BellSouth Says It Gave NSA No Call Records

[cal04]

BellSouth Corp. said Monday its ``thorough review'' found no indication it gave telephone records to the National Security Agency as part of a federal anti-terrorism surveillance program. A report last week by USA Today identified BellSouth, along with AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc., as companies that had complied with an NSA request to turn over millions of customer phone records after the 2001 terror attacks.

``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,'' the Atlanta-based regional Bell said in a statement. BellSouth spokesman Jeff Battcher said the company's investigation found ``no contract with the NSA and we are confident that we have turned over no phone records.'' Last week, Battcher said the company had ``not provided any information we would need a subpoena for.'' The USA Today report followed earlier revelations of wiretapping on overseas calls without a court order and sparked a renewed national debate over government intrusion into Americans' civil liberties in the fight against terrorism.

Critics denounced the phone companies for complying with the NSA surveillance request, while others approved of compromising privacy for national security. Another of the regional Bells, Denver-based Qwest Communications International Inc., did not comply with the federal request for call logs. An AT&T spokesman said the company had no comment on BellSouth's statement. A Verizon representative did not immediately return a call for comment.

(snip)
Battcher said BellSouth's customer service department had received little more than two dozen complaints about reports that private phone records may have been relayed to the government. ``We have 20 million land line customers, so 26 complaints is not a lot,'' Battcher said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5824242,00.html

[rodeodance]

1. uum...

[AX10]

2. They must have found out about the liability clause in the....

Telecom Communications Act that says that they are financially liable if they give confidential information away.

[rzemanfl]

3. Bullshit! I bet there are 26 Bell South customers here who

complained. Chime in folks.

[LostinVA]

7. I know my Mom called freaking about it

She lives in NC, and has Southern Bell.

[Rex]

11. I complained, I'm sure this is a whitewash.

The coming scandal would look bad to the stock investors.

[Lochloosa]

15. I guess I'm one of 26....

read this statement carefully....just as you would your phone bill...
BS

[Mojorabbit]

16. I complained eom

[drthais]

27. you KNOW it

back and forth twice via email
then silence from Bell

their response to me had to do with not turning over information
unless it was done lawfully
yeah, right
I quoted their privacy disclaimer to them
and told them I wanted to see PROOF that this was lawful

then they just didn't respond

[peaches2003]

30. Me

I complained with an 'unfriendly' email to Customer Service on their website. No doubt they are lying about this, too, in addition to parsing words about what they gave King George. I fully intend to drop BS as soon as Comcast serves my area with their Digital Telephone service. I have already contacted them.

[primavera]

35. They probably meant 26 complaints...

...per second, and just left out that little bit, considering it a technical matter no one would be interested in.

[anotherdrew]

4. well maybe a firendly troll in the company gave the data ?

otherwise, this is a lovely dodge attempt.

call records they say, did they give maybe "billing data" ? same thing different name. tricky ones these

[NV Whino]

5. Can you say, "sell"?

Just askin'.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

6. The fox investigating the fox. Wonderful.

[UpInArms]

8. LOL! that's because BellSouth no longer exists - it's AT&T!

and so BellSouth cannot make any statements about what they did or did not do - it's AT&T

AT&T to Buy BellSouth, Creating Telecom Giant

The AT&T Corporation said this afternoon that it would acquire the BellSouth Corporation for stock it valued at $67 billion, in a merger that would create a telecommunications behemoth serving nearly 70 million local phone customers and controlling all of Cingular Wireless.

AT&T is already the nation's largest phone company, while BellSouth, which operates in a nine-state region in the Southeast, is third behind Verizon Communications. A combined AT&T-BellSouth would have $130 billion in sales and serve residential customers in 22 states.

While consumer groups and AT&T's main rivals are likely to argue that the deal would concentrate too much power in AT&T's hands, federal antitrust regulators have not blocked large deals in recent years. The companies do not compete in the local phone and Internet businesses, and they already jointly own Cingular, the country's biggest cellphone company.

<snip>

AT&T will keep its name once the deal for BellSouth is completed, and Mr. Whitacre will remain as its chairman and chief executive.

The combined company will dwarf its nearest competitor, Verizon, which is bound to face more pressure to bulk up, too. After SBC made its bid to AT&T last year, Verizon rushed to buy he long-distance carrier MCI Inc. Verizon ultimately beat out Qwest Communications for control of MCI after a protracted fight.

...more...

There is no "BellSouth".

What a crock of shit :mad:

[Jawja]

29. BellSouth is not AT&T

until the merger details are finalized at least until the end of the year; therefore, BellSouth is still operating as a separate entity.

[leftyladyfrommo]

32. My phone bills are all changed over from BellSouth to AT&T

That happened about 3 months ago, I think.

[peaches2003]

31. Not so

I still get billed by Bell South and do not have AT&T. However, BS owns Cingular Wireless. I'm billed separately by CW, but because we have BS and CW we get a lower rate from CW. Sooo...now I have 2 phone services to drop.

[plasticsundance]

36. BellSouth controls 40% of Cingular

AT&T controls the other 60% of Cingular.

[leftyladyfrommo]

37. Congu;ar and AT&T are also connected.

Whenever I have to call AT&T I get a spiel for Cingular.

[peaches2003]

38. LOL

DOUBLE the reason to drop Cingular!

BS sure is parsing their words about how they can't find any records that they gave our phone records to NSA. That's BS from BS.

