FCC Declines to Investigate the NSA
Not that this comes as much of a surprise considering how the various governmental agencies are essentially lapdogs for President Bush but the FCC declines to investigate the NSA. The chairman concluded that the FCC would be unable to compel the NSA to produce classified documents related to the program and therefore incapable of conducting a thorough investigation.
In a letter to Rep. Edward J. Markey dated Monday, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission stated that any investigation of the National Security Agency’s alleged domestic wiretapping program would have to be able to force the military agency to produce classified documents–a power the chairman believes the FCC does not have. The refusal did not play well with Rep. Markey, a ranking member of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet.
“Today the watchdog agency that oversees the country’s telecommunications industry refused to investigate the nation’s largest phone companies’ reported disclosure of phone records to the NSA,” Rep. Markey said. “The FCC, which oversees the protection of consumer privacy under the Communications Act of 1934, has taken a pass at investigating what is estimated to be the nation’s largest violation of consumer privacy ever to occur.”
This is arguably the largest breach of consumer privacy in the history of the United States and the agency tasked with protecting Americans has opted to sit on the sidelines. Is anyone really shocked to hear this?