Was Qwest Punished For Not Spying?

Court Papers Suggest Convicted Exec’s Rejection Of Classified Project Led To Loss Of Gov’t Business

(CBS/AP)  Former Qwest Chief Executive Joe Nacchio planned to argue during his insider trading trial that Qwest lost government contracts as a result of refusing a government request, court documents show.

Details of the government's request were redacted in the documents released Wednesday. But last year, Nacchio's attorney Herbert Stern said the government asked for access to Qwest customers' phone records in 2001, with neither a warrant nor approval from a special court established to handle surveillance matters.

While AT&T Corp., Verizon Communications Inc. and BellSouth Corp. complied, Qwest refused after deciding the request violated privacy law, Stern has said.

In July 2001, the National Security Agency named other companies as recipients of a contract that Nacchio believed Qwest would get, the court documents said.

Nacchio was convicted last spring on 19 counts of insider trading. He was accused of selling $52 million in stock in 2001 based on nonpublic information that Qwest Communications International Inc. was having trouble meeting its financial targets.

Nacchio's lawyers contended he had classified information that led him to believe Qwest would win lucrative government contracts that would have bolstered Qwest's revenue. However, that argument was not mentioned at trial.

Court documents released Wednesday show Nacchio's lawyers had wanted to present those arguments, but alongside his refusal of the government request.

According to The Rocky Mountain News, Nacchio planned to demonstrate at trial that he had a meeting on Feb. 27, 2001, at the National Security Agency’s headquarters at Fort Meade, Md., to discuss a $100 million project. According to the documents, another topic also was discussed at that meeting, one with which Nacchio refused to comply.

The topic itself is redacted each time it appears in the hundreds of pages of documents, but there is mention of Nacchio believing the request was both inappropriate and illegal, and repeatedly refusing to go along with it.

U.S. District Judge Edward Nottingham would not allow Nacchio to present an argument on retaliation.

Nacchio's lawyers argued in the court documents that Nacchio couldn't fully explain what happened with the government contracts without presenting the retaliation argument.

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is scheduled to hear Nacchio's appeal Dec. 18.

Nacchio is free pending his appeal.

[toldyouso21]

Boy, one day we will look back on these Bush years...and just like the Germans did after WWII, shake our heads and wonder--what in the hell came over us--to allow all that has happened to happen?

[toolmangler-2009]

cia - kgb, nsa - gestopo, bush administration - sadam administration, bush - hitler. They all do the same thing but to differing degrees. For bush the philosophy is, if you cross the line just move it.

Posted by fiteit1 at 10:32 PM : Oct 13, 2007



Good one !!!!! LOL

[usayesterday]

TWO WRONGS DON''T MAKE A RIGHT!






(But three rights make a left).

Qwest had the right to deny access to the government, no problem at all.

The government has every right to deny government contract to those who do not play ball.

What the heck does that have to do with this guy breaking the law. One does not beget the other. Put the guy away for the rest of his life...

Qwest would have a very good chance of getting government contracts if Sprint, and the rest of the big communication companies had denied the governments request...but they went for the money and said skew you customers.

Everybody plays politics and no one wins.

[shingles1]

The real story isn''t whether Qwest was punished for not spying.

The Sept. 11 attacks have been cited by the government as the main reason for its warrantless surveillance efforts. Yet, here it seems that the government was trying to set up a surveillance program 7 months before the terrorist attacks on 9/11. Why?

[searingtruth]

"When everything is secret, everything is legal."
SearingTruth

A Future of the Brave - www.searingtruth.com

[cdfoxtrot]

Seems like every day that goes by, someone else comes along with another disturbing story about the un-American and unconstitutional activities of the moron-in-chief and his henchmen. At some point, we have to seriously worry about the ability of the US to continue as a functioning democracy - to the extent it is - with this kind of thing going on, and no-one being held accountable.

[fiteit1]

cia - kgb, nsa - gestopo, bush administration - sadam administration, bush - hitler. They all do the same thing but to differing degrees. For bush the philosophy is, if you cross the line just move it.

[tnt1954]

black helicopters came by to visit me too.
and ya know, i''m tired of the mind-reading satellites
and the thought police.

[micma-2009]

Exactly how these fascists operate.

If you are not willing to wipe your @ss with the constitution for their benefit, they''ll punish you.

