Telecommunications company BellSouth Corp. said on Monday that it does not have a contract with the National Security Agency to supply customer calling information and that based on its review to date it has not provided bulk customer calling records to the NSA.
The company said its finding was based on an internal review to date.
This will have to be short, since I have an urgent need to pick up my jaw from the ground.
The story broke Thursday morning. It took them till Monday afternoon to realize they had not in fact handed over customer calling data to the NSA? And they had to conduct an internal review to verify that? And the review is still ongoing, so we should stand by for alterations and emendations?
Are they actually planning to tell us with a straight face later that while they may have provided customer calling data, they are not under a contract and what they turned over were not bulk records (whatever that means)?
** Update # 1, 6:30 pm **
Bellsouth has been complaining that they haven’t received enough complaints yet about their role in the NSA domestic calling database brouhaha. If you’re a Bellsouth customer, please make their day.
(BellSouth spokesman Jeff) Battcher said BellSouth’s customer service department had received little more than two dozen complaints about reports that private phone records may have been relayed to the government.
“We have 20 million land line customers, so 26 complaints is not a lot,” Battcher said.
** Update # 2, 5 am on May 16 **
Leslie Cauley responds to Bellsouth “denial”:
In an interview Monday, BellSouth spokesman Jeff Battcher said the company was not asking for a correction from USA TODAY.
Asked to define “bulk customer calling records,” Battcher said: “We are not providing any information to the NSA, period.” He said he did not know whether BellSouth had a contract with the Department of Defense, which oversees the NSA.
My bad! I thought they were going to be quibbling about not having a written contract or about the definition of “bulk” calling records. (Judging by Cauley’s question, she apparently thought the latter too.) Actually, the quibble is even more childish—we did it with the parent, not the child.
And Battcher comes across as a rank amateur. He gave it up way too easily. He should have just defined “bulk customer calling records”, and let Cauley do all the hard work. Four and a half days of carefully crafted spin, and he gave it up like that?
** Update # 3, 11 am on May 16 **
I was kind of wondering why Bellsouth even bothered putting out such an obviously feeble denial. I mean it sounded feeble yesterday afternoon, even before Leslie Cauley responded to it late last night, and demolished it (out of Battcher’s mouth).
Well, I got my answer today. All morning C”N”N has been reporting Bellsouth’s denial without any reference to Cauley’s rebuttal piece, or without any qualifiers or question marks whatsoever. I last saw the HL”N” version just 15 minutes ago.
And shame on me, but I’m cynical enough to stroke my chin and wonder if there might have been some kind of prior agreement between Bellsouth and C”N”N, some kind of “you build it, and we will come” deal.