Government sue's N.J. attorney general over NSA seeking info from phone Co

Wednesday 14 June 2006

The federal government sued the New Jersey attorney general and other state officials Wednesday to stop them from seeking information about telephone companies' cooperation with the National Security Agency.

The unusual filing in U.S. District Court in Trenton, N.J., is the latest effort by federal authorities to halt legal proceedings aimed at revealing whether and how often AT&T, Verizon and other phone companies have provided customer records to the NSA without a court order.

New Jersey Attorney General Zulima Farber, a Democrat, and other officials sent subpoenas to five carriers on May 17, asking for documents that would explain whether they supplied customer records to the NSA, the lawsuit said.

The subpoenas followed by a few days a USA Today report that the phone companies had complied with the secretive agency's request for the phone records of millions of ordinary Americans after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Farber subpoenaed the phone companies for information because she suspected state consumer protection laws may have been violated if in fact the phone companies were turning over such records, Farber spokesman David Wald said.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/061506E.shtml

jUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT IT WAS GOING AWAY...

The telcos created sub-companies designed to "handle" releasing private info to enquirers. Those sub-companies were the ones that released the info to the NSA.

I also remember reading that the * administration make a secret agreement with the Telcos, resulting in amnesty from prosecution for releasing the info.

Am I crazy? Do I have to go search for linkage? Don't make me. I'm soooo old.