The Bush administration has confirmed for the first time that American telecommunications companies played a key role in the National Security Agency’s domestic eavesdropping program after asserting for nearly two years that any role played by the companies was a “state secret.”The acknowledgment came in an interview that Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, conducted with The El Paso Times last week in which he discussed a number of sensitive issues that the administration has long insisted were classified and has refused to discuss publicly.
http://iht.com/articles/2007/08/23/news/spy.php
http://nytimes.com/2007/08/24/washington/24nsa.html
U.S. confirms telecoms’ role in eavesdropping
The Bush administration has confirmed for the first time that American telecommunications companies played a key role in the National Security Agency’s domestic eavesdropping program after asserting for nearly two years that any role played by the companies was a “state secret.” The acknowledgment came in an interview that Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, conducted with The El Paso Times last week in which he discussed a number of sensitive issues that the administration has long insisted were classified and has refused to discuss publicly.