Saluting Joe Nacchio and Qwest

As you may have read, Qwest was the only big telecom company to refuse to hand over its customers' records to the NSA without a court order. AT&T, Bell South, and Verizon dutifully rolled over for Uncle Sam.

According to sources familiar with the events, Qwest's CEO at the time, Joe Nacchio, was deeply troubled by the NSA's assertion that Qwest didn't need a court order — or approval under FISA — to proceed. Adding to the tension, Qwest was unclear about who, exactly, would have access to its customers' information and how that information might be used.

....The NSA told Qwest that other government agencies, including the FBI, CIA and DEA, also might have access to the database, the sources said. As a matter of practice, the NSA regularly shares its information — known as "product" in intelligence circles — with other intelligence groups. Even so, Qwest's lawyers were troubled by the expansiveness of the NSA request, the sources said.

....Unable to get comfortable with what NSA was proposing, Qwest's lawyers asked NSA to take its proposal to the FISA court. According to the sources, the agency refused. [USA Today, again]

The right wing blogs are furiously smearing Qwest for "helping the terrorists." All Qwest did was insist on following the laws that protect customer privacy. That's smart business as well as sound ethics. As I mentioned earlier, Telcoms could be liable for billions of dollars for illegally surrendering customer information. The administration tried to bully Qwest into breaking the law because it was too chicken to seek a court order (even as a formality). If Bush really believed in the Unitary Executive theory, he'd have nothing to lose by going through the formalities--or for that matter, changing the law to allow what he wanted to do in the first place. If Qwest's non-participation is hampering the war on terror, it's the administration's fault for not taking the leadership to change the law.

By the way, I've got a question for the hivemind. My only phone service is through T-Mobile. My contract is about to expire. Am I spending my communications dollars in a socially responsible way?

Comments

[plucky punk]

As someone who may or may not be a T-Mobile employee (please don't fire me!), let me say you're fine. They made a big huge deal out of not releasing information without any sort of court order, and in fact increased the account verification necessary when you call into their call center to ask about your account.

[plucky punk]

Oh, and they also donated a bunch of phones for hurricane katrina and rita victims, and matched employee donations to the red cross for katrina, rita, and the tsunami.

[Wade]

But what are they doing about the coltan problem?

[plucky punk]

Well on that I have no idea. That's a problem with cell phones in general, not to mention things like laptops. Really for that you'd have to look at the cell phone manufacturers like motorola and nokia and the like.

[plucky punk]

So, socially responsible in terms of the NSA thing...yes. Everything else? Honestly no idea. (Please don't fire me!)

[greensmile]

then the right wing bloggers have a lot more fear than they have good sense or a grasp of law or history...they won't mind all these little foibles of a fascist state because they have their gaze locked on a rather fanciful caraciture of an enemy.

[gonzo]

It still amazes me that there is a percentage of Americans that think their president and his adminstration can do no wrong. I am continually reminded of Orwell and also of the Terry Gilliam film Brazil.

[Gabriel Nichols]

TMobile is fine but given that you are in NYC a far better choice would be working assets. They offer cell service and you will see the same percentage of profits going to the nonprofits you select. They don't have great coverage outside the city (I'm 2 hours north and out of network) but inside the city are fine. Also I think you get the same six months of B&J with the cell phone as with the phone service.

[Dan Schneider]

Bravo to Qwest.

It must be Nacchio's way for making up for his past scandals (Google them).

[Ginger Yellow]

German companies tend to be extremely sensitive about data protection, so you should be OK. That said, I've no idea how much independence T-Mobile in the States has from its parent.

[Thom]

John at Americablog has a list up and says T-Mobile is one of the good guys. I feel so strange about being one of the lucky ones with a Qwest land line. Not that I had a choice.

[BF]

It will take a little more than simply not committing another crime to make up for the $3 billion fraud Nacchio was just indicted for.

[Karlsfini]

BF, where did you get the $3-billion? I'm not saying you're wrong, but last I heard Nacchio himself "only" got $400-million.

His boss, Phil Anschutz, however, made $2-billion out of the deal, but no one has ever gone after him or is going to. Anschutz is untouchable. He's called America's "unknow billionaire," and keeps a very low profile. If Cheney owns Bush, then who owns Cheney?

Anschutz would be a good bet.

I can't imagine why they didn't turn over the records — these are not do-gooders. I'm betting they wanted some kind of government pay-off and wouldn't release the info until they got it.

[BF]

The $3 billion was the amount improperly reported while he was Chairman and CEO, apparently lubricate a big merger in 2000. I wasn't even talking about how much he stole, though the 40-something counts of insider trading are certainly not very flattering either.

[Daniel Ferro]

Thank you for taking a second to recognize a responsible company. Qwest gets all my respect for their wise choice to side with the law versus dubya.

[gordo]

It's kind of sad that Qwest stands out from the pack simply because they followed their own policies and obeyed the law.

[steve]

Verizon Wireless and Cingular (AT&T/ Bell South) are clearly on the wrong side and should be dumped. T-Mobile claims to be clean, but we need real investigations to see who did what.

[scottproctor]

The only reason Joe Nacchio did not want to give up the records was simply because he was lying all along about quest revenues. the man is a crook, thug and treated everyone he touched with distance. He should be jailed for his crimes.