AT&T Had White House Authorization to Provide Call Detail Records?

["Fergie" <fergdawg () netzero net>]

What's this?!? A "Get out of Jail Free" card?

Via C|Net News.

[snip]

An AT&T attorney indicated in federal court on Wednesday that the Bush administration provided legal authorization for 
the telecommunications company to open its network to the National Security Agency.

Federal law may "authorize and in some cases require telecommunications companies to furnish information" to the 
executive branch, said Bradford Berenson, who was associate White House counsel when President Bush authorized the NSA 
surveillance program in late 2001 and is now a partner at the Sidley Austin law firm in Washington, D.C.

Far from being complicit in an illegal spying scheme, Berenson said, "AT&T is essentially an innocent bystander."

AT&T may be referring to an obscure section of federal law, 18 U.S.C. 2511, which permits a telecommunications company 
to provide "information" and "facilities" to the federal government as long as the attorney general authorizes it. The 
authorization must come in the form of "certification in writing by...the Attorney General of the United States that no 
warrant or court order is required by law."

[snip]

More here:
http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-6073600.html

Appalling that the executive branch can get the Attorney General
to front for him like that...

Now, if only the legislative branch... nah, too spineless.

- ferg


--
"Fergie", a.k.a. Paul Ferguson
 Engineering Architecture for the Internet
 fergdawg () netzero net or fergdawg () sbcglobal net
 ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/


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