Apparently, US Officials Can’t Get Verizon on the Line

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The WaPo has a story quoting anonymous US officials warning that it will be impossible to meet President Obama’s direction to find a solution for the phone dragnet by March 28. (Note, this is a circumstance where WaPo really ought to provide a bit more description of who these anonymous sources are, particularly given the likelihood that 1) certain Congressional sources can be expected to sabotage any plan and 2) certain contractors can be expected to try to profit off any changes.)

But I couldn’t get beyond this line without laughing:

No meeting has been scheduled between government officials and the phone companies to discuss the issue, and no decision has been made about approaching the companies to further discuss the possibility of them holding the records.

In a story claiming there are real obstacles to making this move, WaPo reports that no one has talked to Verizon and the other telecoms, nor have they even decided whether to talk to them about holding the records.

That is, one excuse cited by these anonymous and potentially self-interested people is that they have not yet gotten Verizon on the line.

As if establishing communication with a telecom that is supplying “substantially all” of their metadata on a daily basis would be prohibitively difficult.

At least that’s the story they’re telling, behind the veil of anonymity.

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4 replies
  3. earlofhuntingdon says:

    Fine job pointing out the ironies.

    Maybe the G-men contacts for Verizon, et al., can’t get their shoes off and up to their ears in order to make their calls; or are they just imprisoned in those public phone booths that have long been sold to China as scrap?

    This is really an old gimmick. In addition to the usual, never admit, always deny, always counter attack, there’s an ingrained government preference for looking dumb rather than criminal or malicious; the penalties when caught, if ever, are a lot lower.

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