Democracy for Vancouver

Although the scope of surveillance conducted under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act remains shrouded in secrecy, newly disclosed documents show the costs one company charges the government to eavesdrop on customers.Comcast, which is among the nation’s largest telecommunication companies, charges $1,000 to install a FISA wiretap and $750 for each additional month authorities want to keep an eye on suspects, according to the company’s Handbook for Law Enforcement. Secrecy News obtained the document and published it Monday.”I was actually surprised that this was such a routine transaction that it would have a set fee,” said Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists’ Project on Government Secrecy.

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Found at Slashdot

All the more money with which to buy politicians.
Look here:

Verizon, AT&T Executives Give Over $40,000 to Sen. Rockefeller
In news from Capitol Hill, Wired.com reports executives from Verizon and AT&T have started pouring political contributions into the coffers of Democratic Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia. Rockefeller chairs the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Last week he voted to support giving the telecoms retroactive immunity from lawsuits over the companies role in the Bush administration’s secret, warrantless surveillance programs that targeted Americans. In March, top Verizon executives, including CEO Ivan Seidenberg and President Dennis Strigl, wrote personal checks to Rockefeller totaling $23,500. AT&T executives have also donated more than $19,000 to Rockefellar since April. Prior to this spring, donations from Verizon and AT&T executives to Rockefeller were almost non existent. Both Verizon and AT&T are being sued for allegedly turning over billions of calling records to the government.

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