BellSouth: "We did not do it."

I've got to hand it to BellSouth: they didn't mess around with my complaining e-mails. I got no response from any of the "management team" folks, but I got replies from every person listed as a media contact, and had three messages on the phone when I got home from a staffer in their Legislative and Regulatory office (I'll call her back today). Most of their messages just repeated verbatim from the stiffly-worded statement the company released last week denying that BellSouth had any "contracts" with government agencies to "provide bulk customer calling information."

However, Jeff Battcher, BellSouth's vice-president for corporate communications, stepped away from the script and responded to my inquiry head-on. He wrote, in part:

"BellSouth has not provided the NSA or any governmental agency any customer calling information. We are not aware of the NSA having ever contacted anyone at BellSouth. We have insisted on a retraction from USA Today for their false and unsubstantiated statements. Hope this helps. There is no spin, we did not do it. We have never even been asked."

That's the kind of frankness I was hoping for: an unequivocal denial. I couldn't really ask for more from BellSouth, and I'm pleased with the response. AT&T and Verizon, like the White House, will neither confirm nor deny the allegations. Looks like the logical next step would be a thorough government investigation to verify BellSouth's claims and see what the other companies have been up to. Of course, the FCC and the Kentucky Public Services Commission are the only agencies that have not responded to any of my messages so far.