BellSouth put some distance between itself and the NSA scandal earlier evening. From USA Today:
BellSouth said in a statement that it doesn’t contract with the National Security Agency to supply customer calling information.
“As a result of media reports that BellSouth provided massive amounts of customer calling information under a contract with the NSA,” it said Monday, “the company conducted an internal review to determine the facts. Based on our review to date, we have confirmed no such contract exists and we have not provided bulk customer calling records to the NSA.”
Last Thursday, USA TODAY reported that the NSA has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, BellSouth and Verizon, people with direct knowledge of the program said. One of the nation’s major telecommunication companies, Qwest, declined to participate, the story said, a fact confirmed Friday by Herbert Stern, the lawyer for former Qwest CEO Joe Nacchio.
Now I’ll admit to being too cynical for my own good, but the use of the phrase “our review to date,” as well as of the word “contract” makes me just a little suspicious that we’re dealing with a little CYA here. I certainly won’t pretend to have any insight whatsoever into how a massive telecom and the National Security Agency normally conduct classified business with one another, but the lack of a contract strikes me as mostly meaningless. The use of “to date” is a wonderful caveat, however, in that it ensures that future statements and findings don’t prove this one untrue. As my father would say, that and a token gets you to West Philly.