So cozy it is. Such a small world.

Time to change the signs at the borders–

â€Welcome to the United States of Corporate Americaâ€

Gillespie!

Mysterious surprise appointment of new Acting AG, no one can figure out why…

Thanks as always ew for connecting the dots.

Is anybody else ever going to take a look at Big Ed’s growing track record?

I use Firefox and never have the Apple Quicktime request or other problems. I would suspect a hijack, virus, etc.

There was a comedy channel embed that may have been invoking the quicktime request. I’ve gotten rid of it. Let me know if it’s better.

I’m not up on HTML but I just scanned the source for the front page and the post from emptypockets includes a section to load the QT plugin, if required. Whenever the post gets archived, it will stop.

Back on topic, I find it amazing that we are even talking about AT&T! This company was broken up after the anti-trust stuff back in (what?) the 1960s? 70s? And now, just like a zombie, it has come back from the dead with all its pieces put back in place!

Just today, I was attempting to find a phone number to call AT&T customer service. I found all kinds of information that would tell me stuff I did not want to know, but I never could find a phone number to talk to a real human being (who speaks ENGLISH)!

Bush is still a dipshit, Cheney is still a dick, and AT&T is back to taking over the world…

JohnJ

Oh, I’m sure it’s about that too. With Gillespie in WH, perhaps a wider strategy of allying closely with the telecoms.

I don’t know how true this is but I read a short Wired Magazine piece that basically said Japan’s giant teleco NTT is an absolutely kick ass company and our giant teleco’s are evil wankers. Wired was talking about technology and service not surveillance.

If anyone familiar with NTT Japan can give a brief comparison to U.S. telecos in a comment I would appreciate it.

or the sentence for outting a spy (and lying about) is less than 3 years if a your year is defined as 12 mos (sorry).

Emptywheel enthusiasts:

I just wanted to post here that I traveled to Lexington to see Jim Comey and two law profs (Rodney Smolla & Kathleen Sullivan) discuss Plame and the first amendment at Washington & Lee Law School. Lexington is lovely. The panel was pretty broad-stroke, historical. There wasn’t an opportunity to ask really detailed questions. I did get to meet Comey and he is very charming and very tall.

If anyone is interested, C-Span was there filming but I don’t know when they will broadcast it.

Interesting, EW.

The fact that Nacchio didn’t receive a get-out-of-jail-free card supports your contention.

And if Qwest had cooperated with Bush, I doubt Joe Nacchio can rat on the other telecoms in exchange for leniency now that AT&T’s former attorney took over the DOJ.

Bush & Co rarely act frivolously, so I’d guess they want a great deal of telcom control for the forseeable future. What do they want a tight relationship with AT&T for?

There are many possibilities, but one that comes to mind is that in the future, presumably Dem, administration there will be talk…lots of talk about what to do about George. They would want to know a lot about that in order to bribe, pay off, effect changes to get the results they desire.

Perhaps the biggest issue which *might* arise in the next administration is a 9/11 commission to discover whether W was involved beyond reading a children’s book. They would want to know anything and everything such a commission might come up with.

BTW, EW, have you considered whether you’d like to be involved with such a commission. You’re really excellent with a timeline and an AK-47, er computer.

If the Bush mafia are to extend their influence and try to regain the mantle at some future time, then any tremendous source of information such as telcoms would be of great use. With luck they aren’t going to have any direct sources within government for some years.

There’s the Quid pro quo; Chimpy and the Big Dick get to keep an eye on those who are after them and AT&T gets whatever spectrum it wants for whatever it wants pay.

Don’t underestimate the long term value to these new frequencies. With a fair auction, someone like Google could undo this choke-hold the wireless companies have on the cell market (I just pick Google because they are an outsider, not for some innate trust I have of them). The current system here in the US is almost pure theft since cell service costs the phone companies a fraction of what it costs for land-lines. We are talking trillions. Some of these available frequencies are the soon-to-be old TV frequencies which have an advantage….they go through buildings. If someone dominates the spectrum they could dominate the next generation of cell phones, or at least get a royalty for all use and do nothing else.

If they can fix the auctions simply by seeing others’ bids…but that would take the cooperation of someone who has access to other companies phone networks. I wonder who might have that kind of access to the communications from all the other companies, and then be able to provide legal cover if they get caught???

Need to discuss CALEA as well as FISA in connection with Telco liability

Two key pieces of legislation need to be taken into consideration to understand this issue. In a way, they serve as counterpoints in understanding how the phone companies (not just AT&T) are liable for damages wrought by Bush-Cheney’s illegal wiretapping, and how the Telcos could have and should have served as a firewall to the warrantless surveillance program.

1978. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978 prescribes procedures for the physical and electronic surveillance and collection of â€foreign intelligence informationâ€. The primary enforcement mechanism of the FISA law is criminal and civil penalties — that may be imposed on either/or both Telco executives or government officials — for allowing phone company facilities to be used to wiretap without a) a FISA or criminal warrant; or b) a letter from the AG stating that a lawful exception applies.

