Kondracke denounced Qwest as "basically helping terrorists" for not giving customers' phone records to NSA
On Fox News' Special Report, Roll Call executive editor Morton Kondracke said the telecommunications company Qwest was "basically helping terrorists" because "to its discredit, [it] said it was not cooperating with the NSA [National Security Agency] and specifically decided not to cooperate" by providing the NSA with the phone call records of its customers. According to The New York Times, a lawyer representing Qwest's former CEO has said that the company "[[Qwest]] turned down requests by the National Security Agency for private telephone records because it concluded that doing so would violate federal privacy laws."
During the "All-Star panel" on the May 17 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume, Roll Call executive editor Morton M. Kondracke said the telecommunications company Qwest was "basically helping terrorists" because "to its discredit, [it] said it was not cooperating with the NSA [National Security Agency] and specifically decided not to cooperate" by providing the NSA with the phone call records of its customers. "Now, you know, if we're fighting a war on terrorism," Kondracke said, "you'd think the telephone companies would want to cooperate, and I would hope that they would be cooperating. And for a company to opt out and say, 'No, no, no, we're too privacy-minded for this,' you know, it's basically helping terrorists."
A May 11 USA Today report that NSA has been collecting and analyzing records of phone calls made by millions of Americans since 2001 stated that, according to its sources, "[a]mong the big telecommunications companies, only Qwest has refused to help the NSA." According to a May 12 New York Times article, former Qwest CEO Joseph N. Nacchio has stated that "Qwest turned down requests by the National Security Agency for private telephone records because it concluded that doing so would violate federal privacy laws," although the company itself has not commented on the USA Today article. The Times article noted that Nacchio left Qwest in 2002 and that he was indicted in December 2005 on 42 counts of "insider selling."
From the May 17 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume:
KONDRACKE: Well, these statements are very carefully worded, and it took six days for them to come out. And in the beginning, Qwest, this other company, to its discredit, said that it wasn't cooperating with the NSA, and it, you know, it specifically decided not to cooperate. Now, you know, if we're fighting a war on terrorism, you'd think the telephone companies would want to cooperate, and I would hope that they would be cooperating. And for a company to opt out and say, "No, no, no, we're too privacy minded for this," you know, it's basically helping terrorists. I think Senator [Pat] Roberts [R-KS] is absolutely right. I mean, what's going on now is shocking. People are treating the Constitution of the United States as a suicide pact. Here we have Al Qaeda -- I mean, everybody has been watching [the film] United 93, and everybody should watch United 93 just to remind us of what we're dealing with. They would slam a plane into the Capitol, they would blow up an atomic bomb if they possibly could, and we're acting as though people who are trying to protect us are criminals.
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as much as i don't have a problem with this entire issue, kondrake is being unfair here. to make the leap that qwest is not giving out phone numbers to them helping terrorists is way over the top. the way rhetoric flies around from these pundits to get attention is just ridiculous.
He's also leaving out the fact that the program's legal status is in doubt even internally at the NSA, as evidenced by the NSA asking for the data, as opposed to demanding it.
If the program was totally legit, it would be a crime to refuse.
The very fact that participation is optional means that it's just not that important to the NSA.
Sign me up Qwest. I'm one of those people who don't want right wing moonies to be able to eavesdrop on my phone calls.
Thank you for resisting the right wing War on Privacy.
The issue here is no matter how you spin this phone company-NSA deal is that it is against the law. In the 1930's Congress enacted a law to prevent specifically against this sort of thing. And I am tired of all the memo points that say if you don't cooperate the terrorists. That line is the second most played line in the last five years, and I don't buy the argument that collecting the calls that almost every American has made is a way to weed out the terrorists. It is viloation of right to privacy and I am simply discusted now by those people who have no problem with this government taking our rights away one at a time. This is supposed to be the freest country in the world right now and are government is no better than the muslim extremist. I don't care if I am attacked for this thought, for it is my right to have it.
I will now get off my pulpit
The terrorists! The terrorists! booga booga booga booga
are the ones who will use these phone numbers to threaten innocent Americans.
for telemarketing?
HAs anyone looked into telemarketing companies role in this NSA fiasco? AT&T is one of West Telemarketing's biggest customers. Bot AT&T (SBC) and West are headquartered in San Antonio. Coincidence? I think not.
the charter members of the "mail-my-man-bits-to-Osama-and-tell-him-that-he-wins" club.
When are some of these idiots going to recognize the totally backasswards paradox of thinking that the only way to defend freedom is to abandon freedom
...have been caught by this illegal program? Oh, I forgot; that's classified. Jesus H. Christ, I hate these lying bastards.
when you think of it, EVERYONE should go down to the CIA, FBI and NSA offices and give them a duplicate set of keys to the house and car, pin numbers to all ATM cards, passwords to computers and voicemail, notes on all household members suspicious 'behaviors', and allow cameras to be placed in your domicile because....because if people DON'T allow this, then...then other people WILL BLOW UP THE U.S. WITH NUCLEAR WEAPONS, DAMMIT! Get with the program people!
How could we object if the government wants to keep track of the telephone calls we make? How could we object if the government wants to keep track of where and when we charged stuff? How could we object if the government wants to keep track of our associations and our habits? It's just fine! It helps them track down terrorists and criminals, doesn't it? I mean, this is the U. S. of A, isn't it, and our government is always open and honest and right and good and would never use this kind of information for any unlawful purpose, would they? They're doing this to protect us! They wouldn't use it to make trouble for someone who called a reporter, would they, even a lefty-lib reporter? Oh, heavens, no. J. Edgar Hoover is dead, after all, and we don't have to worry about that kind of stuff any more! I mean, look at the upright and honest people we have there, like Ashcroft and Gonzales! They'll protect us! Ok, gotta run, someone's hammering at the door -- geez, I hope they don't think I've been talking to a Democrat!!! Bye.
How this program can possibly aid in the war against terror, as we've been told it's being run. I find it absolutely incredible (as in not credible) that mere patterns in calls or anything like that could (a) provide conclusive evidence to arrest a suspect or (b) provide enough evidence to allow prevention of an attack. Thus there MUST be something more, almost certainly wiretapping. While wiretapping of terrorist suspects is not a problem in and of itself, it is in this case specifically what we have been told is NOT going on: wiretapping of US citizens, apparently without a warrant. So it's clear that we're being lied to with a straight face. Again.
Instead of
"Kondracke denounced Qwest as "basically helping terrorists" for not giving customers' phone records to NSA" -- MMFA
how about what it should have been
"Kondracke denounced as "basically helping terrorists" for questioning Qwest's motives, who in defense of the Constitution and subsequent laws, did not give customers' phone records to NSA"
Hey, Kondrake all we really have is our lives and liberty. And life isn't worth much without liberty.
To my mind, the "People are treating the Constitution of the United States as a suicide pact" statement is even more disturbing than the one MM highlights. I suppose it's just another variation on the "You can't have civil liberties when you're dead argument." Still, it's chilling how quickly people are willing to toss out 200+ years of guarantees of freedom.
It is almost impossible to believe that Kondrake doesn't remember that once upon a time, he was on Nixon's enemies list, and worried, like many reporters then, about his own telephone being tapped illegally in the name of national security by an out of control administration.
He deserves enormous credit for fighting the alcohol battle, and admitting it publicly, but he appears to have trouble remembering things that happened before quitting booze. Either that, or 35 years in Washington also destroys memory cells.