Let me document this. It’ll be fun.
I wrote an e-mail to AT&T (re: my local & long-distance phone and DSL services) in an effort to determine the validity of reports demonstrating its complicity in the NSA’s unconstitutional, illegal, detestable, and unconscionable wholesale surveillance of the American people. Here is my first message to them (“On 5/12/06 12:18 PM, [jason] wrote:”):
Given the recent lawsuit against AT&T for its participation in the federal government’s illegal domestic spying program, not to mention the revelation that AT&T refused to decline participation in this blatant violation of its customers’ privacy, I am writing for a simple “yes” or “no” answer:
Did AT&T willfully participate in this program?
Don’t quote me laws or legal obligations or any other such nonsense. This is a violation of AT&T’s privacy policy, a violation of FISA, a violation of the US Constitution, and a clear and undeniable violation of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. I simply want to know if AT&T has [participated] and/or is participating in the blatant, wholesale violation of the rights of American citizens. A “yes” or “no” will [do]. Any other answer will be seen as spin and attempted deception. Your answer will determine whether I move to other carriers for local phone, long distance, and internet access, and this move will be rapid.
Primitive? Yes. Effective? Let’s see where it goes.