An AT&T technician became a whistle blower when he brought to light information that the company was secretly, and illegally providing network access to the NSA. The Electronic Frontier Foundation brought a suit against the telecom giant in January. The Bush administration objected to some of the information being brought into the case, but the EFF circumvented the objections. When the whole NSA spy story opened, I had the thought that they really couldn't do all that unless the telecoms were involved. So now it turns out that at least one probably was. So where does this leave us? Attorney General Gonzales has said to Congress recently that he wouldn't say whether completely domestic spying isn't taking place. If the Bush record stands, this means they probably are doing domestic spying without one of the partys being outside the US. Who's helping the NSA?

CNET News.com asked telecommunications and Internet companies about cooperation with the Bush administration's domestic eavesdropping scheme. We asked them: "Have you turned over information or opened up your networks to the NSA without being compelled by law?"

Adelphia Communications Declined comment
AOL Time Warner No [1]
AT&T Declined comment
BellSouth Communications No
Cable & Wireless* No response
Cablevision Systems No
CenturyTel No
Charter Communications No [1]
Cingular Wireless No [2]
Citizens Communications No response
Cogent Communications* No [1]
Comcast No
Cox Communications No
EarthLink No
Global Crossing* Inconclusive
Google Declined comment
Level 3* No response
Microsoft No [3]
NTT Communications* Inconclusive [4]
Qwest Communications No [2]
SAVVIS Communications* No response
Sprint Nextel No [2]
T-Mobile USA No [2]
United Online No response
Verizon Communications Inconclusive [5]
XO Communications* No [1]
Yahoo Declined comment

* = Not a company contacted by Rep. John Conyers.
[1] The answer did not explicitly address NSA but said that compliance happens only if required by law.
[2] Provided by a source with knowledge of what this company is telling Conyers. In the case of Sprint Nextel, the source was familiar with Nextel's operations.
[3] As part of an answer to a closely related question for a different survey.
[4] The response was "NTT Communications respects the privacy rights of our customers and complies fully with law enforcement requests as permitted and required by law."
[5] The response was "Verizon complies with applicable laws and does not comment on law enforcement or national security matters.

We're just fish in a fishbowl. Our lives, communications, and movements are not private and no one seems to care. But hey, we are safe from the terrorists right?

Tags: blog bush Spy