A rights group's attempt to find out whether the nation's telecommunications companies were lobbying the nation's top intelligence office to win immunity for the companies' participation originally turned up empty. All the Electronic Frontier Foundation pried free in November and December via its open government lawsuit were a few previously unseen letters from Congress to the Director of National Intelligence. The government also said it was withholding a few pages from classified briefings to Congress and a telephone message slip.

The government is arguing it fulfilled its Freedom of Information Act responsibilities, but its latest filings show that that message slip is very interesting indeed.

The slip was created by an administrative assistant at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and contains the name and phone number of a phone company representative, according to government filings. The slip was then passed to an ODNI lawyer, who returned the call.

The lawyer also made notes on the front and the back of the slip about the conversation which touched on the FISA 'modernization' bill (which includes immunity for telecoms), and the Protect America Act.

According to a filing (.pdf) by Lt. General Ronald Burgess, Jr., the ODNI's intelligence staff director, the conversation:

[R]related to the various options that may ber available to address the litigation facing the telecommunications carriers [...] The ODNI attorney and the caller discussed such options as court order and legislation. [...] [A[ny further details about the contents of the message would confirm the existence or non-existence of a relationship with a telecommunications carrier, which is currently and properly classified.

The name of the telecom representative is also being protected because releasing it would be a "clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy," the government argues.

The government furthermore argues the slip is Top Secret, a attorney-work product and not an agency record. Revealing which company called would help the terrorists, the government argues, though its public record which telecoms are being sued – AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and others – and which are not – Qwest, for one.

To highlight the fact it was not an official document, the government reveals that the attorney who wrote on the slip left it on his desk for several weeks and then just filed it in an "unofficial" FISA folder. It's unclear if that's official policy for handling Top Secret documents or not.

The EFF is also trying to win release of two briefings given to Congress using PowerPoint slides. The DNI's filings say the document include descriptions of the methods by which the countries spies intercept communications and that revealing that information would compromise national security.

The EFF will respond to the government's filing, and the two sides will argue their cases on March 7 before a federal judge.

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Photo: PSD