[lastdance2]

Criminal Corporate (Nazi) America - The Republican (Nazi) Party
Slowly but Surely - Being Uncovered ! !

Lets not Forget - Those who have Supported them and Protected them -
The Justice Department and - The FBI

Lastdance

[starleo146]

I say no immunity-- They danced let them pay the fiddler.

[starleo146]

What was the Gestapo doing spying on us BEFORE 9/11? Yet ANOTHER Bush LIE and yet another example of a dictator ignoring our Constitution. Sieg Heil Bush

Posted by MCVet at 03:48 PM : Oct 13, 2007

GHEEEZ, what else is going to come out. See what they do when you don''t follow this fascist regime.Why can''t we file a class action against Bell South who is now AT&T for giving out private information without our permission?

[mcvet]

He''''s the flavor of the day and eventually enough science will be applied to his ''''discoveries'''' and enough serious investigative and impartial media interest will prevail to prove Gore is nothing more than a paper tiger alarmist with political asperations at the core. Being respectful of the planet didn''''t originate with Gore.


Posted by likeitis5050 at 03:09 PM : Oct 13, 2007
+ report abuse

Now now. Let''s not start a debate about global warning here. I know it''s rough on you Nazi''s and I know you have completely run out of excuses and blame but you have to learn to live with it. You clowns can''t govern that is true but that isn''t new, it''s always been that way. So accept it, take your swastika and crawl back under that rock. You can crawl out again in a couple of generations when, yet again, America has forgotten just how bad you really are. Sieg Heil Y''all.

[mcvet]

Do people have proof that only Republicans spy on citizens; with every Democratic leader being pure and lily white by comparison?

It was nice to read that article. But I don''''t think spying is anything new at all. Nor is it one-sided.





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Posted by hypnotoad72 at 06:11 PM : Oct 13, 2007
+ report abuse

Really? Well I was there when FISA was passed and guess what? It was DEMOCRATS who passed it. You are not just WRONG you are DEAD Wrong. Nixon was spying one anyone and everyone, without a court or anything else. So the law was passed, the law that the Little Nazi has ignored. Sieg Heil Bush!

[johnny_chaos]

The democrats all hum we are the world, and the republicans are dancing on stage to macho man. think about it, couldn%u2019t you just see Romney and Giuliani in a little leather suit singing macho-macho man? Then there is Huckabee dancing about to YMCA. Seriously that%u2019s one of the problems with republicans that whole big daddy thing. a strong man, a leader%u2026 nah, what makes a government great is a deadlock. Nothing gets done, no new laws, no new taxes, no new intrusions. A 50 -50 split of people that can%u2019t work together and hate each other, now that%u2019s good government.

[johnny_chaos]

*** = A-N-U-S - as in victor, as in elected official. as in the figurehead for our particular form of corporate government.

[johnny_chaos]

all you need to do is look at who backs the tickets and supplies the cash to get the *** elected. if its a military industrial complex sponsored campaign, your going to get inept spying and weird soviet style laws and oversight, as well as pointless wars such as Iraq, Afghanistan etc. are we really safer? are the spies even able to sift the data? who cares. its all about the money. See, boeing, ge and the other big money cold war industry leaders were left out of the 90%u2019s boom due to being limited to the war economy. The first thing they did was start spying and I actually believe that had 9/11 not happened the stock market would have crashed so hard it would make the depression look like a freaking workers vacation. So, 9/11 allowed blue chip stocks and the chimp a chance to roll back the open world ideology that was spreading. Enemies in every toilet and all. oh, its all of them democrat, republican, whatever, all the same, liars and thieves. the biggest kissass wins, everytime. democracy, the government of the lowest common denominator.

[johnny_chaos]

hypnotoad72 I would say that your right. Democrats aren%u2019t much better, however, the republicans really tend to lean towards police state, as opposed to forced candy land welfare state. and as much as i hate welfare states, i dislike police states more. oh, and as far as welfare states, been to Iowa lately? Farm subsidy = welfare. So, all you farmers are welfare hoes, same as the crack heads in the city. Smoke that pipe.

[hypnotoad72]

Do people have proof that only Republicans spy on citizens; with every Democratic leader being pure and lily white by comparison?

It was nice to read that article. But I don''t think spying is anything new at all. Nor is it one-sided.