AT&T Admits Cooperating with NSA to Spy on Citizens, But Claims It’s Legal

Declan McCullagh for CNET News.com reports: James Cicconi, AT&T's senior executive vice president for external and legislative affairs, said there is a "very specific federal statute" that the company followed when cooperating with the NSA that provides "black and white authorization." (…) Because Cicconi was AT&T's general counsel before the merger with SBC Communications, he would have been responsible for reviewing the legality of cooperating with the NSA. A longtime Republican, Cicconi worked as deputy chief of staff to President George H.W. Bush and as an assistant to President Ronald Reagan. He's recently served as co-chairman of Progress for America, a prominent group devoted to electing Republican politicians. Cicconi's remarks--in response to a question at the Progress and Freedom Foundation's annual summit here--seem to indicate that AT&T received formal authorization from the U.S. Department of Justice to authorize the program. The existence of such a letter has never been confirmed. Cicconi may have been referring to an obscure section of federal law, 18 U.S.C. 2511, which permits a telecommunications company to provide "information" and "facilities" to the federal government as long as the attorney general authorizes it. The authorization must come in the form of "certification in writing by…the Attorney General of the United States that no warrant or court order is required by law." Just wondering, but if they have a damned letter, and it provides such clear cut legal permission, then why is the case still in court? via Paul Kiel and Justin Rood at TPM Muckraker