Phone Companies Refuse to Give Congress Data on Spy Program

JohNNy1+4 writes "Several US telephone communications firms are refusing to answer the questions of a congressional panel about spying on American citizens. The panel is making an inquiry into Bush administration tactics in the years since 2001, but has been stymied by the administration's claim that releasing that information would be illegal. As a result Verizon, AT&T, and Qwest have declined to answer the panel's queries. '"Our company essentially finds itself caught in the middle of an oversight dispute between the Congress and the executive relating to government surveillance activities," AT&T Inc. General Counsel Wayne Watts said in a letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee that was released today by the panel.'"

Comments

Re:I hate to say it, but they're right.

[IgnoramusMaximus]

There is a term for this plan: coup d'état.

And it would mean the end of the US as a Republic and an official beginning of the Empire.

Also note that in an effort to prevent such a scenario, all the armed forces take an oath to the Constitution, not to the President to make clear which has precedence over which.

Re:Ah...Yes wiretapping

[GodfatherofSoul]

Firstly, you're insane or ignorant if you think the Watergate Hearings were some sort of witch hunt. I suggest you read some transcripts of the Nixon archive tapes before regurgitating that BS. Nixon decided to leave office when his OWN PARTY told him the game was over. I wish he still would have been criminally prosecuted for his REAL abuses of the Constitution.

Secondly, steering a Senate investigation into a President's extramarital affair is damned straight a witch hunt, especially in the context of the "Arkansas Group" and the BS Troopergate story. And, the Clinton impeachment vote wasn't along party lines. Even some Republicans weren't stupid enough to vote for it.

Third, Clinton didn't perjure himself. Go research the Clinton perjury myth.

But thanks for rehashing the same uninformed myths about our political history that reveal the widespread ignorance that gets us into debacles like Iraq.