Mercury Rising

In case anyone was wondering just where Working Assets stood on the whole coughing-up-phone-records-for-NSA issue, here's the text of an e-mail I recieved from them today:

WORKING ASSETS ISSUES UPDATE: May 12, 2006 A Message From Working Assets' President In light of new revelations about the big telecommunications carriers' handing over domestic calling records to the National Security Agency, I am writing to let you know where Working Assets stands on the NSA's increasingly alarming activities. Working Assets believes that the warrantless monitoring of phone conversations ordered by the Bush administration is illegal and unacceptable. We also unequivocally oppose the disclosure of domestic calling records to the NSA by our nation's telecommunications providers. As reported yesterday in USA Today1, AT&T, Bell South and Verizon sold customer call records to the NSA. Working Assets would never, under any circumstances, give (let alone sell) records to the Bush administration without a warrant or court order. In fact, as Working Assets' President, I recently signed on to an amicus brief supporting the ACLU's law suit against the National Security Agency. We are the only telephone company participating in this lawsuit. Working Assets has never been approached by any government agency seeking our help in illegally accessing the content of conversations by our customers, and we would refuse any such request. We are actively engaged in opposing warrantless monitoring, in pushing for full disclosure by the government regarding the scope of the monitoring, and in protecting citizens from intrusive and illegal exercises of governmental power. Additionally, we are fighting Bush's nomination of General Michael V. Hayden, the architect of the NSA's illegal wiretapping program, to head the CIA. If you are a member of AT&T (including Cingular and SBC), Bell South or Verizon, your telecom company willingly sold the private telephone records of American citizens to the Bush administration's illegal domestic spying operation. Please contact your provider now, and let them know that this is simply unacceptable. Contact AT&T: http://www.consumer.att.com/contact?source=body Contact Verizon: http://www22.verizon.com/CustomerSupport/ContactUs/ Contact BellSouth: http://www.bellsouth.com/contactus/index.html You can also find out more about Working Assets Wireless and Working Assets Long Distance at http://www.workingassets.com/. You may also be interested in a new book we are publishing, entitled How Would A Patriot Act?, a compelling analysis of how the NSA's wiretapping fits into a larger scheme by the Bush Administration to violate Constitutional restrictions on executive authority in an unprecedented manner. Click here to find out more about the book. As a telecommunications company, it is our special privilege to facilitate communications among our fellow citizens, to enable conversations on matters personal, commercial, social and political. It is therefore our special obligation to oppose warrantless interference into those communications, whatever the government's justification may be. We will keep you posted on new developments as they arise. Thank you for your ongoing support. Michael Kieschnick, President Working Assets

# posted by Phoenix Woman @ 5/12/2006 05:33:00 PM