A pair of public interest lawyers said Tuesday they plan to subpoena
the White House for any documents showing whether the Bush
administration approved a secret program to examine the phone records
of millions of Americans. New Jersey attorneys Carl Mayer and Bruce Afran represent more than two dozen people who have sued Verizon Communications Inc., AT&T Inc. and BellSouth, claiming the telecommunications companies violated privacy laws by turning over phone records to the National Security Agency. The
lawyers said they suspected the administration had begun obtaining the
records even before the Sept. 11 attacks, which, if true, would raise
questions about whether the program was initiated to combat terrorism. 'We want to find out when they started going after these records. We want to find out who authorized it. Was it Dick Cheney? Was it someone else? And, frankly, we want to find out if they were using it improperly,' Mayer said. Justice
Department lawyers representing the administration have argued that
disclosing detailed information about the government's counterterrorism
efforts, or even acknowledging whether the NSA phone records program
exists, would be damaging to national interests. The attorneys said they also planned to subpoena Verizon for documents. Similar lawsuits have been filed nationwide, some of which have now been consolidated before a federal judge in San Francisco.
7:37:32 PM 
|
