QWEST CEO CLAIMS RETALIATION FOR REFUSAL TO SPY ON CUSTOMERS
Sara Burnett and Jeff Smith, report in the Rocky Mountain News that documents suggest that the National Security Agencym and other government agencies, retaliated against Qwest by not giving the company lucrative government contracts because Qwest would not cooperate with the federal government's possibly illegal phone surveillance program.
The documents were under seal until Wednesday, part of the trial of former Qwest CEO Joseph Nacchio for insider trading.
Nacchio, it appears, wanted to raise a defense related to the possibility that in 2001 Qwest was about to get a $100 million contract from the NSA. They didn't get the contract, and as we know, Qwest -- unlike AT&T and Verizon -- refused to track their customers phone calls without a warrant. The suggestion is that the program was raised at the same meeting in which the contract was discussed.
Nacchio also apparently was going to argue that he was in line for a $2 billion contract to build an Internet network which would be safe from terrorist attack, but that never happened.
The documents were under seal until Wednesday, part of the trial of former Qwest CEO Joseph Nacchio for insider trading.
Nacchio, it appears, wanted to raise a defense related to the possibility that in 2001 Qwest was about to get a $100 million contract from the NSA. They didn't get the contract, and as we know, Qwest -- unlike AT&T and Verizon -- refused to track their customers phone calls without a warrant. The suggestion is that the program was raised at the same meeting in which the contract was discussed.
Nacchio also apparently was going to argue that he was in line for a $2 billion contract to build an Internet network which would be safe from terrorist attack, but that never happened.
posted by - at 11:19 AM
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