[Atman]

9. There are enough weasel words in that statement to drive a Hummer through

"`Based on our review to date, (is the review concluded?) we have confirmed no such contract exists (who the hell thinks the NSA would have asked anyone to sign a contract to break the law?) and we have not provided bulk customer calling records (define "bulk" please) to the NSA,'' the Atlanta-based regional Bell said in a statement. BellSouth spokesman Jeff Battcher said the company's investigation found ``no contract with the NSA and we are confident that we have turned over no phone records.'' Last week, Battcher said the company had ``not provided any information we would need a subpoena for.'' (of course, if you were led to believe the NSA was acting under some legal authority, you therefore wouldn't think a subpoena was needed, would you?)

[Dudley_DUright]

10. This is the worst non-denial denial I have ever seen

Talking about word parsing.

[Lib Grrrrl]

12. I Call Bullshit!!

"I'm innocent!"
That's what all guilty folks say. And, it appears, guilty companies, too.

Far as I am concerned, they are guilty till proven innocent, anymore.

I put NOTHING past corporate America anymore...not even shitting on the Constituion!

All hail Qwest!!
Wanna "reach out and touch someone??" Everyone who can oughta switch their service to Qwest, right now...and tell their old carrier WHY.

[Rainscents]

13. Yeah, Okay... We suppose to believe Corporate lies!

[tinfoilinfor2005]

14. Liars.

Liars, Liars, Liars, Liars, Liars, Liars, Liars, Liars, Liars, Liars, Liars, Liars, Liars, Liars, Liars, Liars, Liars, Liars, Liars, Liars, Liars, Liars, Liars, Liars, Liars, Liars.

There. Now they have been called Liars more than twenty six times. Which makes about as much sense as their lying claim.

[guruoo]

17. BellSouth Says It Gave NSA No Call Records

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/P/PHONE_RECORDS_BELLSOUTH?SITE=TNCLA&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

May 15, 11:01 PM EDT

BellSouth Says It Gave NSA No Call Records

By WALTER PUTNAM
Associated Press Writer


ATLANTA (AP) -- BellSouth Corp. said Monday its "thorough review" found no indication it gave telephone records to the National Security Agency as part of a federal anti-terrorism surveillance program.

A report last week by USA Today identified BellSouth, along with AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc., as companies that had complied with an NSA request to turn over tens of millions of customer phone records after the 2001 terror attacks.

"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," the Atlanta-based regional Bell said in a statement.

BellSouth spokesman Jeff Battcher said the company's investigation found "no contract with the NSA and we are confident that we have turned over no phone records." Last week, Battcher said the company had "not provided any information we would need a subpoena for." On Monday night, Battcher said "we cannot find anyone within BellSouth who has ever been approached by the NSA."

<snip>

[Zachstar]

18. Thank you bellsouth

If this is true then yall are good people for fighting this program.

And in the process yall were very smart as surely people like AT&T will have big problems in the future as I highly doubt the gov can stop this case.

[papau]

19. The "billing program analysis" is a cover for the voice capture analysis

-which also gives you your own version of the billing data - if you want it.

[babylonsister]

20. Wow, really? Any connection to SW Bell, any other Bell, or AT&T?

Honest question.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

21. Yep...all part of the baby Bells that were created when AT&T had....

...to give up their local services.

The latest news is that AT&T and the Bells are merging over the next year or two. Back to the old monopoly.

As far as the NSA is concerned, the only telecomm company that allegedly did not cooperate with the NSA was Qwest. Everybody else folded.

[babylonsister]

22. I know, because I went w/SW Bell that melded into AT&T, and the

latter company is in a world of shit now. Thus, my question. I am just wondering if I can get in on the class-action suit! :evilgrin:
P.S. We have a land-line, no mobile phones, so I have no clue what might work for us.

[Name removed]

23. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Heidi]

24. Technical problems.

Our apologies that the lower portion of this thread won't allow replies. Our Mods ran into some technical difficulty this morning while combining two threads. We have asked the Admins to look into the situation. Meanwhile, please feel free to reply to the OP and its sub-threads.

Many thanks.

Heidi
DU Moderator

[Heidi]

39. The problem has been fixed.

:hi:

[henslee]

25. 1st off, I call BS on only getting 26 complaints. 2nd as a Bell S. custom

there have been so many weird bill adjustments, doublespeak, credits promised but never added until I called back and kept reminding them . And then all they do is blame it on an clerical errors.

I'd like to wait and see wtf comes out in the wash on this one.

[annabanana]

26. it "found no indication",,,

that it had given records..

Big difference.
This just means that the tracks are pretty well covered, as far as they know.

[SKKY]

28. Trying to get some of that good Karma that Qwest got I suppose.

[Gunit_Sangh]

33. I'm one of the 26 also

I filled out their form inquiring about this last week and got a none answer back about how they protect my confidential information and that they wouldn't do turn this information over without proper legal authority.

So I sent an email back asking them specifically:
1) Do you consider a log of all the phone calls I make confidential?
2) Did you in fact give the NSA a log of all my phone/cell phone calls.
3) If you did give the NSA a log of my calls, under what legal authority was this done?

These last 3 questions were sent late Friday afternoon. I have yet to receive a response. They are either dragging their feet responding to my email or that only 26 complaints is BS

[Vidar]

34. They give away nothing. Money changed hands.