Tuesday, May 16, 2006

WORKING ASSETS -- Tell The Telecoms Where They Can Get Off!

http://www.workingassets.com/

In light of new revelations about the big telecommunications carriers' handing over domestic calling records to the National Security Agency, you should know where Working Assets stands on the NSA's increasingly alarming activities.

Working Assets believes that the warrantless monitoring of phone conversations ordered by the Bush administration is illegal and unacceptable. We also unequivocally oppose the disclosure of domestic calling records to the NSA by our nation's telecommunications providers. As reported yesterday in USA Today,1 AT&T, Bell South and Verizon sold customer call records to the NSA. Working Assets would never, under any circumstances, give (let alone sell) records to the Bush administration without a warrant or a court order.

In fact, as Working Assets' president, I recently signed on to an amicus brief supporting the ACLU's law suit against the National Security Agency. We are the only telephone company participating in this law suit.

Working Assets has never been approached by any government agency seeking our help in illegally accessing the content of conversations by our customers, and we would refuse any such request. Similarly, we would not, under any circumstances, turn over customer call records to the government without a warrant. We are actively engaged in opposing warrantless monitoring, in pushing for full disclosure by the government regarding the scope of the monitoring, and in protecting citizens from intrusive and illegal exercises of governmental power. Additionally, we are fighting Bush's nomination of General Michael V. Hayden, the architect of the NSA's illegal wiretapping program, to head the CIA. . .


Working Assets' underlying carrier for both wireless and long distance is Sprint. After the news broke that AT&T, Verizon, and BellSouth were helping the NSA to compile a massive database of call records for domestic spying purposes, we contacted Sprint. Sprint has reassured us that they did not participate in this database. However, we continue to push for additional confirmation.

An important element of our relationship with Sprint is that while we utilize Sprint's underlying network on behalf of our customers, we do not give Sprint any of our customer information, including name, address, billing info.

http://www.workingassets.com/nsadatabase

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