Rob at
Emphasis Added has the scoop. Once again, the blogosphere gets the story before the mainstream media does.
Much has been made of Qwest's notable refusal to comply with (probably illegal) NSA requests for the personal phone records of customers. This has earned them well-deserved praise across the blogosphere. Here at EA, however, we've been a Qwest customer for many long years and suspect there might be other factors at work. Through our own private intelligence sources, we have obtained transcripts of several calls between NSA headquarters and Qwest on this subject. They are presented here as a public service.
Rob goes on to detail the startling exchange between the NSA and Qwest personnel.
QWEST: Thank you for calling Qwest. Para continuar in espanol, o prima nueve.
NSA: This is Colonel Christiansen of...
QWEST: We're sorry. We're experiencing higher than average call volumes. Your approximate hold time is twenty-seven minutes.
[1 hour and 17 minutes later]
QWEST: Hello, thanks for calling Qwest. My name is Mahind... Mike. Can I get the area code and phone number you're calling about please?
NSA: This is Colonel Christiansen of the National Security Agency. I'm calling on a secure line.
QWEST: Thank you Mr. Johannsen. How can I help you?
NSA: It's Colonel Christiansen, from the National Security Agency. I'm calling to obtain some phone records.
QWEST: Have you tried going on our website at Qwest.com?
NSA: The information I'm looking for isn't available on any website...
QWEST: Actually, the site was redesigned recently. You should really look there first...
NSA: Listen, I'm looking to gain access to the phone records of, say, 10 million of your customers.
QWEST: [sound of keyboard in the background] Ten million customers. Very good, sir. Can you hold please?
[24 minutes of hold music follows]
And it gets better from there. This is big! Once this gets out, who knows what might happen?