Scapegoats for hire.
By on May 20th, 2006 at 10:08 am
Scapegoats for hire.
“A new Business Week article may help explain how AT&T and BellSouth can say they didn’t help the NSA, despite the spy agency having millions of their records showing the call details of Americans using their networks.
The magazine reveals a hidden corner of the telecommunications world: a small group of companies who specialize in granting the government access to telecommunications records, conversations and real-time data on behalf of the telecom giants.” More at TPMmuckraker.
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That’s about right.
May 20th, 2006 at 10:11 am“Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government…â€
—Thomas Jefferson
May 20th, 2006 at 10:14 amI guess it depends on what the meaning of the word “is” is.
May 20th, 2006 at 10:34 amSo let’s see if I get this straight. NeuStar gets access to this information, which would normally be protected by privacy laws, under cover of an “needed to operate” exemption in those laws and in customers’ terms of service because they’re a routing company. Then they take that same information and turn it over to the government, absolving the actual telcos of any responsibility or liability. Isn’t there supposed to be a big “Chinese wall” between the two business units involved, much as between the various parts of financial institutions? This seems like a pretty transparent ploy to circumvent the law.
It’s also worth noting that NeuStar has come under a lot of criticism for their handling of the .us internet domain, such as sucking up some of the prime domain names for themselves before registration opened. The very fact that they were selected to run that domain, when there were many better-qualified organizations vying to do so, smacks of cronyism. Is NeuStar really anything but a revolving door between the more corrupt parts of the government and the “private” sector?
May 20th, 2006 at 10:38 amI don’t see how this would relieve the telcos of culpability.
May 20th, 2006 at 10:52 amAll the Telephone companies are controlled by criminals > profits are the name of the game and everything is for sale including phone records of everybody!
May 20th, 2006 at 11:03 amJust who or what is the NSA?
NSA = covert CIA operations + Military Black Operations
-formation and leadership of death squads to create chaos and the appearance of intranational divisions fighting each other (even in countries where intermarriage has been around for several hundred years or more.
-destruction of holy shrines, houses and policing stations
-killing of our own under the cloak of insurgency
-accountable to no one or no law except the President
-lawless shadow government over the American people
American corporations are happy to do as they are told because it pays off in the end. All NSA activities that are usually identified as CIA covert operations, have been profitable to US banks and corporations as well as enforcing or enlarging the Empire.
May 20th, 2006 at 11:07 amBush Family Ties To Mexican Elite
Saturday 20th of May 2006
by Jay Randal
The charade game that President George W. Bush is playing with the American citizenry on Mexico is blatantly devious, so a massive con-job, which requires the truth to be exposed.
The Bush family have had ties to Mexico’s Elite for over the past 50 years, going back to the 1950s, when George Senior started his first oil venture firm called “Zapata Petroleum.”
He named the company after a bandito revolutionary leader, Emiliano Zapata, a poor peasant farmer turned bandit who waged war on the Mexican government from 1910 to 1919.
Zapata was killed in an ambush on April 10, 1919, and a year later the Mexican Revolution ended, but in irony the wealthy Elite remained in control and peasants betrayed.
Strange that Zapata name used for an oil company, but the Bush family likes to cover their sleazy deals with a veneer of populism, which hides lust for profits at expense of the poor.
George Jr. carried on the tradition of his father hobnobbing with the Mexican Elite, cutting secret deals exploiting poor for the benefit of the rich, and leaving the border wide-open.
The Bush Regime exploitation of the poor of Mexico must end!
( Jay Randal, political activist and writer in Stone Mountain, Georgia.)
May 20th, 2006 at 11:18 amFuture generations will see this time in history as a turning point. America will either continue a slow decline into despotism or will avert disaster by reclaiming its government but, this is the point in history that will make the difference.
May 20th, 2006 at 11:21 amNeuStar just hired a new CEO and assistant–Ken Lay and Scooter Libby.
Click on Clyde!
May 20th, 2006 at 11:27 amLet’s see… I loan AT&T my car… AT&T loans it to a third party without my permission… the third party then wrecks my car… who is liable for the damages?
To me this seems like a pretty open and shut case… I don’t see how the phone companies think that they are not liable… I would think that they are not only liable for selling our phone record to the US government but also for selling them to NeuStar.
May 20th, 2006 at 12:08 pmIt wasn’t me….It wasn’t me….It wasn’t me……what a crock…..
May 20th, 2006 at 12:27 pmCoincidentally, this small group of companies are headquartered in Eastern European countries where your phone records have been rendered. Supposedly.
May 20th, 2006 at 12:27 pmYup. This has been my theory all along. Except I figured the government would use ChoicePoint. Think about it: this administration believes in outsourcing everything to the private sector – why wouldn’t that include data gathering for intelligence?
