Duopoly Spies

Well, I had been waiting to post something about the telcos and domestic wiretapping until more news came out, since much of it was still hearsay. But now National Intelligence Director and former National Security Agency Director Mike McConnell has confirmed it:

Now the second part of the issue was under the president's program, the terrorist surveillance program, the private sector had assisted us. Because if you're going to get access you've got to have a partner and they were being sued. Now if you play out the suits at the value they're claimed, it would bankrupt these companies. So my position was we have to provide liability protection to these private sector entities.

— Transcript: Debate on the foreign intelligence surveillance act, By Chris Roberts, ©El Paso Times, Article Launched: 08/22/2007 01:05:57 AM MDT

Ryan Singel points out in Wired's Threat Level blog that this is even though the same McConnell signed a sworn declaration in April saying to reveal that NSA and Verizon had such a relationship "would cause exceptionally grave harm to the national security."

Meanwhile, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is suing AT&T, Verizon, and Bellsouth for allegedly violating federal and state privacy laws by secretly helping the government spy on Americans' phone and email calls. It's curious that McConnell should affirm what he and the government had previously denied, and that he would do so after the court hearing.

In any case, it appears that McConnell has confirmed the telcos' involvement in illegal spying. The same telcos that are involved in TV "franchise reform" so they can wipe out local competition, in repeated political censorship, and of course that are beneficiaries of the regulatorium, which, combined with mergers produces higher prices. Letting them be in charge of content distribution is to continue to play Russian roulette with our communications and thus with our society, while even the Russians have faster and less expensive broadband than the U.S.

What we need is effective regulation and even more we could use some real competition.

-jsq