It is now believed that as many as 20 communications companies participated in the illegal wiretapping of Americans. Among these treasonous entities are Microsoct, AT&T, AOL, Google, Verizon, Bell South, and Earthlink.
Rep. John Conyers of Michigan has officially demanded a list of those companies that particpated in Bush's illegal scheme.
I think that the best way to fight these companies is to hit them the only place they will feel it - the only thing they care about - MONEY. I say that the biggest class action suit in the history of the United States should be launched against these companies. If they were willing to betray their customers, and now to sell out the freedom of the Internet then THEY DESERVE TO GO DOWN, and down with a great big BANG.
Here's an article that I noticed did not receive much play by the mainstream media (what a surprise - harhar).
Lawmaker queries Microsoft, other companies on NSA wiretaps
By JEFF BLISS
BLOOMBERG NEWS
Rep. John Conyers, the House Judiciary Committee's senior Democrat, is asking 20 telephone companies and Internet providers, including Microsoft Corp. and AT&T Inc., whether they cooperated in the government's wiretapping program.
Conyers, a Michigan lawmaker, is asking in the letters sent Friday whether the companies "allowed the federal government to eavesdrop on customer communications through your facilities or turned over customer records when not compelled to do so by law."
BellSouth Corp., Verizon Communications Inc., EarthLink Inc. and Google Inc. are among the companies being sent the inquiries, as Conyers seeks to highlight what Democrats say are the Bush administration's excesses in authorizing eavesdropping on international phone calls and e-mails without court approvals.
"There can be no doubt that today we are in a constitutional crisis that threatens the systems of checks and balances," Conyers said during a forum held by Democrats in Washington on the National Security Agency's wiretapping program.
No Republican lawmakers participated in the forum.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, has scheduled a hearing Feb. 6 to discuss whether President Bush could legally authorize the wiretaps without warrants. Senate Intelligence Chairman Pat Roberts, a Kansas Republican, has said his panel also will look into the wiretaps.
The Justice Department released a 42-page analysis on Thursday saying Bush has authority to conduct the wiretapping under his constitutional role as commander-in-chief to protect the United States from attack, and under the resolution passed by Congress after the Sept. 11 attacks authorizing military force.
Under the program, the NSA listens to hundreds and perhaps thousands of calls made to and from the United States.
While the NSA has declined to comment on the program, telecommunications specialists familiar with the government's methods said phone companies are essential to the widespread surveillance the agency conducts.
In the past, the NSA has gotten permission from phone companies to gain access to so-called switches, high-powered computers into which phone traffic flows and is redirected, at 600 locations across the nation, said Daniel Berninger, a senior analyst at Tier 1 Research in Plymouth, Minn. From these corporate relationships, the NSA can get the content of calls and records on their date, time, length, origin and destination.
Information on the characteristics of a call can be used to figure out patterns in phone traffic that may indicate if terrorists are planning an attack, said Steve Bellovin, a computer science professor at Columbia University in New York.
To look at e-mails and other Internet traffic, the NSA would need the help of Internet service providers, Bellovin said. If terrorists encrypted their messages, it would be very difficult if not impossible to read them without the companies' help, he said.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/256521_wiretap21.html