May 20th, 2006 at 12:28 pmIt appears that USA Today made up this story about phone companies providing records.
May 20th, 2006 at 12:38 pmIt would appear that our stupidest troll has returned and is still just as stupid as ever.
May 20th, 2006 at 12:41 pmPhone companies did not give the records away as a freebie > they got compensation for doing so! Lying is now commonplace in Corporate America, so anything a phone company claims to have not done is pure baloney!
May 20th, 2006 at 12:44 pmGary Puppet: It appears that USA Today made up this story about phone companies providing records. – - C’mon Gar, when a MSM outlet makes up a story they make up a real doozy. Ya know, like Iraq having weapons of mass destruction, but those kind of “scoops” are almost always accompanied by administration agents of Imperialism feeding the appetite of their journalistic lackeys.
May 20th, 2006 at 12:45 pmGary, got a link, a clip, a source?
May 20th, 2006 at 1:12 pmCould you draw stick figures to explain your claim?Man, typing with those big hairy knuckles must be a real bitch!
NeuStar is the middle man of a major drug deal. They should be jailed like any citizen would be.
Right? If a buddy of yours wants an oz of coke and you call the dealer, arrange the buy, you are the middle man and you go directly to jail.
Lock em up.
May 20th, 2006 at 1:42 pmBuild more prisons.
Don’t stop until all Republicans are taken off the streets.
#8 Jay Randal, isn’t there a Bush nephew who is half Mexican? I recall them pulling him out during the 04 campaign. He’s very good looking and was used to get the Latino vote.
There’s a reason the Bush’s want America to be populated with Mexicans, they are going to run this half breed when he’s of age.
May 20th, 2006 at 1:46 pmGary, got a link, a clip, a source?
Comment by beavercleaver
That would be a first for Gary.
No, Gary just “drops a load” and splits – just as he does at Sadly,No, another website he infests.
May 20th, 2006 at 2:12 pm#11 – I’m with you, GWSC, the telcos are still responsible. In my opinion, this little shell game makes it worse for the telcos — not better.
May 20th, 2006 at 4:37 pmthis little shell game makes it worse for the telcos — not better.
Comment by Zookeeper — May 20, 2006 @ 4:37 pm
Agreed because it makes them look intentionally deceptive. That not only did they sell us out, but they tried to slip it through a loophole so they could look innocent.
Definitely makes them look actively involved rather than just victims to a tyrannical government who strong-armed them into compliance.
May 20th, 2006 at 5:01 pmDefinitely makes them look actively involved rather than just victims to a tyrannical government who strong-armed them into compliance.
Comment by unbelievable
They either need to hire someone to do their thinking for them, or fire the guy who does their thinking for them. I can’t decide which…
May 20th, 2006 at 5:24 pmThey either need to hire someone to do their thinking for them, or fire the guy who does their thinking for them. I can’t decide which…
Comment by Zookeeper — May 20, 2006 @ 5:24 pm
Let us know when you figure that one out :).
Might wanna remember what happened to Carly Fiorino who was fired from HP. She got millions in a “compensation package” and immediately landed a new CEO job. Wasn’t even as if she suffered at all – unlike the average Joe when he or she gets fired.
So perhaps, a demotion to toilet scrubber would be more fitting for corrupt CEOs? In a prison? :)
May 20th, 2006 at 6:01 pmPost 21 > Yes Jeb Bush married a Mexican woman and his oldest son is being groomed for politics! In fact they might have him run this November or in 2008 for a Congressional seat representing Florida > after Katherine Harris is gone, then her seat becomes available or even Porter Goss’ district! If Jeb Bush himself cannot become president someday, then the plan is for his son to do it > Americans will be certified nuts for all eternity if they allow another Bush into the White House!
May 20th, 2006 at 8:46 pmThe MSM may not pick this up (no surprise there!) but with all of the lawsuits being filed again the telcos the poop will eventually hit the fan. In the meantime I’m now thoroughly enjoying all of the phony outrage coming out of AT&T, BellSouth and Verizon, knowing that these clowns will soon be exposed for the GOP ass-kissers that they are.
May 20th, 2006 at 11:29 pmPhony outrage! Good one, reddogs :)
May 20th, 2006 at 11:37 pm……Parole pour’ incroyable’ .
May 21st, 2006 at 2:27 am…
….Celui qui etait assis avait l’aspect
d’une pierre de jaspe et de sardone,
et le trone etait environne d’un arc-en-ciel
qui avait l’aspect de l’emeraude.
…
#14 I think the Daily Show talked about choicepoint last week…
May 21st, 2006 at 2:28 pmRespect.
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