The Congressional Committee on Energy and Commerce is calling on AT&T, Verizon and Qwest to provide information about their participation in the federal government's domestic wiretapping program. Though the committee's primary mission is to investigate the program as operated by the National Security Agency, the House members involved said they want telcos to talk about what they did or didn't do (Qwest declined to comply) in pretty specific detail, as well as describe the nature of the position they may have been put in by the feds.
Make no mistake about where this is heading: Telcos are being called on right now to help build a case against the NSA, but it's only a matter of time before they face more direct scrutiny, and perhaps become the direct targets of additional investigation.
For more:
- CNET covers the committee's letters to the telcos