WASHINGTON—The Bush administration’s domestic eavesdropping controversy has landed at the Federal Communications Commission, with a key telecom lawmaker and an FCC member calling for the agency to investigate whether laws were broken in light of a new report that major telecom carriers turned over millions of phone call records to the National Security Agency for national security purposes.
“The revelation that several telecommunications carriers are complicit in the NSA’s once-secret program, raises the question as to whether these carriers are in violation of Section 222 of the Communications Act and the commission’s regulations implementing that section. As you know, one of the principal purposes of Section 222 is to safeguard the privacy of telecommunications consumers. I am aware of no exception in that statute or in the commission’s regulations for ‘intelligence gathering’ purposes, or any other similar purpose, that would permit the wholesale disclosure of consumer records to any entity,” said Rep. Edward Markey (Mass.), ranking Democrat on the House telecom and Internet subcommittee, in a letter to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin.
Markey, co-chair of the bipartisan House privacy caucus, asked that Martin respond by Monday. “The Bush administration says this program of sweeping up phone call data of tens of millions of Americans who have nothing to do with Al Qaeda is ‘narrowly defined,’ but it appears this electronic driftnet over our homes is only ‘narrowly described,’” Markey said.
“We are reviewing it [Markey’s letter] carefully and will respond accordingly,” said David Fiske, an FCC spokesman.
Markey said he and other Democrats on the House Commerce Committee last week sent a letter to Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), chairman of the panel, requesting hearings on alleged cooperation of telecom carriers with NSA.
A House Commerce Committee spokesman said the panel currently does not have a hearing on the matter scheduled.
Last week, USA Today, citing sources familiar with arrangements between NSA and phone companies, reported AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and BellSouth Corp. contributed phone calling data to the security agency.
BellSouth has taken issue with the USA Today article. “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,” BellSouth said in a statement.
RCR Wireless News last week reported T-Mobile USA Inc. and Verizon Wireless denied participation in NSA phone record collection program, while Cingular Wireless L.L.C., owned by AT&T and BellSouth, and Sprint Nextel Corp. denied comment. Qwest Communications International Inc., which resells wireless service using Sprint Nextel’s CDMA network, reportedly balked at the NSA’s request for customers’ phone call records. A Qwest spokesman said the company does not comment on national security matters.
Meantime, FCC Commissioner Michael Copps today called for the agency to examine whether telecom carriers may have violated laws protecting subscribers’ privacy.
“There is no doubt that protecting the security of the American people is our government’s No. 1 responsibility. But in a digital age where collecting, distributing, and manipulating consumers’ personal information is as easy as a click of a button, the privacy of our citizens must still matter,” said Copps. “To get to the bottom of this situation, the FCC should initiate an inquiry into whether the phone companies’ involvement violated Section 222 or any other provisions of the Communications Act. We need to be certain that the companies over which the FCC has public interest oversight have not gone—or been asked to go—to a place where they should not be. “
The FCC declined to comment on Copps’ request.
In remarks Monday at the Woodrow Wilson Center, Sen. John Sununu (R-N.H.) said he is leery about big government surveillance programs, but does not blame telecom carriers for cooperating with NSA requests for phone records.
In February, Sens. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) and Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) wrote to executives of AT&T, Sprint Nextel and Verizon to ask questions about their alleged involvement with the NSA’s warrantless eavesdropping program. However, it remains unclear what, if anything, the telecom companies told the lawmakers.
Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden, who previously oversaw the domestic eavesdropping initiative at the NSA, is expected to be grilled about phone record data mining Thursday when the Senate Intelligence Commerce begins confirmation hearings on his nomination to head the Central Intelligence Agency.
President Bush, asked today about reported phone call data mining at NSA, again refused to confirm or deny the program’s existence. He repeated that the government is fighting the war on terrorism and is doing so within the law.
