Advocacy groups to Congress: Forget HP. What about NSA?

WASHINGTON--The spying scandal that rocked Hewlett-Packard's boardroom may be disconcerting to many onlookers, but Congress would be better served if it devoted the same sort of scrutiny to the Bush Administration's warrantless terrorist surveillance program, advocacy groups and some politicians said Thursday.

The remarks by politicos came at a daylong hearing convened by a U.S. House of Representatives oversight and investigations subcommittee to inquire about the legally questionable tactics, including fraudulent obtaining of phone records, used by the leading Silicon Valley firm to investigate media leaks.

Rep. Anna Eshoo, a California Democrat whose constituency covers HP's Palo Alto headquarters, said she found it ironic that the House was at the same time preparing to consider a controversial bill that she said would overthrow a 1978 law governing electronic surveillance. If that measure--scheduled for a vote later on Thursday night--succeeds, then the American people should "get set for surveillance," she suggested.

Idaho Republican CL "Butch" Otter, for his part, questioned whether it was logical to criticize companies like HP for obtaining telephone records by shady means and not hold the government to the same standard. The U.S. Department of Justice, he said, has already signaled that "privacy is not so dear when the security of our government is being threatened."

In a Thursday letter (click for PDF) addressed to leaders of the same House panel investigating HP, a coalition of more than 30 privacy and consumer groups urged legislators "to undertake an investigation to include various reports that detailed call record information was improperly disclosed to the National Security Agency by U.S. telecommunication companies."

The recommendations are in reference to media reports earlier this year that AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth had handed over personal subscriber call logs of millions of phone calls to the National Security Agency for use in its secret terrorist tracking operations. BellSouth and Verizon have denied their involvement, while AT&T has declined to confirm or deny where it fits in.

"The actions of Hewlett Packard executives, although egregious, pale in comparison to the violation of the privacy rights of tens of millions of American consumers that should be safeguarded by federal law within the jurisdiction of the Committee," wrote the signatories, which included the American Civil Liberties Union, Center for Democracy and Technology, Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Electronic Privacy Information Center.