Threat Level Privacy, Crime and Security Online Telephone Company is Arm of Government, Feds Admit
You know? I used to be embarrassed to admit that I feared people where listening in on my conversations and such. I mean who would go to all the trouble of getting a warrant to listen to me? Now? I just point to the newspaper and shrug. I saw an interview a while back of a "listener" telling how they would pass particularly juicy conversations around between them to laugh at... I wonder how many other of my paranoid fantasies are coming true around us?"The Department of Justice has finally admitted it in court papers: the nation’s telecom companies are an arm of the government - at least when it comes to secret spying."
Thankfully the Electronic Frontier Foundation has still won an important right to examine documents related to warrantless and unlawful wiretapping on American citizens.
Remember when this was just the stuff of spy novels and paranoid Hollywood directors? I miss those innocent days."The feds argued that the documents showing consultation over the controversial telecom immunity proposal weren’t subject to the Freedom of Information Act since they were protected as “intra-agency” records:
“The communications between the agencies and telecommunications companies regarding the immunity provisions of the proposed legislation have been regarded as intra-agency because the government and the companies have a common interest in the defense of the pending litigation and the communications regarding the immunity provisions concerned that common interest.”
U.S. District Court Judge Jeffery White disagreed and ruled on September 24 that the feds had to release the names of the telecom employees that contacted the Justice Department and the White House to lobby for a get-out-of-court-free card.
“Here, the telecommunications companies communicated with the government to ensure that Congress would pass legislation to grant them immunity from legal liability for their participation in the surveillance,” White wrote. “Those documents are not protected from disclosure because the companies communicated with the government agencies “with their own … interests in mind,” rather than the agency’s interests.”"
Thankfully the Electronic Frontier Foundation has still won an important right to examine documents related to warrantless and unlawful wiretapping on American citizens.
Remember when this was just the stuff of spy novels and paranoid Hollywood directors? I miss those innocent days."The feds argued that the documents showing consultation over the controversial telecom immunity proposal weren’t subject to the Freedom of Information Act since they were protected as “intra-agency” records:
“The communications between the agencies and telecommunications companies regarding the immunity provisions of the proposed legislation have been regarded as intra-agency because the government and the companies have a common interest in the defense of the pending litigation and the communications regarding the immunity provisions concerned that common interest.”
U.S. District Court Judge Jeffery White disagreed and ruled on September 24 that the feds had to release the names of the telecom employees that contacted the Justice Department and the White House to lobby for a get-out-of-court-free card.
“Here, the telecommunications companies communicated with the government to ensure that Congress would pass legislation to grant them immunity from legal liability for their participation in the surveillance,” White wrote. “Those documents are not protected from disclosure because the companies communicated with the government agencies “with their own … interests in mind,” rather than the agency’s interests.”"