Qwest's Refusal of N.S.A. Query Is Explained

May 12, 2006
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."

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. ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/12/washington/12cnd-phone.html

It's been awful working at Qwest the last few years. Nacchio is a money grubbing jerk, but I may cut him a little slack after this revelation.

Gee, I guess that's what they call competition, hunh?

So I can change my provider, give my business to one that obeys the law. I don't know whether to be sarcastic, or heartbroken.

Are there other companies that did not cooperate? I would really like to dump Verizon.