NSA May Have Approached AT&T to Monitor Customer Calls Months Before 9/11

According to Bloomberg News, lawyers claim in court papers filed a couple of weeks ago in New York that the U.S. National Security Agency sought help in setting up domestic phone call monitoring and that a Bush administration official approached AT&T about doing so. If this charge is indeed true, then 9/11 provided only an excuse for illegal eavesdropping and violation of Americans' privacy that the Bush administration intended all along.

In an unrelated story, MSNBC reported that AT&T and the other big telecoms scored a big win in the U.S. Senate over net neutrality, as the commerce committee failed to include amendments to the telecom bill that would prohibit corporate access providers from charging more for priority access in the future. The bill now heads to the Senate floor for consideration.