Attention in N.S.A. Debate Turns to Telecom Industry

[SOURCE: New York Times 2/11, AUTHOR: Scott Shane]
Though much of official Washington has been caught up in the debate over the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance program, one set of major players has kept a discreet silence: the telecommunications corporations. Some companies are said by current and former government officials to have provided the eavesdropping agency access to streams of telephone and Internet traffic entering and leaving the United States. The N.S.A. has used its powerful computers to search the masses of data for clues to terrorist plots and, without court warrants, zeroed in on some Americans for eavesdropping, those officials say. Now the companies are in an awkward position, with members of Congress questioning them about their role in the eavesdropping. On Thursday two Democratic senators, Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts and Russell D. Feingold of Wisconsin, wrote to the chief executives of AT&T, Sprint Nextel and Verizon, asking them to confirm or deny a report in USA Today on Monday that said telecommunications executives had identified AT&T, Sprint and MCI (now part of Verizon) as partners of the agency. The two senators demand information that, if it exists, would be highly classified: details of secret N.S.A. requests for help and the number of people whose communications were intercepted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/11/politics/11nexus.html
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