By Jim Drinkard, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON - BellSouth asked USA TODAY on Thursday to "retract the false and unsubstantiated statements" about the company that it contends were in a May 11 story about a database of domestic calling records maintained by the National Security Agency. In a letter to the newspaper's publisher, Craig Moon, the company noted that the story said BellSouth is "working under contract with the NSA" to provide "phone call records of tens of millions of Americans" that have been incorporated into the database.
"No such proof was offered by your newspaper because no such contracts exist," stated the letter, portions of which were read by spokesman Jeff Battcher. "You have offered no proof that BellSouth provided massive calling data to the NSA as part of a warrantless program because it simply did not happen."
Steve Anderson, a USA TODAY spokesman, said "We did receive the letter this afternoon. We are reviewing it, and we will be responding."
BellSouth and two other companies named in the story, Verizon and AT&T, have since been sued in federal court for $200 billion by plaintiffs alleging violations of privacy, telecommunications law and the Constitution. BellSouth and Verizon have denied providing information to the NSA. AT&T has said it won't comment on national security matters.
USA TODAY first contacted BellSouth more than five weeks ago. On the night before the story was published, the newspaper described the story in detail to BellSouth, and the company did not challenge the newspaper's account. The company's official response at that time: "BellSouth does not provide any confidential customer information to the NSA or any governmental agency without proper legal authority."
BellSouth first raised questions on Monday. It said, "Based on our review to date, we have confirmed no such contract exists and we have not provided bulk customer calling records to the NSA."
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