RichardHarlos.com

Truth has nothing to fear from scrutiny. Why, then, does the NSA fear scrutiny? Perhaps because the NSA isn’t telling the truth.

As many of you already may have heard or read, Qwest is the only major telecommunication company that refused to hand its telecommunication data to the NSA. Why did it refuse? I imagine it has a lot to do with caring about not breaking the law; with caring about not violating its customers’ trust; with doing the ‘right thing.’

Contrast Qwest’s refusal to give away its data with the astonishing revelation that AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth were apparently quite happy to accomodate the NSA’s request.

So here’s Qwest, trying to do the right thing—to obey the law—and they’ve got this elite intelligence agency asking them to break the law. Talk about pressure!

Qwest’s lawyers were “troubled by the expansiveness of the NSA request” and asked the NSA to take it’s requests to the FISA court but the NSA refused:

“They told (Qwest) they didn’t want to do that because FISA might not agree with them,” one person recalled. For similar reasons, this person said, NSA rejected Qwest’s suggestion of getting a letter of authorization from the U.S. attorney general’s office. A second person confirmed this version of events.
     -from NSA has massive database of American’s phone calls, USAToday.com, 11 May 2006.

Well guess what? If FISA disagreed with the NSA, and FISA is the authority by which operations may or may not continue, then… the NSA appears to believe it has no accountability to FISA; that it is ‘above the law.’

A government intelligence agency operating as a criminal, ducking and ignoring the law to do what it wants for its own reasons, none of which are accessible to anyone in a ‘checks and balances’ kind of way, should awaken the sensibilities of any reasonably intelligent person. I’m awake! Are you awake! WAKE UP!

Not wanting to take ‘no’ for an answer, the NSA cycles thorough a series of tactics to coerce Qwest into compliance:

The NSA, which needed Qwest’s participation to completely cover the country, pushed back hard.

Trying to put pressure on Qwest, NSA representatives pointedly told Qwest that it was the lone holdout among the big telecommunications companies.

It also tried appealing to Qwest’s patriotic side: In one meeting, an NSA representative suggested that Qwest’s refusal to contribute to the database could compromise national security, one person recalled.

In addition, the agency suggested that Qwest’s foot-dragging might affect its ability to get future classified work with the government. Like other big telecommunications companies, Qwest already had classified contracts and hoped to get more.
     -Ibid.

Qwest deserves some kind of national, perhaps even international, recognition for their principled stand against unlawful intimidation. 7pm EST Update: Apparently there is a way to show appreciation to Qwest for their behavior in this matter. Visit ThankYouQwest.org and you’ll know what to do!

As for the NSA, their tactics sound an awful lot like those of a bully. Oh, pardon me, I keep forgetting that you only call behavior like this ‘bullying’ when it occurs among school children on the playground. When it occurs in government circles, it’s better known as ‘tyranny.’