Tuesday, May 23

FCC Ends Probe Into The NSA

First the NSA shut down the Justice Departments attempt to probe and now it is the FCC is saying their probe is over.

(Reuters)Rep. Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, had asked communications regulators to investigate a newspaper report that AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications and BellSouth Corp. gave access to and turned over call records to help the National Security Agency fight terrorists.

"The classified nature of the NSA's activities makes us unable to investigate the alleged violations," FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, a Republican, said in the May 22 letter released by Markey.

Verizon and BellSouth denied turning over telephone call records to the NSA. BellSouth demanded USA Today retract claims in its story.

"We can't have a situation where the FCC, charged with enforcing the law, won't even begin an investigation of apparent violations of the law because it predicts the administration will roadblock any investigations citing national security," Markey said in response.
Martin sounds like he reading Bush talking points. For the record, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin was nominated by Bush after serving him and Cheney.