About That USA Today NSA Story

I've been covering the story of the various NSA programs designed to keep people safe from terrorists by scanning calls coming into the US from foreign sources as well as a second program that USA Today noted relied on massive databases of information gleaned from phone companies about phone numbers, calling durations, and the phone numbers dialed. USA Today has this as a front page spread and Congress, pundits, and bloggers alike all sunk their teeth into this story.

Other papers quickly jumped on the bandwagon, including the New York Times, claiming that BellSouth, Verizon, and AT&T all provided the information while Qwest declined to provide the information claiming that their legal department had reservations.

The three named companies that allegedly provided information to the NSA program have been sued by the ACLU and their derivatives - for hundreds of millions of dollars in damages. Well, those companies have responded.

Verizon has this to say about the NSA program:

One of the most glaring and repeated falsehoods in the media reporting is the assertion that, in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, Verizon was approached by NSA and entered into an arrangement to provide the NSA with data from its customers’ domestic calls.

This is false. From the time of the 9/11 attacks until just four months ago, Verizon had three major businesses – its wireline phone business, its wireless company and its directory publishing business. It also had its own Internet Service Provider and long-distance businesses. Contrary to the media reports, Verizon was not asked by NSA to provide, nor did Verizon provide, customer phone records from any of these businesses, or any call data from those records. None of these companies – wireless or wireline – provided customer records or call data.

Another error is the claim that data on local calls is being turned over to NSA and that simple "calls across town" are being "tracked." In fact, phone companies do not even make records of local calls in most cases because the vast majority of customers are not billed per call for local calls. In any event, the claim is just wrong. As stated above, Verizon’s wireless and wireline companies did not provide to NSA customer records or call data, local or otherwise.

Again, Verizon cannot and will not confirm or deny whether it has any relationship to the classified NSA program. Verizon always stands ready, however, to help protect the country from terrorist attack. We owe this duty to our fellow citizens. We also have a duty, that we have always fulfilled, to protect the privacy of our customers. The two are not in conflict. When asked for help, we will always make sure that any assistance is authorized by law and that our customers’ privacy is safeguarded.

BellSouth had this to say about the program:

There has been much speculation in the last several days about the role that BellSouth may have played in efforts by the National Security Agency (NSA) and other governmental agencies to keep our nation safe.

As a result of media reports that BellSouth provided massive amounts of customer calling information under a contract with the NSA, the Company conducted an internal review to determine the facts. Based on our review to date, we have confirmed no such contract exists and we have not provided bulk customer calling records to the NSA.

Reuters notes

BellSouth and Verizon denied the part of the USA Today report that said the companies had received a contract from the NSA and that they turned over records. However, Verizon declined to comment on whether it provided access to the NSA.

"One of the most glaring and repeated falsehoods in the media reporting is the assertion that, in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, Verizon was approached by NSA and entered into an arrangement to provide the NSA with data from its customers' domestic calls," Verizon said in a statement on Tuesday.

However, "Verizon cannot and will not confirm or deny whether it has a relationship to the classified NSA program," the company said.

BellSouth said on Monday that "based on our review to date, we have confirmed no such contract exists and we have not provided bulk customer calling records to the NSA." A BellSouth spokesman was not immediately available for further comment.

AT&T has been more circumspect, saying it has an obligation to assist law enforcement and other government agencies but has refused to comment specifically on national security matters.

Curious indeed. The companies are being circumspect in what they're saying about their potential involvment in NSA programs and Verizon was quite adamant that it will do what is necessary and within the law to keep this country safe.

The company responses certainly seem to undercut some of the basic issues raised in the USA Today piece - including the kinds of calls involved and what kind of information is even collected by the phone companies in the first place.

I expect that there will be more analysis of this story in coming days and weeks.

Others blogging: Group Intel, and James Joyner.