1994. The Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) is a United States wiretapping law passed in 1994 (Pub. L. No. 103-414, 108 Stat. 4279). In its own words, the purpose of CALEA is:

To amend title 18, United States Code, to make clear a telecommunications carrier’s duty to cooperate in the interception of communications for Law Enforcement purposes, and for other purposes.

In effect, CALEA mandated that the Telcos and more recently the ISPs install surveillance equipment at key switching stations that allows the federal government to record electronic communications. There are two basic types of surveillance equipment in place, diverters that funnel data directly to the NSA (this is type observed in the AT&T case), and data storage systems that separate out data streams into discrete message packets and then store these should a federal agency produce a warrant or order demanding a particular individual’s call records be turned over.

For obvious reasons, there is tremendous tension between FISA and the first type of CALEA compliant equipment and procedures that simply funnel your call to NSA contractors rather than separate and store messages.

The Telcos would prefer that they now be retroactively exempted from liability, and by installing diverters rather than separators some have sought to evade the intent of FISA, which was to hold the Telcos jointly liable for cooperating with warrantless searches.

CALEA, as well as FISA, need to amended to clarify the proper role the Telcos should be expected to play in policing federal demands for wiretaps.

Somehow this off topic article seems tangentially relevant to Telco’s and switching stations.

Prof. Lene Hau at Harvard has slowed down the speed of light to zero. And this was back in 2001. In the intervening years, she has learned how to revive it in a different space (without direct connection). Who knows how useful this has become to the government putting its paws into the fiberoptic backbone of the communications grid nationally and worldwide.

http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gaz…..light.html

Jane S – thanks for the input. Lexington VA is lovely and has horsepark. Lexington KY though, is God’s country, heaven on earth and has The Horsepark. *g*

bmaz – the â€safeharbor†is why I found Comey’s testimony on what he was being asked to sign off on so interesting – it seems to rule out that they were providing in THAT particular doc at least, a safeharbor AG letter.

I also have to say – safeharbor or not, the intent of the statutory reference to AG letter is pretty clearly to allow for the AG to do the FISA allowed foreign to foreign or 3 day emergency taps that don’t require a warrant but with something for the telecom to hang their hat on. Warrant aside, I think there’s just no way that safeharbor could be claimed in good faith if there was massive data collection of US citizens involved in what the AG presented. And I would also think that if the other telecoms had notice of the QWEST position, it would make it harder to fall under the safeharbor.

All things being equal, the safeharbor argument is much better and easier for the telecoms to make (if they had the right documentation -I’m not sure if an Exec Order is included in the two safe harbor options)but at some point, bad faith vitiates. Maybe there wasn’t a massive enough US citizen involvement initially for that to be an issue. Maybe there was never a true bad faith situation during the initial steps (as a hypothesis on the hypothetical programs).

However, when you reach a point where the program went public and the President and AG have doggedly denied to Congress and the public that they are doing datamining etc. and claimed they were only accessing â€al-Qaeda calling†information, the telecoms would know the AG is lying and or is deliberately covering up what he is doing to Congress. At some point, it seems to me there has to be something in the nature of a bad faith/fraud vitiation. But that’s all very speculative and fact/law dependent and jmo anyway.

JohnJ – From a general perspective, that is how I have read it; and still do. This is high stakes litigation, complex, and an inventive plaintiff’s attorney can find several different avenues, or claims, with which to pursue his case. As a general rule though, I believe the analysis I have given is correct. I have intentionally put it out in a couple of different places to see if it holds up. To date, I have not seen an effective contravention. It should be pointed out that when I say indemnification, it doesn’t mean that there is no chance ever of a judgment being rendered against a telcom; simply that if any judgment were to entered (and many claims will be dismissed; but as to any that make it through toa judgment) the government would have to reimburse, or simply pay, any amounts the telcos would be liable for. So it is not that there couldn’t be giant liability awards, it is simply that the telcos are not in any danger of being buried by them. The immunity desire is being sold to the public as necessary for the telcos. It is not. The Bush administration does not want to have to pay for their criminal actions, and they want immunity so that there will be no civil suits where their malevolent actions and conduct can be exposed. So the real import, if any, of what I am saying is that the discussion on immunity should be honest. There is liability out there, but it is all about the Bush Administration; not that ATT is going to go belly up. No one should let the Administration get away with arguing otherwise.

Oh well, that shoots my theory down. I would still look for any unexplained additions slipped into any legislation.

Aww I have to take off my tin hat now. I’ll save it for later.

At least we know our economic policies are working; my job’s going to China Friday without me.

I just saw a rebroadcast of the White House Press Room briefing today on CSPAN.
I think I like the new WH Press Secretary Dana Perino. I hadn’t seen her before, but not only is she perky, smirky and makes me think she is lying to me, but she also tells the truth just before she slaps on the lie. It is so refreshing to hear the truth come from the WH.
Today she was addressing the need for the false flag (thanks, bmaz) need for the telcos to get immunity from prosecution.
She said something like the phone companies helped us after 9-11 (long pause) â€allegedly†and etc., etc., perky smirky.