Blogs

USA Today Revisits, Slightly Revises, Telephone Database Story

By Vaughn Ververs

June 30, 2006 / 11:25 AM EDT / CBS News

(CBS/AP)

It's been some time since we've heard anything regarding the USA Today story about the government's massive telephone record database. Today, the paper steps up to clarify its original reporting. Back in May, the paper reported that three telephone companies – BellSouth, Verizon and AT&T – had contracted with the federal government to provide records in an effort to find and track terrorist activity. All three companies issued carefully-worded denials of the story with BellSouth and Verizon being most adamant about denying specific parts. Now, the USA Today reports:

Members of the House and Senate intelligence committees confirm that the National Security Agency has compiled a massive database of domestic phone call records. But some lawmakers also say that cooperation by the nation's telecommunication companies was not as extensive as first reported by USA TODAY on May 11.
Several lawmakers, briefed in secret by intelligence officials about the program after the story was published, described a call records database that is enormous but incomplete. Most asked that they not be identified by name, and many offered only limited responses to questions, citing national security concerns.

And in a "note to our readers," the paper now says:

Based on its reporting after the May 11 article, USA TODAY has now concluded that while the NSA has built a massive domestic calls record database involving the domestic call records of telecommunications companies, the newspaper cannot confirm that BellSouth or Verizon contracted with the NSA to provide bulk calling records to that database.
USA TODAY will continue to report on the contents and scope of the database as part of its ongoing coverage of national security and domestic surveillance.

The details of all this are rather complex and nuanced so I urge you to read the entire story and note. As it stands now, it appears the paper was correct in reporting that this database has been compiled but less accurate about the extent of the phone companies named.