Verizon Denies NSA Sought Call Data
BellSouth Also Refutes Report That Spy Agency Asked For Phone Records
-
Play CBS Video Video Phone Companies' NSA Denial Three giant telecommunications companies that reportedly had turned over millions of consumers' phone records to a national spy agency now say they didn't. Jim Stewart reports.
-
Video Bush: Phone Calls Are Private CBS News RAW: The president insisted that the U.S. does not listen in on domestic phone calls among ordinary citizens, but declined to say if compiling phone records is an invasion of privacy.
-
Video Bush Unveils Immigration Plan Only On The Web: Bill Plante reports on President Bush's immigration plan, which he said would not offer amnesty while deploying 6,000 National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexican border.
-
-
President Bush in the East Room of the White House in Washington Tuesday, May 16, 2006. (AP)
-
President Bush and Australian Prime Minister John Howard pause during an arrival ceremony at the White House, May 16, 2006. (AP Photo/Lawrence Jackson)
-
(CBS/AP)
-
-
Interactive Domestic Surveillance The debate over the Bush administration's controversial wiretapping program.
-
Who's Who Spy Agency Chiefs A glimpse at those who have headed the Central Intelligence Agency since its inception.
An attorney for the former chief executive of Qwest Communications International Inc., another regional phone company, said Friday that the company had been approached by the government but denied the request for phone records because it appeared to violate privacy law.
On Thursday, San Antonio-based AT&T said it had "an obligation to assist law enforcement and other government agencies responsible for protecting the public welfare," but said it would only assist as allowed within the law.
BellSouth, Verizon and AT&T are facing a number of lawsuits by customers who allege violations of their privacy. On Monday, a Democratic member of the Federal Communications Commission said the FCC whether the companies are violating federal communications law.
Meanwhile, President Bush insisted Tuesday that the United States does not listen in on domestic telephone conversations among ordinary Americans. But he declined to specifically discuss the government's alleged compiling of phone records — or whether it would amount to an invasion of privacy.
"We do not listen to domestic phone calls without court approval," Mr. Bush said during an East Room news conference with Australian Prime Minister John Howard. "What I've told the American people is we'll protect them against an al Qaeda attack. And we'll do that, within the law."
The president's new press secretary, Tony Snow, later insisted that Mr. Bush's comments did not amount to a confirmation of published reports that the NSA's surveillance was broader than initially acknowledged and that it included secretly collecting millions of phone-call records.
Mr. Bush said, "This government will continue to guard the privacy of the American people. But if al Qaeda is calling into the United States, we want to know — and we want to know why."
However, the president did not respond directly when asked whether it was a violation of privacy for the NSA to seek phone records from telephone companies.
A Senate confirmation hearing is scheduled for Thursday on Mr. Bush's nomination of Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden to head the Central Intelligence Agency. As the NSA director from 1999-2005, Hayden oversaw the government's warrantless surveillance program.
Questions about that program, and new revelations about the NSA's phone data bank, may be obstacles to Hayden's confirmation.
©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
