ACLU of Mass. and Liberal Mayors File with State to Get Details Made Public on NSA Wiretaps
       The ACLU of Massachusetts filed a complaint with the states Department of Telecommunications and Energy on behalf of the liberal mayors of four cities, Newton, Somerville, Chicopee and Northampton, alleging that Verizon and AT&T enabled “illegal” government spying by turning over private details about phone records to the National Security Agency without proper warrants.
       Yesterday, they renewed a call to have public meetings detailing exactly what the phone companies revealed. Both Verizon and AT&T have urged the state agency to dismiss the complaint.
       The ACLU filing comes on the heels of a federal court ruling last Thursday in Michigan that the Bush Administration’s program to monitor the phone calls and e-mails of Americans without warrants is unconstitutional and must be stopped.
       The wiretap issue was first brought to public knowledge by the New York Times last December when it published a 3,600 word article critiquing the NSA policy. The White House had tried to dissuade the newspaper from running the story on the grounds that “it could jeopardize continuing investigations and alert would-be terrorists that they might be under scrutiny." It is thought by many that the New York Times alerting potential terrorists that the government can monitor their calls is akin to letting Nazi Germany know that we cracked their “Enigma” code during WWII.
       Verizon has publicly denied not only providing any information on call records, but also even being petitioned by the NSA to do so. AT&T acknowledges that they have cooperated with the NSA, but that the nature of the information required by the NSA was not specific calls by individuals, but just access to network monitors which can electronically search for certain calling patterns or anomalies associated with possible terrorist activity.
       Massachusetts law requires the state agency to hold a public hearing if a written complaint is filed on behalf of any Massachusetts mayor.
       In Vermont, Governor Jim Douglas is supporting a similar investigation of the telecommunication companies, despite a threat from the federal government to sue the state. "We don’t want this kind of intrusion into the privacy of Vermonters by anyone, by government, or by companies" said Douglas.
       In Connecticut, the Department of Public Utility Control denied Verizon's motion to dismiss a complaint from the ACLU of Connecticut, and has scheduled a hearing for September 6.