how fucking stupid our government is. If I were a terrorist, I would be using skype, or a cell, or yahoo messenger. Lord, the only one still makeing freaking phone calls is my grandmother.
Working Assets didn’t give up any of their records, either. I strongly encourage people to look into WALD as a phone option. They do long distance for land lines and cell phones. I have the cell phone option.
BTW, if you sign up and mention my name, you get a free pint of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream every month for a year and I get $20 off my next bill.
Working Assets rocks. I’ve been a member since 1995. =)