NSA wanted phone records before 9/11
p2pnet news | Politics:- The Bush administration was looking for confidential phone company information at least seven months before 9/11, says a senior phone company executive.
Former Qwest Communications CEO Joseph P. Nacchio said last year he refused a National Security Agency request, “for customers’ call records in late 2001, after the Sept. 11 attacks, as the agency initiated domestic surveillance and data mining programs to monitor Al Qaeda communications,” says the New York Times, citing unsealed court filings quoted by the Rocky Mountain News.
Nacchio also claims the NSA retaliated, “by depriving Qwest of lucrative outsourcing contracts,” says the story, going on:
The significance of the claim is hard to assess, because the court documents are heavily redacted and N.S.A. officials will not comment on the agency’s secret surveillance programs. Other government officials have said that the agency’s eavesdropping without warrants began only after Sept. 11, 2001, under an order from President Bush.
But the court filings in Mr. Nacchio’s case illustrate what is well known inside the telecommunications industry but little appreciated by the public: that the N.S.A. has for some time worked closely with phone companies, whose networks carry the telephone and Internet traffic the agency seeks out for intercept.
Some of the cooperation is related to the agency’s second major responsibility – the protection of classified government communications systems against eavesdropping or hacking by adversaries. The documents reflect constant meetings and negotiations between the agency and Qwest officials over the global communications network.
Nacchio is a former National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee chairman sentenced to six years in jail for alleged insider trading but who’s free pending his appeal.
The claims, “could influence a battle in Congress over whether companies that assist the N.S.A. should be given immunity from civil or criminal liability,” says the NYT.
“Some Democrats have opposed granting such immunity unless the Bush administration agrees to reveal more about the companies’ participation in eavesdropping and data mining programs.”
Nacchio was convicted last spring of insider trading for $52 million of stock sales in April and May 2001, and sentenced to six years in prison, says the Rocky Mountain News, going on:
“The partially redacted documents were filed under seal before, during and after Nacchio’s trial. They were released Wednesday.
“Nacchio planned to demonstrate at trial that he had a meeting on Feb. 27, 2001, at NSA headquarters at Fort Meade, Md., to discuss a $100 million project. According to the documents, another topic also was discussed at that meeting, one with which Nacchio refused to comply.”
The topic itself is edited out, “each time it appears in the hundreds of pages of documents, but there is mention of Nacchio believing the request was both inappropriate and illegal, and repeatedly refusing to go along with it,” says the story, adding:
“In the documents, Nacchio also asserts Qwest was in line to build a $2 billion private government network called GovNet and do other government business, including a network between the U.S. and South America.
“The documents maintain that Nacchio met with top government officials, including President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and then-National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice in 2000 and early 2001 to discuss how to protect the government’s communications network.”
Also See:
New York Times – Former Phone Chief Says Spy Agency Sought Surveillance Help Before 9/11, October 14, 2007
Rocky Mountain News – Documents: Qwest was targeted, October 11, 2007
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