And the tale of the NSA data mining phone records continues to twist.  Verizon now says they didn’t give the NSA phone records which contradicts the breakthrough story compiled by USA Today citing anonymous sources that was actually came out months after the initial reports filed in.

One of the most glaring and repeated falsehoods in the media reporting is the assertion that, in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, Verizon was approached by NSA and entered into an arrangement to provide the NSA with data from its customers’ domestic calls.

This is false. From the time of the 9/11 attacks until just four months ago, Verizon had three major businesses – its wireline phone business, its wireless company and its directory publishing business. It also had its own Internet Service Provider and long-distance businesses. Contrary to the media reports, Verizon was not asked by NSA to provide, nor did Verizon provide, customer phone records from any of these businesses, or any call data from those records. None of these companies – wireless or wireline – provided customer records or call data.

Oh, wait!  Verizon wasn’t even asked to provide phone records?  That sure puts a different spin on the story.  But there’s more.

Another error is the claim that data on local calls is being turned over to NSA and that simple “calls across town” are being “tracked.” In fact, phone companies do not even make records of local calls in most cases because the vast majority of customers are not billed per call for local calls. In any event, the claim is just wrong. As stated above, Verizon’s wireless and wireline companies did not provide to NSA customer records or call data, local or otherwise.

If you’re like me, you’re probably confused because you specifically remember the USA Today article leading with “the National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY.”  But now Verizon comes out and says they were never even approached by the NSA and Verizon didn’t just hand the NSA phone records for the sake of handing them over.  I am a bit ashamed that I didn’t catch the other rather obvious mistake in the article as well, one that Verizon noted regarding local calls.

So just like the story on the CIA having so-called “secret prisons” accross Europe that there is no evidence of, is this leak to the press yet another attempt by a leaker to attack the Bush Administration aided by poor reporting?  Or is this some plot hatched by the CIA to pass off bogus information to reduce the credibility of leaked sources?  Either way, it shoudl be clear that in the future the press needs to take a second look at information leaked their way.

The American Mind linked with Verizon Denies Helping NSA...
Unpartisan.com Political News and Blog Aggregator linked with Verizon Denies NSA Sought Call Data...